The final nail in the coffin of the judiciary
Sunday, November 04, 2012
For those of us who prefer to take refuge in comfortable illusions that this Presidency only hides a velvet hand in an iron glove (to mischievously twist that proverbial saying around), the motion of impeachment of the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka presented by 117 government MPs to the Speaker this week should dispel all such arrant foolishness.
Sunday, November 04, 2012For those of us who prefer to take refuge in comfortable illusions that this Presidency only hides a velvet hand in an iron glove (to mischievously twist that proverbial saying around), the motion of impeachment of the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka presented by 117 government MPs to the Speaker this week should dispel all such arrant foolishness.
Government’s intention in subordinating the judiciary
Whether the government goes ahead with the impeachment or not, let it be clearly said that the final nail in the metaphorical coffin of the institution of the judiciary in Sri Lanka is already hammered in. The fact that such a motion could have been brought at a time when a Supreme Court decision on the Divineguma Bill is due to be read out in Parliament, unequivocally spells out the government’s intention in subordinating the judiciary to its complete and utter control.
Whether the government goes ahead with the impeachment or not, let it be clearly said that the final nail in the metaphorical coffin of the institution of the judiciary in Sri Lanka is already hammered in. The fact that such a motion could have been brought at a time when a Supreme Court decision on the Divineguma Bill is due to be read out in Parliament, unequivocally spells out the government’s intention in subordinating the judiciary to its complete and utter control.
There is moreover a perceptible element of going beyond all norms of decency as exemplified in the scurrilous letter tabled by a government MP in the House last week which put the personal conduct of Sri Lanka’s first woman Chief Justice in issue without any formal verification or substantiation. Is this the purpose for which parliamentary privilege has been conferred upon these so called peoples’ representatives? What outrage is this? It may well be warned that henceforth, any judicial officer would be liable to be attacked in this manner if such abuse of parliamentary privilege is allowed to go unremarked and without collective protest.
Indeed, this incident is similar to the country being informed by none other than the President himself, of a complaint purportedly made by a lady judicial officer against the Secretary to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), which complaint was in fact later denied by that judicial officer in the relevant inquiry. These are both equally shameful attempts to degrade judicial officers in an attempt to cow them into submission.
Public mystified as to precise charges against Chief Justice
Unlike in the case of the aborted impeachment motions against former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva brought by the opposition during 2001-2004, the contents of which related to several counts of documented judicial misconduct that were in the public domain long before they were actually brought to Parliament, here the public is kept in the dark as to what the charges against the incumbent Chief Justice are.
Unlike in the case of the aborted impeachment motions against former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva brought by the opposition during 2001-2004, the contents of which related to several counts of documented judicial misconduct that were in the public domain long before they were actually brought to Parliament, here the public is kept in the dark as to what the charges against the incumbent Chief Justice are.
All that we are told by the Media Minister this week is that the Chief Justice has ‘challenged the supremacy of Parliament.’ By logical inference, we are then supposed to link this objection to the fact that the Supreme Court had quite properly, in the initial Determination on the Divineguma Bill, insisted that the government seek the approval of all Provincial Councils prior to bringing it before Parliament? On that same logic, the Supreme Court will then stand accused of that same charge each and every time that it rules that a Bill is inconsistent with the Constitution. One may as well then do away with the Constitution once and for all.
Or is it the fact that one petition in the initial challenge to the Divineguma Bill had been sent to the Secretary General of Parliament and not to the Speaker in terms of Article 121 of the Constitution? Are these fit matters to base an impeachment of the highest judicial officer of the country? This question is self explanatory surely.
