Exclusive Affidavit: Justice Shiranee Protecting De Facto Chief Justice, The Case Goes Geneva

August 25, 2013

As conflicts of interest challenges mount for de facto Chief Justice Mohan Pieris who continues to appoint benches to adjudicate on cases in which he is cited as a main respondent or the offending party, Colombo Telegraph can now reveal a first person account of how Supreme Court Justice Shiranee Tilakawardane is personally instructing journalists to refrain from reporting court proceedings in a way that would be injurious to Pieris based on sources close to the UN Committee on Human Rights.

Justice Shiranee Tilakawardane

Supreme Court Justice Shiranee Tilakawardane summoned journalists to her chambers and instructed them on how to report on a controversial Fundamental Rights application filed against de facto Chief Justice Mohan Pieris alleging misconduct and abuse of power during his tenure as Attorney General, an affidavit submitted by a senior court reporter claims.

Tilakawardane was the only Supreme Court Justice to give evidence at the Shirani Bandaranayake PSC that convened in secret and summoned witnesses at the eleventh hour, after Bandaranayake and the Opposition MPs in the Committee had walked out of the Parliamentary Committee citing a lack of due process.

Ceylon Today news editor Stanley Samarasinghe affirmed that Justice Tilakawardane had made a hand-signal to journalists present in Court Room 403 when the controversial Colombo Dockyard Vs. Sri Lanka Customs case was taken up on February 26, 2013.                        Read More