Midweek Politics:The Battle For Hulftsdorp Hill
By Dharisha Bastians -November 15, 2012
Dharisha Bastians
Hulftsdorp or the village of Hulft, named for Dutch Governor Gerard Pietersz Hulft, became synonymous with the law only after the Supreme Courts of Ceylon were moved there by British Governor Sir Fredric North.
At the time, North faced massive resistance from members of the Judiciary about the move from Colombo Fort, where the British garrison were also stationed. Today the hilly area in Maradana is the beating heart of Sri Lanka’s legal system.
At the epicentre of this ‘village,’ the iconic red curved Chinese-styled roofs of the Superior Courts Complex stand out prominently, housing 11 justices of the apex court of the land – the final redress of the citizen against State oppression and the guardians of the country’s Constitution.
As the Government prepares to wage war against the Head of the Judiciary, this third attempt to impeach a Chief Justice may well prove the toughest challenge to the institutions of justice yet.
CJ strikes back
Last Thursday (8), Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake struck back with a letter from her lawyers refuting the charges of financial misconduct framed in the impeachment motion against her, issued to each of the media organisations that made the 14 allegations contained in the motion public.
The firm hired to represent the country’s top judge is Neelakandan and Neelakandan, an established legal firm founded in 1962. In a letter to several newspapers and television channels, Neelakandan and Neelakandan on behalf of their client, Shirani Bandaranayake, refuted the Charges 1-4 in the impeachment motion as published in the media.
The first four charges were considered by many legal experts to be the most serious of the 14, even though questions abounded about how the banking information was subject to State scrutiny without a court order.
The charges refer to the purchase of a Trillium apartment for her sister while hearing Ceylinco cases, the foreign remittance of Rs. 34 million into an NDB account, the non declaration of those monies and some 20 accounts in her name at NDB Bank. Lawyers for the Chief Justice reiterated that the Chief Justice’s sister and husband, both engineers in Australia had reserved an apartment for purchase when they were in Sri Lanka.
“Thereafter from time to time, our client’s sister (through her Australian bank) remitted sums of Australian dollars for the purchase of the Apartment. This was later converted to Sri Lankan Rupees by NDB. The letter said that in Sri Lankan Rupees, it was approximately Rs. 27 million. Our client, by cheques, directly remitted to the seller in instalments a sum of approximately Rs 27 million. The bank has confirmed these transactions,” the Lawyers said.
“The sum of Rs. 19 million approximately mentioned in your news item is a part of the aforementioned purchase consideration of approximately Rs. 27 million,” the letter explained. The lawyers also said that the bank had informed their client that there were several non-operational accounts in her name at NDB with zero balances.
It is now coming to light that the information about the Chief Justice’s bank accounts was released to the Government by a senior manager at NDB Bank.
Chief Justice Bandaranayake earlier this week also informed the court that she would recuse herself from hearing Ceylinco and Golden Key cases, given the charges in the motion of impeachment against her.
According to insiders, Presidents Counsels Romesh de Silva and K. Kanageswaran will be among the senior lawyers to represent the Chief Justice when the impeachment is being probed.
