The President’s Step Backwards
C. A. Chandraprema
The president’s announcement that he will be appointing an ‘independent panel’ to look into the merits of the impeachment motion after the parliamentary process is over and it has been referred to him, has drawn mixed reactions. Some opponents of the impeachment exult that their claim that parliament is not ‘supreme’ has been vindicated by the president’s declaration that he will be appointing an independent panel to scrutinise the parliamentary process. Others say that this indicates that the president himself has accepted that the parliamentary select committee process is flawed. Yet others of a more cynical bent say that this is just a typical Rajapaksa ploy to head of protests during the constitutionally mandatory month-long ‘nonagathaya’ before parliament can act on the recommendations of the PSC. Be that as it may, the president does have much to think about. This will be the first time in post independence Sri Lanka that any high official in this country is being impeached and it is he who will in the final analysis take the step of signing the decree sacking the CJ.
The point is that the wrongdoing that the CJ has been found guilty of by the PSC is not as clear cut as say, a judge being found to have murdered somebody or caught trying to smuggle gold into the country. The CJ has been found guilty of three charges: 1) Taking over and hearing a case involving among other properties, Trillium Residencies in which she had on a power of attorney bought a flat for her sister and brother in law thus creating a conflict of interest. 2) That she had not declared a large amount of money in her bank accounts in the annual declaration of assets. 3) That she continued to be the CJ and the Chairperson of the Judicial Services Commission in a context where her husband was a suspect in a case before a magistrates court and as the CJ and the ex-officio Chairperson of the JSC, she had powers over the transfer, dismissal or career advancement of the magistrate who was trying her husband as well as the power to examine all the records of that magistrates court – another conflict of interest. Read More
