De Facto CJ Pieris Deciding Counsel: Gota To Arrange Meetings

Pieris and Gotabaya

August 4, 2013 |

The Ministry of Defence is poised to control the Supreme Court through de facto Chief Justice Mohan Pieris, who was one time an advisor to the Ministry, the Colombo Telegraph learns. The de facto Chief Justice’s close association with the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, after the former served on various Defence boards have meant that the Supreme Court had been placed under the indirect control of Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, legal sources told Colombo Telegraph.

Information is emerging of several cases where the litigants have approached politicians in respect of cases. The politicians then refer the litigants to the  Secretary to the Ministry of Defence who in turn had gone to the extent of arranging meetings with the de facto Chief Justice.

In one such case, involving the Ceylon Tobacco Company (case regarding the pictorial warnings on  packets), Mohan Pieris  gave an audience to a few representatives of the  CTC, who were told by the de facto Chief Justice to change the Counsel (Romesh de Silva, PC) and retain one of the more regime friendly lawyers.Read More