JSC secretary undercuts to get to Appeal Court!
- Tuesday, 13 May 2014
Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal presently has three vacancies. Incumbent secretary of the Judicial Services Commission Sisira Ratnayake is involved in a shameless conspiracy to get posted to fill one of these vacancies, according to sources at the Sri Lankan legal field.
As part of this conspiracy, Ratnayake is attempting to make his predecessor, Manjula Tilakaratne, presently Naula magistrate and additional district court judge, guilty to the charges filed against him, in order to deceive the president and get to the desired position.
Tilakaratne has been issued with a charge-sheet for having spoken to the media allegedly without the JSC’s permission at the time he was its secretary. It is just another instance of the government’s continuing harassment of the 43rd chief justice, say veterans in the Sri Lankan legal field.
According to reports reaching us, this conspiracy has been coordinated by assistant secretary to the president, lawyer Sepala Ratnayake and a handful of corrupt judges, who have been carrying tales to the president against the ex-secretary. Ratnayake is currently the information secretary at the Sri Lankan high commission in London and his predecessor, lawyer Chaminda Kularatne, has been recalled to the Presidential Secretariat as an assistant secretary. It is these lawyer-officials who coordinate with the president the affairs of judges and lawyers in Sri Lanka.
The government is launching various projects against 43rd chief justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake, who is placed top among apolitical personalities who are qualified to be the common opposition candidate. If Manjula Tilakaratne is made guilty somehow, it will be advantageous to the government in this scenario, Rajapaksa loyalists believe.
The ex-secretary had issued the statement in question regarding the independence of the judicial with full permission and with the knowledge of the then JSC chairperson, Dr. Bandaranayake, and other two JSC members, Supreme Court judges Nimal Gamini Amaratunga and S.I. Imam.
A former attorney general and two president’s counsels are due to appear on behalf of Manjula Tilakaratne at the inquiry against him. Lawyers are to summon several controversial figues in the legal circle to give evidence in support of him.
