Alagaratnam’s attempt to tarnish Sripavan’s legacy-*Kannan still remains HC judge-*U.R. de Silva’s unenviable challenge
by C.A.Chandraprema-March 18, 2017, 6:53 pm
The crisis in the judiciary caused by the irregular appointment of Ramanathan Kannan as a High Court judge still remains unresolved. Judges of the District Courts wait for long years to be promoted to the High Court as do Senior State Counsel in the Attorney General’s Department. If a member of the private bar is brought into the High Court over the heads of those awaiting promotion, that not only causes an immediate disturbance in the order of promotion but also skews everybody’s progression up the ladder for years if not decades to come. These are existential issues for those in the judicial service and the AG’s Department. This writer learns that a High Court judge with well over three decades of service had to retire recently without promotion to the Court of Appeal. The previous government led by Mahinda Rajapaksa had appointed one Supreme Court judge from the private bar, but never appointed anyone from the private bar to the High Court or the Court of Appeal.