Ranjan's comedy of errors spells doom for Police, Judiciary
Gagani Weerakoon-Jan 12 2020
Sadda Vidda Rajapakse Palanga Pathira Ambakumarage Ranjan Leo Sylvester Alphonsu who boasts about his alleged ancestor Andare - a court jester employed by the King Keerthi Sri Rajasinghe many moons ago - appeared to have lived a life that fits his lineage and the B-Grade movies he makes.
Until last Saturday (4) or even a few hours after his arrest, people of this country considered Ranjan Ramanayake as a genuine people-friendly politician who would not hesitate to call a spade a spade - just like the 'hero' he was in his movies.
However, with dozens of 121,000 phone/video recordings of his conversations with politicians, members of the judiciary, Government officials and showbiz personalities started leaking and going viral on social media, people who used their franchise to elect him to the supreme Legislature started getting disillusioned.
The entire fiasco proved that Ramanayake not only has lived a life of a soft-porn actor but does not have an iota of basic human ethics or smartness at least to save his skin - if not, others who dealt with him. Nevertheless, people of this country should be grateful for his lack of technological and digital-safety knowledge. If not, for his saving all telephone conversations and videos on Compact Discs at an era of having enough safe digital storage facilities, an ordinary man would not have realised what sort of a cesspool the so-called people's representatives and those appointed to safeguard law and order spending public money are living in.
While some argue that the new Government of Gotabaya Rajapaksa is derailing from its original objectives by going after 'sprats' like Ramanayake, one cannot ignore the ground realities these telephone conversations unearth. It is not wrong if people end up wondering what those with real power could be capable of doing when a non Cabinet Minister like Ramanayake can influence or intimidate some in the Judiciary, Police and other institutions.
Drama begins
Ramanayake was arrested last Saturday evening following a raid conducted at his Madiwela residence by the Western Province (South) Police Crime Division, for possessing an unlicensed pistol, 127 9mm bullets, 200 CDs and DVDs containing pornographic material and a hard disk containing telephone conversations.
The raid was conducted on a search warrant issued by the Nugegoda Magistrate's Court. The MP had failed to renew the licence of the pistol issued to him by the Government, which had been in his possession since 2016.
Police entered Ramanayake's residence with the search warrant. The search operation had lasted nearly four hours. Ramanayake broadcast the entire search operation on Facebook live. He also updated his verified Twitter account to post the status of the search operation as well.
In Facebook live videos published on Ramanayake's verified Facebook profile, the Police officers were seen combing through the MP's belongings. Ramanayake said the Police were looking for narcotics. He also claimed that the Police said that Speaker Karu Jayasuriya had been informed about the search warrant.
While the Police were searching the house, Ramanayake tweeted, "Looks like they (the Police) want to take my personal laptop and all the CDs & DVDs at my home. They have also taken a file I had on the murder of Ruggerite Wasim Thajudeen."
When Ramanayake was arrested, UNP MPs Prof. Ashu Marasinghe, Harin Fernando, Mujibur Rahuman and Palitha Thewarapperuma were present at his house. Addressing the media personnel gathered in front of Ramanayake's house during the search operation, Prof. Marasinghe said, "We came here on the request of the Party leadership. This pistol is not an illegal one. All the MPs are entitled to have a pistol. However, Ramanayake has not received a letter reminding him to renew the licence for the pistol. So the correct procedure regarding the licence has not been followed."
He added that the Police were following the correct procedure and that they had faith in the independence of the judiciary. Police took the pistol and the bullets into custody.
Recordings found in the possession of MP Ramanayake, had contained telephone conversations between him and Judges, CID heads and senior officers, regarding Court proceedings and promotions for Judges. This was revealed at several Media briefings.
At one media briefing, State Minister of Energy, Rohitha Abeygunawardana spoke about MP Ramanayake's telephone conversations.
He said, "Ranjan tells the then CID Director that they were good friends. Ramanayake is told not to talk to Mrs. Ranawaka. Shani Abeysekara, in the recording, tells Ramanayake not to tell anything to Pathmini Ranawaka."
Speaking at another briefing, Mawbima Wenuwen Ranaviruwo Organisation's Convenor Ajith Prasanna said, "Ranjan Ramanayake is suffering from a mental illness, and due to this illness, he talks to powerful figures, Judges, high-ranking officials of the Attorney General's Department, high-ranking officials of the Police and CID and also politicians. He records all these calls, stores these recordings in CDs and keeps them with him. I received a recording of a telephone conversation between MP Ramanayake and Shani Abeysekara of the CID."
(He plays the recording...)
"Ranjan: Shani, this is my concern. Your target is to put Duminda in jail; my target is also to put him in jail. So is the target of Bharatha's wife and Hirunika. The target of all of us is to put Duminda in jail. So, why are we fighting. Does that mean Ranjan is on Duminda's side?
Shani Abeysekara: Yes, he's with him.
"This conversation had taken place before the verdict of Duminda Silva's case was delivered," Prasanna added, questioning "Why do we worry about Ranjan Ramanayake anymore?"
Sinhala Ravaya General Secretary Ven. Magalkande Sudaththa Thera said that even a certain High Court Judge had made phone calls to MP Ranjan Ramanayake.
He added that a High Court Judge dealing with a person who has cases against him in a Court is a disgraceful act.
He made this statement at a media briefing while releasing records of telephone conversations Ramanayake had with High Court Judges and high-ranking Police officers.
"These voice records contain requests made by a High Court Judge to Ranjan Ramanayake to be promoted as a Appeal Court Judge. It is disgraceful for a High Court Judge to deal with a person who has been charged with various offences including contempt of Court.
Ramanayake advises Police officers and Judges to arrest, file cases against and, remand people and he even advises to sentence certain people to death.
A High Court Judge requested a promotion from Ramanayake for acting on his instructions. As such, the independence of the Judiciary has been eroded. The judges have sold their souls to Ramanayake. We have recordings of conversations where MP Ramanayake promises to discuss promotions with top Ministers and officials.
In this context, previous decisions given by these Judges should be reconsidered. The death penalty for some persons can be seen as political verdicts. We ask the President to release Duminda Silva on a Presidential Pardon. There are even conversations between Ramanayake and senior Police officers of the CID regarding filing cases against some people," the Thera added.
Leader of the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU), MP Udaya Gammanpila says that it is very clear that Parliamentarian Ranjan Ramanayake has influenced Judges and Police officers during the time of the previous United National Front (UNF) Government, according to the telephone conversations that were stored in the mobile phone, found during his arrest. He claimed that Ramanayake had exerted pressure on the Judges and Police officers to act against his opponents.
"People blame us saying that Ramanayake was arrested for having a pistol and DVDs containing pornographic content. But it is completely baseless. Such incidents were the result of the Police failing to properly report the incident. The search warrant was obtained by the Police on information gained from one of his friends, that there were stored recordings of Ramanayake's phone calls," he added.
He also claimed that it exposed that the Police and the Judiciary was influenced not only by Ramanayake, but also by several powerful persons of the previous Government. Recalling that a former Solicitor General, a former Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, and former senior Deputy Inspectors General of Police had exposed their involvement in various political reprisals during the previous regime, Gammanpila claimed that those allegations were always rejected by politicians.
"While checking, the Police found a pistol, and a number of DVDs containing obscene material, but they did not investigate them. They went there because they had information on how Government officials and the Judiciary were influenced by him during the past few years," he elaborated.
Former Chief Justice, Sarath N. Silva, said the Parliamentarians of the former UPFA Government can sue MP Ranjan Ramanayake in the Supreme Court, for violating human rights, by forcing the authorities to arrest MPs and by calling Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) officials.
He opined that it is revealed through the telephone records that Ramanayake has forced the Police Officers and FCID, it is a critical situation.
He added that if those telephone records are made public, it will also affect the cases in a different manner.
He further said, he had stated that the FCID is an illegal institution in February 2015, and that this is clearly seen through the instructions given by Ramanayake when he was a State Minister, and it is further confirmed with the interventions made by Ramanayake, by calling FCID officials.
State Minister of Power Mahindananda Aluthgamage on Tuesday (7), alleged in Parliament that the former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Ranjan Ramanayake, a former State Minister, had conspired to assassinate him.
Raising a Privilege question, Aluthgamage said that a particular recorded phone conversation between Wickremesinghe and Ramanayake had gone viral.
"Part of the recorded conversation is about how Wickremesinghe gave his consent to Ramanayake to assassinate me. Ramanayake seeks the blessings of Wickremesinghe and the latter tells him to go ahead with the assassination plot.
In 2016, Ramanayake was found target practising with his gun at Madiwela. Then Parliamentarian Udaya Pathmakumara raised a privilege issue in Parliament regarding this. In response, Wickremesinghe said that Ramanayake was improving his shooting prowess through practice. In the leaked phone recording however, Wickremesinghe advises Ramanayake to tell the Police that while practicing he had accidently shot me," continued Aluthgamage.
"Ramanayake tells Wickremesinghe that the Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara had saved him on several occasions because of Wickremesinghe's personal intervention. Here a Prime Minister is heard plotting the assassination of an Opposition MP and encouraging him to carry out a crime. Ramanayake has told newspapers that he would do any foolish act to just to get a bit of public attention. He is also quite well known for being the attention seeker. But how can a Prime Minister behave like this? He even tells Ramanayake that this cannot be done without silencing the Opposition MPs. What does this actually mean?"
Aluthgamage said, that he would lodge a complaint with the Police today (8). He also requested the Speaker to look into the matter and take suitable action.
Deputy Minister of Community Empowerment and Estate Infrastructure Development, Nimal Lanza also demanded a Parliamentary investigation as to how Ramanayake got 150 live rounds for his pistol while all other MPs were given only 10.
"The entitlement of an MP who gets a pistol is only 10 live rounds while one who opts for a revolver would get only nine rounds of live ammunition. I too, have obtained a pistol. Now the question is how did Ramanayake get 150 rounds of ammunition? The Police found 127 rounds and it is said that 23 bullets are missing. The missing bullets, how and where they went missing should be investigated,"' he said.
In response to Aluthgamage's allegation, Wickremesinghe denied that he conspired with Ramanayake to kill anyone.
"I did not do any such a thing, how can the so called conversation leak to the Internet? The Police took many compact discs (CDs) from Ramanayake's house into their custody. If they had been properly retained in Police custody they should not have gone viral? That is my question. I request the Speaker to go through the CDs and let us in Parliament know if any MP had violated the law of the country."
CJ's intervention
While insisting that the controversial call recordings between Parliamentarian Ranjan Ramanayake and members of the Judiciary, which went viral recently, have placed the entire judicial system in a volatile position, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said, the Government expects the immediate intervention of the Chief Justice (CJ) to take measures to arrest the situation.
It was also emphasised on the need to appoint a commission comprising retired Judges for recommendations on how to restore the independence of the Judiciary.
Addressing newspaper editors at the Temple Trees Thursday (9) morning, the Premier said, this entire fiasco has led to a situation where the general public are questioning the Judiciary and losing faith in Court rulings.
"Losing faith in the Judiciary may put the country into an anarchic situation. It is the responsibility of the CJ to take immediate steps to restore faith in the judicial system and we are waiting to see what course of action he would take," he said.
He also said, a Minister of Justice and two Solicitors General during the last regime have already confirmed that there were political interference and influence exerted in certain cases.
It was also emphasised that even though Parliament is vested with the powers to intervene in the matters of Superior Courts, while lower Courts come under the purview of the Judicial Service Commission, Parliament would not do anything at this juncture.
"If Parliament gets involved, it may lead to another conflict between the Judiciary and the Legislature. Therefore, it will be wiser to appoint a Commission comprising retired Judges for recommendations to restore the independence of the Judiciary without getting into any disputes," MP Udaya Gammanpila who joined the discussion also opined.
Meanwhile, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) addressed a letter to Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, requesting him, as the Head of the Judiciary, to look into the telephone conversations between Parliamentarian Ramanayake and several members of the Judiciary.
In the letter, President of the BASL, President's Counsel Kalinga Indatissa requested the Chief Justice to take strong remedial steps to arrest situations of this nature taking place again as postponing resolving this issue would result in a further loss of public confidence in the judicial system.
He also requested an immediate meeting to discuss the mechanism that ought to be adopted to resolve this issue, adding that the BASL would stand with all remedial decisions that the Chief Justice would take towards the betterment of the judicial administration.
Indatissa further stated, this has resulted in the loss of public confidence in the judicial system which is an important system that is based on the concept of the Rule of Law, while members of the Judiciary are expected to perform an extremely vital role free from any type of interference from the Executive or the Legislature.
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has directed its Secretary H. S. Somaratne to call for explanations from the present and former members of the Judiciary whose telephone conversations with UNP MP Ramanayake are now in the public domain.
Until last Saturday (4) or even a few hours after his arrest, people of this country considered Ranjan Ramanayake as a genuine people-friendly politician who would not hesitate to call a spade a spade - just like the 'hero' he was in his movies.
However, with dozens of 121,000 phone/video recordings of his conversations with politicians, members of the judiciary, Government officials and showbiz personalities started leaking and going viral on social media, people who used their franchise to elect him to the supreme Legislature started getting disillusioned.
The entire fiasco proved that Ramanayake not only has lived a life of a soft-porn actor but does not have an iota of basic human ethics or smartness at least to save his skin - if not, others who dealt with him. Nevertheless, people of this country should be grateful for his lack of technological and digital-safety knowledge. If not, for his saving all telephone conversations and videos on Compact Discs at an era of having enough safe digital storage facilities, an ordinary man would not have realised what sort of a cesspool the so-called people's representatives and those appointed to safeguard law and order spending public money are living in.
While some argue that the new Government of Gotabaya Rajapaksa is derailing from its original objectives by going after 'sprats' like Ramanayake, one cannot ignore the ground realities these telephone conversations unearth. It is not wrong if people end up wondering what those with real power could be capable of doing when a non Cabinet Minister like Ramanayake can influence or intimidate some in the Judiciary, Police and other institutions.
Drama begins
Ramanayake was arrested last Saturday evening following a raid conducted at his Madiwela residence by the Western Province (South) Police Crime Division, for possessing an unlicensed pistol, 127 9mm bullets, 200 CDs and DVDs containing pornographic material and a hard disk containing telephone conversations.
The raid was conducted on a search warrant issued by the Nugegoda Magistrate's Court. The MP had failed to renew the licence of the pistol issued to him by the Government, which had been in his possession since 2016.
Police entered Ramanayake's residence with the search warrant. The search operation had lasted nearly four hours. Ramanayake broadcast the entire search operation on Facebook live. He also updated his verified Twitter account to post the status of the search operation as well.
In Facebook live videos published on Ramanayake's verified Facebook profile, the Police officers were seen combing through the MP's belongings. Ramanayake said the Police were looking for narcotics. He also claimed that the Police said that Speaker Karu Jayasuriya had been informed about the search warrant.
While the Police were searching the house, Ramanayake tweeted, "Looks like they (the Police) want to take my personal laptop and all the CDs & DVDs at my home. They have also taken a file I had on the murder of Ruggerite Wasim Thajudeen."
When Ramanayake was arrested, UNP MPs Prof. Ashu Marasinghe, Harin Fernando, Mujibur Rahuman and Palitha Thewarapperuma were present at his house. Addressing the media personnel gathered in front of Ramanayake's house during the search operation, Prof. Marasinghe said, "We came here on the request of the Party leadership. This pistol is not an illegal one. All the MPs are entitled to have a pistol. However, Ramanayake has not received a letter reminding him to renew the licence for the pistol. So the correct procedure regarding the licence has not been followed."
He added that the Police were following the correct procedure and that they had faith in the independence of the judiciary. Police took the pistol and the bullets into custody.
Recordings found in the possession of MP Ramanayake, had contained telephone conversations between him and Judges, CID heads and senior officers, regarding Court proceedings and promotions for Judges. This was revealed at several Media briefings.
At one media briefing, State Minister of Energy, Rohitha Abeygunawardana spoke about MP Ramanayake's telephone conversations.
He said, "Ranjan tells the then CID Director that they were good friends. Ramanayake is told not to talk to Mrs. Ranawaka. Shani Abeysekara, in the recording, tells Ramanayake not to tell anything to Pathmini Ranawaka."
Speaking at another briefing, Mawbima Wenuwen Ranaviruwo Organisation's Convenor Ajith Prasanna said, "Ranjan Ramanayake is suffering from a mental illness, and due to this illness, he talks to powerful figures, Judges, high-ranking officials of the Attorney General's Department, high-ranking officials of the Police and CID and also politicians. He records all these calls, stores these recordings in CDs and keeps them with him. I received a recording of a telephone conversation between MP Ramanayake and Shani Abeysekara of the CID."
(He plays the recording...)
"Ranjan: Shani, this is my concern. Your target is to put Duminda in jail; my target is also to put him in jail. So is the target of Bharatha's wife and Hirunika. The target of all of us is to put Duminda in jail. So, why are we fighting. Does that mean Ranjan is on Duminda's side?
Shani Abeysekara: Yes, he's with him.
"This conversation had taken place before the verdict of Duminda Silva's case was delivered," Prasanna added, questioning "Why do we worry about Ranjan Ramanayake anymore?"
Sinhala Ravaya General Secretary Ven. Magalkande Sudaththa Thera said that even a certain High Court Judge had made phone calls to MP Ranjan Ramanayake.
He added that a High Court Judge dealing with a person who has cases against him in a Court is a disgraceful act.
He made this statement at a media briefing while releasing records of telephone conversations Ramanayake had with High Court Judges and high-ranking Police officers.
"These voice records contain requests made by a High Court Judge to Ranjan Ramanayake to be promoted as a Appeal Court Judge. It is disgraceful for a High Court Judge to deal with a person who has been charged with various offences including contempt of Court.
Ramanayake advises Police officers and Judges to arrest, file cases against and, remand people and he even advises to sentence certain people to death.
A High Court Judge requested a promotion from Ramanayake for acting on his instructions. As such, the independence of the Judiciary has been eroded. The judges have sold their souls to Ramanayake. We have recordings of conversations where MP Ramanayake promises to discuss promotions with top Ministers and officials.
In this context, previous decisions given by these Judges should be reconsidered. The death penalty for some persons can be seen as political verdicts. We ask the President to release Duminda Silva on a Presidential Pardon. There are even conversations between Ramanayake and senior Police officers of the CID regarding filing cases against some people," the Thera added.
Leader of the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU), MP Udaya Gammanpila says that it is very clear that Parliamentarian Ranjan Ramanayake has influenced Judges and Police officers during the time of the previous United National Front (UNF) Government, according to the telephone conversations that were stored in the mobile phone, found during his arrest. He claimed that Ramanayake had exerted pressure on the Judges and Police officers to act against his opponents.
"People blame us saying that Ramanayake was arrested for having a pistol and DVDs containing pornographic content. But it is completely baseless. Such incidents were the result of the Police failing to properly report the incident. The search warrant was obtained by the Police on information gained from one of his friends, that there were stored recordings of Ramanayake's phone calls," he added.
He also claimed that it exposed that the Police and the Judiciary was influenced not only by Ramanayake, but also by several powerful persons of the previous Government. Recalling that a former Solicitor General, a former Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, and former senior Deputy Inspectors General of Police had exposed their involvement in various political reprisals during the previous regime, Gammanpila claimed that those allegations were always rejected by politicians.
"While checking, the Police found a pistol, and a number of DVDs containing obscene material, but they did not investigate them. They went there because they had information on how Government officials and the Judiciary were influenced by him during the past few years," he elaborated.
Former Chief Justice, Sarath N. Silva, said the Parliamentarians of the former UPFA Government can sue MP Ranjan Ramanayake in the Supreme Court, for violating human rights, by forcing the authorities to arrest MPs and by calling Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) officials.
He opined that it is revealed through the telephone records that Ramanayake has forced the Police Officers and FCID, it is a critical situation.
He added that if those telephone records are made public, it will also affect the cases in a different manner.
He further said, he had stated that the FCID is an illegal institution in February 2015, and that this is clearly seen through the instructions given by Ramanayake when he was a State Minister, and it is further confirmed with the interventions made by Ramanayake, by calling FCID officials.
State Minister of Power Mahindananda Aluthgamage on Tuesday (7), alleged in Parliament that the former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Ranjan Ramanayake, a former State Minister, had conspired to assassinate him.
Raising a Privilege question, Aluthgamage said that a particular recorded phone conversation between Wickremesinghe and Ramanayake had gone viral.
"Part of the recorded conversation is about how Wickremesinghe gave his consent to Ramanayake to assassinate me. Ramanayake seeks the blessings of Wickremesinghe and the latter tells him to go ahead with the assassination plot.
In 2016, Ramanayake was found target practising with his gun at Madiwela. Then Parliamentarian Udaya Pathmakumara raised a privilege issue in Parliament regarding this. In response, Wickremesinghe said that Ramanayake was improving his shooting prowess through practice. In the leaked phone recording however, Wickremesinghe advises Ramanayake to tell the Police that while practicing he had accidently shot me," continued Aluthgamage.
"Ramanayake tells Wickremesinghe that the Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara had saved him on several occasions because of Wickremesinghe's personal intervention. Here a Prime Minister is heard plotting the assassination of an Opposition MP and encouraging him to carry out a crime. Ramanayake has told newspapers that he would do any foolish act to just to get a bit of public attention. He is also quite well known for being the attention seeker. But how can a Prime Minister behave like this? He even tells Ramanayake that this cannot be done without silencing the Opposition MPs. What does this actually mean?"
Aluthgamage said, that he would lodge a complaint with the Police today (8). He also requested the Speaker to look into the matter and take suitable action.
Deputy Minister of Community Empowerment and Estate Infrastructure Development, Nimal Lanza also demanded a Parliamentary investigation as to how Ramanayake got 150 live rounds for his pistol while all other MPs were given only 10.
"The entitlement of an MP who gets a pistol is only 10 live rounds while one who opts for a revolver would get only nine rounds of live ammunition. I too, have obtained a pistol. Now the question is how did Ramanayake get 150 rounds of ammunition? The Police found 127 rounds and it is said that 23 bullets are missing. The missing bullets, how and where they went missing should be investigated,"' he said.
In response to Aluthgamage's allegation, Wickremesinghe denied that he conspired with Ramanayake to kill anyone.
"I did not do any such a thing, how can the so called conversation leak to the Internet? The Police took many compact discs (CDs) from Ramanayake's house into their custody. If they had been properly retained in Police custody they should not have gone viral? That is my question. I request the Speaker to go through the CDs and let us in Parliament know if any MP had violated the law of the country."
CJ's intervention
While insisting that the controversial call recordings between Parliamentarian Ranjan Ramanayake and members of the Judiciary, which went viral recently, have placed the entire judicial system in a volatile position, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said, the Government expects the immediate intervention of the Chief Justice (CJ) to take measures to arrest the situation.
It was also emphasised on the need to appoint a commission comprising retired Judges for recommendations on how to restore the independence of the Judiciary.
Addressing newspaper editors at the Temple Trees Thursday (9) morning, the Premier said, this entire fiasco has led to a situation where the general public are questioning the Judiciary and losing faith in Court rulings.
"Losing faith in the Judiciary may put the country into an anarchic situation. It is the responsibility of the CJ to take immediate steps to restore faith in the judicial system and we are waiting to see what course of action he would take," he said.
He also said, a Minister of Justice and two Solicitors General during the last regime have already confirmed that there were political interference and influence exerted in certain cases.
It was also emphasised that even though Parliament is vested with the powers to intervene in the matters of Superior Courts, while lower Courts come under the purview of the Judicial Service Commission, Parliament would not do anything at this juncture.
"If Parliament gets involved, it may lead to another conflict between the Judiciary and the Legislature. Therefore, it will be wiser to appoint a Commission comprising retired Judges for recommendations to restore the independence of the Judiciary without getting into any disputes," MP Udaya Gammanpila who joined the discussion also opined.
Meanwhile, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) addressed a letter to Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, requesting him, as the Head of the Judiciary, to look into the telephone conversations between Parliamentarian Ramanayake and several members of the Judiciary.
In the letter, President of the BASL, President's Counsel Kalinga Indatissa requested the Chief Justice to take strong remedial steps to arrest situations of this nature taking place again as postponing resolving this issue would result in a further loss of public confidence in the judicial system.
He also requested an immediate meeting to discuss the mechanism that ought to be adopted to resolve this issue, adding that the BASL would stand with all remedial decisions that the Chief Justice would take towards the betterment of the judicial administration.
Indatissa further stated, this has resulted in the loss of public confidence in the judicial system which is an important system that is based on the concept of the Rule of Law, while members of the Judiciary are expected to perform an extremely vital role free from any type of interference from the Executive or the Legislature.
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has directed its Secretary H. S. Somaratne to call for explanations from the present and former members of the Judiciary whose telephone conversations with UNP MP Ramanayake are now in the public domain.
