Complaint against magistrate who threatened to remand lady lawyer

 Saturday, 07 June 2014 

A lady lawyer has complained to the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) and the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) that a magistrate had rejected a request seeking justice for her client and threatened her at open courts that she would be suspended for six months and also that she would be remanded for a similar duration, ‘Ravaya’ reports.

Senior lawyer Benshi Mendis of the Moratuwa magistrate’s court has lodged this complaint against Moratuwa magistrate Aravinda Perera.

The sworn affidavit containing the complaint says the magistrate had summoned two remand prison officers to the place where she had been after issuing the threat to her.

When she had appeared for a respondent in another case later in the day, the magistrate had again threatened her, telling her not to appear in cases and that he would not heed her requests.

BASL secretary Ajith Pathirana confirmed having received such a complaint against the Moratuwa magistrate and said a committee would be appointed to investigate it.

Previously, there had been allegations of defaulting bank loans against magistrate Aravinda Perera, and investigating those charges, the JSC, headed by chief justice Shirani Bandaranayake at the time, had suspended him.