Justice Sidelined

By Vibhushana Pieris -October 2, 2013 

CJ’s removal blocked at Commonwealth Judges Conference: Should one compromise the integrity for private considerations 

Those in the law practice in Sri Lanka are well aware that Justice Sriskandarajah was sidelined by the Rajapaksa administration for his stand against the undermining of judiciary by the Executive. He is one of the few judges in the Court of Appeal, who had the courage to uphold the rule of law and quash the findings by the PSC that removed the CJ Shirani Bandaranayake by unlawful means. The Supreme Court did the same but Judges in both Courts failed to sustain their stand in the wake of tremendous pressure that they were brought under by the Rajapaksa regime.

Justice Sriskandarajah with De Facto CJ

The very same Judiciary that declared the whole process adopted by the Rajapaksa regime to remove CJ Bandaranayake a nullity and quashed the finding made against the Chief Justice Bandaranayake was forced to accept Mohan Pieris as the Chief Justice. These Judges did so for other quantifiable considerations such as Brand New Mercedes cars promised for all judges byMohan Pieris.

All of them knew what they were doing was amounting to betrayal of trust placed in them by the people but they did for private considerations, which was clearly deplorable and unacceptable by any means. All judges were well aware that Mohan Pieris had no moral and legal right to accept the office of the Chief Justice because there was no vacancy existed as both the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal had declared the removal was a nullity and had declared process adopted to remove the CJ was also unlawful.                   Read More