Bar Association Mafia 

By Nagananda Kodituwakku –SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

Nagananda Kodituwakku

Bar Association of Sri Lanka in its website displays the following quotation taken from the United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers: 

“Governments shall ensure that lawyers are able to perform all of their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference”

However, following the same path of those who are holding office in the Legislature and Executive who pledge people to perform public office faithfully with due respect to the Constitution and the rule of law but practice completely the opposite, the Bar Association too simply follows the suit. It pledges to honour the independence of the judiciary, the Rule of Law and Administration of justice sans interference, whilst promoting the honorable practice of law in reality it simply acts as a self-centered mafia style organization.   

In this country it is an undeniable fact that the Judiciary is under tremendous pressure from the Executive and the Legislature.  And politicians in the caliber of Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe openly ridicule and undermine the authority of the judiciary and claims that the Parliament is supreme over the judiciary, and it has no authority to exercise the judicial power, except through the parliament. His disparaging statement goes as follows. 

“… Supreme Court does not even have to exercise the judicial power of the people and it does not have power to violate the basic tenets of the Constitution, which the Supreme Court has been unfortunately doing in the last decade… and it is acting as a dictator… ” (Parliamentary Hansard of 07th July 2016).

When a person holding a high profile public office makes such an intimidatory statement against the judiciary that exercises people’s judicial power citizenry expect the Bar Association, the professional body of lawyers to defend the judiciary, which however never occurs in this island nation.

Yet, there is a national need to uphold the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law without which no democracy can survive and this is what exactly has happened in the Republic Sri Lanka. It is a proven fact that no one in authority takes judiciary seriously due to unforgivablelapses on the part of the judiciary permitting the other two organs to ridicule it. Not just once but many times over, the Executive President and the Prime Minister of the present regime have undermined the authority of the judiciary pointing the finger at the Chief Justice who had pleaded for favours from the Executive promising to deliver judgments favoring the government and appointing judges according to the wishes of the Executive.

The statement made by the Prime Minister in the Parliament on 30th Jan 2017 about the despicable conduct of the Chief Justice Mohan Peiris who had sought favours to remain in office with promises to make judgments to please the Executive and also to appoint the judges as per the directions of the Executive, the details of which were fully reported in the Parliamentary Hansard dated 30th Jan 2015 is one of the best examples. Subsequently the Executive President himself reaffirmed this statement referring to the favours sought by the Chief Justice Mohan Peiris. The media gave maximum publicity to this improper, insulting, intolerable and unbecoming behavior of the Chief Justice that patently violated the public trust doctrine. Yet, due to the dismal failure of the rule of law in this country, so far no disciplinary proceedings have been instituted against the lawyer Mohan Peiris. And despite a credible complaint with all relevant information presented to the CIABOC, it too has miserably failed to uphold the rule of law and to initiate action to prosecute Mohan Peiris and other judges of the Apex Court who have been charged for judicial corruption. This dismal failure on the part of the CIABOC has on 26th Sep 2017 afforded the Supreme Court an opportunity to take up the position that those charges against the judges are not well-founded. 

Read More