Endemic Judicial & Police Corruption In  Sri Lanka; Recent Revelations Should Be An Eye Opener!

By Mohamed Harees –APRIL 28, 2018

Lukman Harees

This is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

The Video of a speech by a young ‘whistle-blower’ lawyer Sugandhika Fernando exposing the utter corruption and deterioration of the standards in the system of justice and law enforcement in Sri Lanka, has already gone viral. She particularly mentioned many acts of misconduct such as drunken/corrupt judges, corrupt Mudliyars/court administration staff, and also senior lawyers and Police officers who have been abusing the system to enrich themselves. What she exposed boldly and publicly about the vices of corruption, bad practices and sexual exploitation within the system of law, has also been a pet topic of UNP Deputy Minister  cum actor Ranjan Ramanayake for some-time, both within and outside the Parliament which landed him in hot water, with a legal Mafia chasing him from behind gunning for his blood. Besides, many members of the legal profession as well as clients too has been sharing similar views in private hush talks. Nagananda Kodituwakku is another rights lawyer who has spearheaded a campaign to clean up the stables long polluted by rogue corrupt elements both in the Bench and the Bar.  

In an interview with Daily Mirror ( 29/08/2017) Ranjan Ramanayake opined ‘There are instances where wrong verdicts are given. There are instances where sexual bribes are given. A judge had been accused of raring a servant. People talk about them. A former Chief Justice admitted that he gave a wrong judgement during his tenure. What did the BASL chief do about these judicial officers and lawyers. Aren’t we going to penalize these judicial officers? There are instances where people threw excreta at judges. Some Sri Lankan lawyers have been identified as ones who hold black money by Panama papers. I am going to be penalized when I talk about them. Wrong doers are spared. Only the corrupted law enforcement officers start panicking when one talks about corruption in the judiciary. .. Late Prime Minister John Kotelawala said he would apply tar on the heads of corrupted monks. All monks should not panic about this statement. Likewise only corrupted judges and lawyers should panic about my statement.. My statements are based on what people come and tell me about lawyers.. People suffer as a result of shortcomings in the judiciary”. However, there is also a counter view that public attacks by political figures against the judiciary, can further undermine judicial independence and public confidence in the Judiciary. Nevertheless, it appears that judicial corruption is endemic. Political interference in the judicial process by influencing or intimidating judges were common since JRJ times with MR being the worst in that respect.  

As they say ‘fish rots from the top’, Sarath N. Silva as Chief Justice sacrificed the very notion of an independent judiciary and became a servant of the Executive Presidential system.  He shamelessly sacrificed the independence of the judiciary allowing the Executive President to play around with the process of law. How he later came on a political platform and apologized to the nation about letting MR go in the infamous Hambantota case is an open secret and shameful. Then the country had another CJ Mohan Pieris appointed by MR, who virtually acted as his Majesty’s loyal servant in delivering judgments. He reportedly went before the Present President Sirisena too to offer his services on the same terms. Such was the sad tale of interferences with the independence of the judiciary in Sri Lanka. We have also seen many reported acts of misconduct of many judges too serving in the lower benches including bribery and soliciting sexual favours. There was also another new tradition of judges which came to light in the  recent past , inviting  politicians to parties to sign as witnesses at their children’s weddings. There were thus clear cases of Supreme Court judges continuing to have personal and social relations with the executive branch specially during MR’s regime,especially despite being a government whose behaviour was extremely questionable from the viewpoint of democracy and the Rule of Law. 

Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena, a legal commentator captured this sad reality in an article to Colombo Telegraph in 2012; ‘Exponentially increased contempt displayed by the executive for Sri Lanka’s judiciary was manifested in recent years with politicians from the highest levels downwards seeking to influence the outcome of cases, with criminals having political backing openly disregarding arrest warrants and with the judiciary being treated as an appendage of the government’. As a prominent rights activist lawyer Basil Fernando also opined ‘The real test is as to whether the system of law and the administration of justice have gotten back to the point where it can be honestly claimed that the system functions well and that every element of the system has gotten rid of the corruption that it had been exposed to. Such victories should not be lightly claimed for all aspects of individual freedoms and the whole life of the nation depends on such things, like the way blood runs through the human body. The most essential element to consider is whether the competence of the judiciary that has suffered past interference has been restored fully’ and asks the question: ‘Does the legal process in Sri Lanka function sufficiently well that we could claim today that the due process of law can be assured within our system? If one is to go by the large numbers of litigants, who are the ultimate judges on this issue, we cannot yet claim such a situation has dawned’. 

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