THE
CJ yesterday, Dec 3rd called a meeting of the Judicial Services
Association (JSA).
In
short, 300 judges from all Courts all over the Island gathered yesterday
afternoon at 3 pm at the Superior Courts Complex in Hulftsdorp. The CJ
explained her position to them as they have been calling her from time to time,
and she believed it was best to get their opinion on the proceedings regarding
her impeachment now going through the PSC.
All
members of the JSA endorsed the following:
“Called
the PRESIDENT to stop the attacks on the Judiciary in the state media. The JSA
noted that insults being hurled at the Judiciary and the Chief Justice were
detrimental to the country’s judicial system. It called upon the Government to
ensure that the inquiry was a process that ensured a fair trial and upheld the
tenets of Natural Justice.”
This
is NEWS and slotted into back pages of today’s press excluding the ADA Sinhala
paper that put it as its headline. If one read the Sunday Observer the whole
paper was littered with personal attacks on the CJ. Mahindapala’s article was
harsh as were others, including the President’s own insinuation that WAR LOSERS
are using Hulftsdorp, saying some represent NGO and foreign govts in the same
breadth. The typical attack on them as the bogey men of MR!
Obviously
if the PSC was a court, then these attacks would be illegal as proceedings are
taking place and innocence must be presumed until proven guilty and proceedings
of an ongoing case cannot be reported upon. Clearly by this act the Govt. is
making the assumption that it is NOT a properly constituted court and therefore
can sling mud as they please on the respondent to the impeachment motion.
Conversely any decision will not be binding!!
It
is now clearly WAR between the legislature and the judiciary, and the Govt. has
added fuel to this by not sitting on the fence, but making damning statements
on the 14point impeachment allegations in public by virtue of its ownership of
Lake House, and the use of its surrogates in other media too, though I must
admit they are far less direct and cussed.
The
CJ has just arrived at Parliament with a huge support base outside greeting her
arrival, let us see what the next chapter in this war of attrition holds.
2 comments:
given that the budget for the judiciary as well as oversight comes from the legislature and executive, which itself comes from the legislature for the most part, it's hard to find a separation of powers in a parliamentary democracy despite the rhetoric.
the government is almost certainly losing political support as a result of this CJ proceeding. the reason why is that it fits into the narrative that Gen. Fonseka was spouting about the Rajapaksas trying to take over everything in government and to create a "dictatorship" (even though they are perfectly within their rights to do so since they won resounding victories under the leadership of the President at multiple elections).
The sad thing is that the CJ is probably guilty but everything is about politics which leads to rule by law in SL rather than rule of law.
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