Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake
Publication
of a biography by former President Chandrika Kumaratunga as a
self-expression was important news for me as one who had written a book
about her. Further, the news that the keynote address at the book launch
was to be delivered by Shirani Bandaranayake, a former Chief Justice,
was another reason that aroused my interest. I did not get an
opportunity to read the book yet, but I listened to the speech made by
her at the book launch. I feel it was a speech not befitting a person
who had held such high office as the Chief Justice of the country.
Raising Chandrika to exemplary heights:
There is nothing wrong with Shirani Bandaranayakehaving a sense of
deep gratitude for former President Chandrika and expressing it. But,
the manner in which it was pronounced by her as a former Chief Justice,
and the essence of her speech do not befit the dignity of the high
office held by her. According to her, Chandrika is an ideal character of
hers; she has not only attached the highest importance to the
independence of the judiciary but also made many sacrifices to safeguard
the independence of the judiciary. This statement about President
Chandrika has been made not by an ordinary party member, but a former
Chief Justice.
The impression it creates is not beneficial to the judiciary either.
Chandrika is an ideal heroine for her. The most infamous election fraud
in Sri Lanka took place during her tenure. It was also during her regime
that the parliamentarians of the ruling party were allowed to become
tavern owners. The plunder and the rapacious nature of the state
administration assumed the character of an unceasing flow during her
regime.
Beddagana Sanjeewa, a trusted colleague of Chandrika’s security team, can be considered as a pet criminal brought up in the lap of Temple Trees. He ruled the underworld from Temple Trees. He implemented programs that oppressed and persecuted individuals at the behest of Chandrika or her close associates.
The case of Rookanatha Goonetileke and Chandra Leka, a couple of veteran singers is one such example. Setting fire on the house of actress Anoja Weerasinghe, the attack on the house of Lasantha Wickrematunga are two other examples. The shadow of Beddagana Sanjeewa had fallen over the assassination of Rohana Kumara, the editor of the Satana, a controversial tabloid and the murder of Kumar Ponnambalam, father of MP Gajan Ponnambalam.
Moratuwa Saman, who was responsible for the assassination of Kumar Ponnambalam, had revealed this to Daya Perera, a reputed criminal lawyer. It was after that, that Moratuwa Saman was killed. These incidents demonstrate that the worst things that happened during the Rajapaksa regime and the previous UNP regime had also happened during the regime of Chandrika as well.
About the independence of judiciary
The most ironic part of the former Chief Justice’s speech is the
reference she has made in regard to the sacrifices Chandrika has made to
safeguard the independence of judiciary. If the judiciary had some
element of independence, it was Chandrika who destroyed it. It was
Chandrika, who broke the backbone of judiciary which did not cow down
before any other authority, even in the face of horrific attacks made by
President Jayewardene who commanded a five-sixths majority in
Parliament.
Chandrika ruined the stature of judiciary by appointing a corrupt friend
of hers to the post of Chief Justice (Sarath Silva who held the post of
Attorney General) who was trapped in an extremely desperate situation.
At the time, the judiciary was at the throes of a cataclysmic cancer
rotting the inner portals of it. H.L. de Silva, who was considered to be
one of the most respected lawyers in the country at the time, described
this situation as follows: “Due to the curtailment of independence and
lack of moral integrity, the entire judicial process might diminish to a
level of a clown of a meaningless theatre. I am here to express my
frustration even at the risk of becoming somewhat unpopular for not
coming forward to express our sensitivity vigorously in the face of the
catastrophe looming before our eyes or at least not demanding for a
strong step to be taken to prevent it happening.”
H.L. de Silva made this statement at a time when an important phase of
the struggle I made against the horrific cancer that overwhelmed the
judiciary had been successfully completed and the waves of the news of
success were floating in the air. I had filed a case against three
selected persons of the judiciary, namely Magistrate Lenin Ratnayake,
District Judge Upali Abeyratne and Attorney General Sarath Silva.
As a result of the voice raised against the first two, the Judicial
Service Commission appointed two tri-party committees composed of the
Chief Justice and Justices of the Court of Appeal to examine the
allegations made against the two judges. The two committees found the
two judges guilty of the charges. With that, the first phase of my
struggle came to an end; the second or the foremost phase of the battle
began with the filing of a complaint against Attorney General Sarath
Silva. The Supreme Court decided to hear both the complaints against the
Attorney General (filed by myself and Chemical Engineer Jayasekara
respectively) and assigned the responsibility of conducting the
preliminary investigation of my complaint to Judge Shirani
Bandaranayake.
Judge Amir Ismail was assigned the responsibility of conducting
investigation of the complaint made by Jayasekara. Judge Marak Fernando
was assigned to oversee both cases. Sarath Silva, who at the time had
become one of the close confidants of President Chandrika, was in a
terrible state of strangulation, being trapped in this case.
Judiciary turned upside down
Chief Justice G.P.S. de Silva went on retirement when the Supreme
Court was investigating the allegations of corruption against the
Attorney General. The exemplary heroine of Shirani Bandaranayake taking
the advantage of the opportunity, appointed infamous Sarath Silva, her
friend, as the Chief Justice, rescuing him from the trap he was in, in
expectation of manipulating him to take control of the Supreme Court in
an informal and indirect way. This she did despite instructions from her
three legal advisers (H.L. de Silva, R.K.W. Gunsekera and E.D.
Wickramanayaka) not to do so.
Dato Param Kumaraswamy, UN Special Rapporteur on the subject of
judiciary, condemned the President’s move and told the BBC that it was a
serious act of misdemeanour. He further added, “This appointment has a
direct bearing on the independence of the judiciary. And both petitions
should have been heard and finalised before the appointment was made.”
Traditionally, the inauguration ceremony of a new Chief Justice used to
be organised by the Bar Association. But the inauguration ceremony of
Sarath N. Silva as the new Chief Justice was organised by the
Presidential Secretariat. The extramarital wife of the Chief Justice
also attended the inauguration ceremony.
The next most important thing was the attendance of the District Judge
Upali Abeyratne also in the ceremony, who was convicted by a three-judge
panel on charges of illegal and oppressive hearing of the divorce case
filed by chemical engineer Jayasekara against his wife, the 1st
respondent and making Sarath Silva (who had an extramarital relationship
with the 1st respondent) a co-respondent of the case.
I am not going to reiterate the enormous damage done to the judiciary
following the appointment of Sarath Silva as the Chief Justice. What
happened afterwards is well-known. Justice Shirani Bandaranayake also
ganged up with the corrupt Chief Justice for a long time and followed a
policy of supporting the latter in the destructive process pursued by
him. She was the judicial officer in charge of the investigation of my
complaint; I have the right to know what has happened to my complaint
and I believe that she should have at least clarified to me what has
happened to it.
Subsequently she too, got into altercations with the Chief Justice.
After that she resigned from the Judicial Service Commission, accusing
the Chief Justice of insulting her in foul language. Subsequently when
she was appointed the Chief Justice, she did nothing to reverse the
decline set in the judiciary. In the impeachment motion against her, I
opposed it because of the narrowness of the government’s aspirations and
the frantic nature of the attempt to remove her from office, denying
her a fair investigation. The third reason was that it tended to
strengthen the government’s interventions over the judiciary.
However, the manner in which she had acquired a valuable plot of land of
17.95 perches from Model Farm Road, Narahenpita, refusing the land
offered her from Beddagana when she joined the Supreme Court on
recommendation of Professor G.L. Peiris is also problematic. Even, the
story behind the charge number 01 in the impeachment against her raises
reasonable suspicion about the Chief Justice. The Chief Justice of the
country should not have been involved in whatever manner in the purchase
of property related to a case being heard before her. Also, the fact
that the Chief Justice’s husband held a position that can be considered a
major political appointment does not comply with the esteem of the
office of Chief Justice as well as the dignity of the judiciary.
It was during Chandrika’s rule that the corrupt system that enabled the
MPs to change parties and join the ruling party without losing their
parliament seats despite the fact that they were not allowed do so
according to the Constitution, was established with the connivance of
the judiciary.
Source: Ft.lk Friday, 21 January 2022
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