The Chief Justice reiterated that she is innocent of the false charges
made against her and is always willing to face any impartial tribunal in
order to vindicate herself, a statement issued by Lawyers Collective,
an umbrella organization of a numbers of lawyers’ associations and
independent lawyers.
Describing the events that led the CJ’s decision to walk out of the PSC,
Lawyers Collective stated as follows. The PSC was requested as far
back as November 20 to furnish the information required to reply the
allegations. This information was never provided. When the PSC commenced
sitting on November 23, 2012, her counsel had had requested that a list
of witnesses and a list of documents relied upon in support of the
allegations be made available.
It is common knowledge that even in a disciplinary inquiry in the public
service or a trivial criminal case that a respondent or accused is
furnished with a list of witnesses and documents so that they could
prepare for the defence, it observed. The PSC failed to meet this basic
requirement at any of its sitting. On Thursday, December 6 about 4pm,
the PSC had handed over a bundle of documents consisting of
approximately 1000 pages and required the chief justice to respond by
1.30 pm tomorrow, i.e. in less than 24 hours. It was obvious that a
majority of the members of the PSC had no real intention to give the
chief justice a fair hearing.
In addition to the above, at various stages of the proceedings of the
PSC, two members hurled abuse at the Chief Justice and her lawyers and
it became evident that these members had been mandated to ridicule the
head of the judiciary and the legal profession. The Select Committee was
requested numerous times to formulate the procedure that it intended to
follow. There was no response to this request until today.
On Thursday, when this request was repeated, the Chairman of the PSC
stated that no oral evidence would be led to establish the allegations
and, consequently no opportunity would be given to cross examine such
witnesses making the allegations. Instead it became evident today that
the Chief Justice was expected to refute allegations that had not even
been supported by evidence. Such an irregular and unlawful procedure
would undermine every single independent judge in Sri Lanka. In almost
all instances the same members of the PSC, who were in majority,
overruled the submissions made on behalf of the Chief Justice without
cogent reasons and often without any prior consultation with the other
members.
It is for the above reasons that the Counsel for the CJ had requested to
waive the secrecy provisions and sought an open and public inquiry and
requested for independent observers to watch the proceedings, but this
request was also refused by a majority of the PSC. In the face of the
above no right thinking person could any longer continue to accept the
legitimacy of a body steeped in partiality and hostility towards the
head of the judiciary and in this background the chief justice and her
counsel had no alternative but to withdraw from participating in the
select committee.
The CJ reiterated that she is willing continue to face any impartial and
lawful tribunal as is done in other commonwealth countries as was
proposed in the draft constitution of August 2000 in order to vindicate
herself and she will continue in her efforts to safeguard the
independence of the judiciary, which is a heritage of the people of Sri
Lanka, who alone are the sovereign of this country.
Source -D.Mirror
Posted By Sameera Chathuranga
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation test link ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat contact me
Thank You
0 comments:
Post a Comment