Anarchy and the Judiciary
The new government wants the corruption cases withdrawn and the courts will not oblige. Victor Ivan reads the resulting cold war as the one place in the state where something is still being defended.
අධිකරණය හා නීතිඥයන්
When the Bar Association installed Upul Jayasuriya as president with the ousted Shirani Bandaranayake in the chair rather than Chief Justice Mohan Peiris, it signalled that lawyers still did not accept the new Chief Justice. Ivan welcomes the gesture but argues that judicial independence died with the executive presidency, not the impeachment, and that bench and bar share the blame: the referendum judgment, the Eighteenth Amendment, the Lenin Ratnayake scandal and a rapist High Court judge’s reinstatement show a profession unable to discipline itself. He sets out the English model of regulation.
සිය කැමැත්තෙන් විනාශයට යන රටක්
Lacking the wisdom to untie simple knots, Sri Lanka has let them grow into tangles, and the people pay the price. The editorial notes that the investigation into Judge Ambepitiya’s murder identified an underworld figure as the mastermind, and urges voters to make the candidates present, without lies, their vision for the country’s problems.
ලැජ්ජා නැතිකමට බෙහෙත් නැත
The Chief Justice has suggested that the murder of High Court judge Sarath Ambepitiya was the result of criticism of the judiciary. Since he is the only judge under public criticism, the editorial replies, the claim is shameless, and it recalls how he narrowed human rights jurisdiction and drove out judges who would not bow to him.