තකට තකතකට තක
Ivan argues that under Sarath N. Silva the judiciary became an object of public disgust. Appointed by Kumaratunga while facing charges, he purged judicial officers who would not bend, as the International Bar Association mission noted, and now seeks to reinstate a magistrate found guilty of rape and fraud. He suppressed cases against the PSD and approved the PA’s pre-2000 electoral law, and Ivan warns that disputes under any settlement with the LTTE would go to a Supreme Court headed by such a man.
අගවිනිසුරු සරත් නන්ද සිල්වා සම්බන්ධයෙන් ආණ්ඩුවේ ප්රතිපත්තිය කුමක්ද?
Ivan calls the Kumaratunga era the most shameless assault on the Supreme Court’s independence, with a Chief Justice appointed while himself facing charges, political cases routed to benches he sat on, and dissenting judges pushed out. The UNP’s impeachment motion lapsed with the dissolution of Parliament, yet the new UNF government keeps him in office despite objections from the UN rapporteur Param Cumaraswamy, Mary Robinson, the International Commission of Jurists and the International Bar Association.
ශ්රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට අහිමි වී තිබෙන ගෞරවය යළි ලබාදිම
The government is appointing a 19-member select committee to review the Human Rights Commission and the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction. Ivan argues the Supreme Court has lost public respect by acting as a political tool of the executive, and that removing Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva is necessary but not enough. He proposes that the Constitutional Council be empowered to investigate serious complaints against superior court judges and recommend impeachment.
17 වැනි සංශෝධනයට කොකා පෙන්නීම
Ivan explains that the 17th Amendment gives the Constitutional Council power over the independent commissions and top appointments, yet the President has still not named her nominee despite Article 41(5). He argues that she is protecting her hold over the Chief Justice, Attorney General, IGP and Bribery Commission, since a council would weaken her defence against impeachment and against the Padiyapelella rocket-launcher case linked to a plot to kill S.B. Dissanayake.
අගවිනිසුරු සම්බන්ධයෙන් අනුගමනය කරන්නට යන පිළිවෙත කුමක් ද?
Referring to that week’s Ravaya lead story on the Chief Justice’s links with the criminal Rohana Kumara, a charge already in the UNP–JVP impeachment motion, the editorial says Sarath N. Silva has disgraced his office. It notes that the new government has done nothing, and urges it to restore judicial independence before any other reform.
JSC: More questions than answers
The Judicial Services Commission has answered the criticism in an International Bar Association report on the state of the Sri Lankan judiciary. Its answer, Ivan writes, raises more questions than it settles — and he was the complainant in one of the inquiries it describes.
ජනාධිපතිනිය ඉන්නේ දෝෂාභියෝගයක මුව විට ය
Ivan reads Chandrika Kumaratunga’s handover of domestic power to the UNF as a tactical retreat by a cobra biding its time, since she keeps executive power, command of the forces, a large security force and the power to dissolve Parliament. Because she installed a loyal Chief Justice who could nullify an impeachment, he argues that the new government must first remove Sarath N. Silva before moving against her, which would then require a presidential election.
President may face impeachment
During the campaign the President boasted of her wide powers, and after the United National Front won she did not pick a fight with the winner by flourishing them. She has handed over internal administration and remains chief executive, commander-in-chief, and the holder of a private army of thousands.
ව්යවස්ථා සභාව ඉදිරියේ ඇති අභියෝග
Ivan says the new Constitutional Council must win public trust through its conduct, not merely by filling vacancies. He notes gaps in its powers, criticises the retention of incumbent commission secretaries and the Bribery Commission’s Director General, points to conflicts of interest at the Human Rights Commission, Attorney General’s and Elections offices, and argues that the Council should keep the impeached Chief Justice away from judicial and administrative work while it appoints the Judicial Service Commission.
Challenges before the constitutional council
Freeing the institutions under the Constitutional Council from politicisation, and directing them so as to guarantee good governance, is one of the council’s main obligations. The first thing it has to do is define properly what the institutions and the posts under it are responsible for.