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.
ලෙනින් රත්නායක විනය පරික්ෂණය අත්හිටුවන්නැයි ඉල්ලීමක්
In a letter to the Secretary of the Judicial Service Commission, Ivan, as complainant, objects that a one-man inquiry by retired High Court judge K.A.S. Gunatilake into magistrate Lenin Ratnayake is illegal under Article 114(2). He recounts the rape allegations, the Commission’s months of silence, the three-judge committee that upheld Ravaya’s charges, Ratnayake’s 32 months of paid compulsory leave, and asks for the inquiry to be stopped and the committee’s report released to him.
රාවය කර්තෘගෙන් අගවිනිසුරුට එරෙහිව කථානායකට පැමිණිල්ලක්
A formal complaint to Speaker Joseph Michael Perera asking Parliament to investigate Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva’s association with Rohana Kumara, a fraudster and suspect in the Peradeniya gardens murder of Ranjith Bandara Wijekoon. It details Kumara’s record, his role at the judges’ training institute, minute-by-minute phone records linking him to the gunman and to the Chief Justice’s residence, the property dispute behind the killing, forged fundamental rights petitions, and exhibits.
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.
මල්වත්ත ඝාතනය රෝහණ කුමාර හා අගවිනිසුරු
The report details the arrest of Rohana Kumara, fourth suspect in the February 2001 shooting of businessman Ranjith Bandara Wijekoon at the Peradeniya botanical gardens, and his alleged ties to Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva. It cites phone records, his use of a Justice Ministry vehicle, his role at the judges’ training centre and his claim to have hidden on the Chief Justice’s advice. It also recounts an attempted bribe of a Mirihana police officer and forged signatures on fundamental rights petitions.
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.
නීතියේ අනාචාරය
Ivan revisits the adultery case chemical engineer Jayasekera brought against Sarath N. Silva, then an Appeal Court judge. He shows how complaints to K. Palakidnar, Presidents Premadasa and Wijetunga went nowhere, how District Judge Upali Abeyratne’s handling of the case drew disciplinary charges that stalled once Silva became Attorney General and Priyantha Perera joined the Judicial Service Commission, and how Abeyratne was later punished lightly and promoted.
යුක්තියේ දෙවොල ගිනි ගනී
Ivan argues that judicial reform must come first and that a Judicial Service Commission reshuffled under the 17th Amendment will change nothing while the discredited Chief Justice stays. He traces magistrate Lenin Ratnayake’s career from an insurance-claim fraud at the Insurance Corporation, through patronage into the judiciary, to two rape allegations upheld by an inquiry committee, and accuses Sarath N. Silva, as Attorney General, of shielding his relative.
17 වැනි ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය හා ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය
Ivan argues that constitutional amendments should not be rushed or sent to court before the public sees the draft, citing N.M. Perera and faulting Batty Weerakoon and Jayampathy Wickramaratne. He contrasts the seven- and nine-judge benches that reviewed earlier amendments with Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva’s small benches that left out Mark Fernando, A.R.B. Amerasinghe and Ranjith Dheeraratne, and objects to his ruling that ITN, Lakhanda and Lake House, as companies, fall outside the Elections Commission’s powers.
ලෙනින් රත්නායක, උපාලි අබේරත්න පරීක්ෂණ වාර්තා ගැන “රාවය” කර්තෘගෙන් අගවිනිසුරුට ලිපියක්
In a letter dated 27 August 2001 to Sarath N. Silva as chairman of the Judicial Service Commission, Ivan asks for the reports of the two committees that found Magistrate Lenin Ratnayake and District Judge Upali Abeyratne guilty. He sets out the history: Ravaya’s 1997 reports of a rape by Ratnayake and his earlier dismissal for fraud, Silva’s 1998 confidential report to G.L. Peiris, the Abeyratne divorce case, the Bar’s past presidents’ intervention, his disbarment complaint, and Silva’s appointment and the impeachment, and says he needs the reports for a case in Geneva.