එස්.බී. ට එරෙහිව දෙන ලද දඬුවම
S.B. Dissanayake, UNP national organiser, has been convicted of contempt of court. Although he once threatened to close the courts to push through the People’s Alliance constitution, the editorial argues that two years’ rigorous imprisonment for such an offence would be unjust even from an independent court, and that the law of contempt must be read as it is in the modern world.
අපරාධය හා දඬුවම
S.B. Dissanayake went to court on the 14th expecting a suspended sentence and went to prison. Ivan recalls meeting him with Nihal Jayawickrama in November and warning him that, compared with Rauff Hakeem or the Hela Urumaya monks, he mattered little to the Chief Justice, and describes how S.B. walked into the trap of his own accord.
“දි කිරට කියන බළල් සාක්ෂියක්”: අගවිනිසුරු සහ “දිවයින”
The Sunday Divaina ran a full-page interview with the Chief Justice, conducted by a writer who had earlier defended the Public Trustee. The piece asks why the interview appeared while an estate case involving the paper’s owners was pending before a bench on which the Chief Justice always sat, and whether a judge may use a litigant’s newspaper as his shield.
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.
අධිකරණ දූෂණය – චන්ද්රිකා, රනිල් හා විමල්
The President herself says the police and the courts are full of corruption, and Transparency International ranks them the most corrupt in the region. The editorial replies that the ‘blue’ President injected the poison at the head of the judiciary, the ‘green’ Ranil Wickremesinghe let it spread, and the JVP of Wimal Weerawansa, which first stood against the Chief Justice, fell silent.
අධිකරණය ගැන විග්නේෂ්වරන්
Retired Supreme Court judge C.V. Wigneswaran’s analysis of the court under the Chief Justice confirms what Ravaya has said: lawyers at Hulftsdorp can predict a judgment from the nature of the case and the faces on the bench, and without an end to partiality and cliques the court’s dignity will be lost.
බිබික්කම ලස්සන කිරීම
G.L. Peiris told The Hindu that the UNP backs an executive presidency, but a reformed one. Ivan lists the further reforms such a system would need, recounts how a joint reform proposal failed when Uduwe Dhammaloka Thera’s signed copy never came back, and closes with sections on ‘the Chief Justice of the Dharma State’ and ‘a hunter’s sermon’.
නීතිඥ වෘත්තියේ ගෞරවය හා අධිකරණ ස්වාධීනත්වය
The editorial welcomes the Bar Association’s belated awakening over the case of the Wellawaya magistrate, which it says exposes the Chief Justice’s partisan handling of the judiciary. It notes the record of the police officer involved and how first the JVP and then the Hela Urumaya fell silent about the Chief Justice.
පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඇස් නොපෙනේද?
Parliament has the final responsibility for the country’s course, yet it will not even look at a case in which a citizen who sued the Chief Justice and members of the Judicial Service Commission was tried by a bench that included a respondent. Parliament should not meddle with the courts, the editorial says, but it must correct a judiciary that has stopped behaving in a civilised way.
ශිෂ්ට සම්පන්න භාවයේ තරම
The Human Rights Committee has ruled against Sri Lanka again, this time over Nallaratnam Singarasa, jailed for 35 years under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, while Tony Fernando’s case is pending. Ivan holds President Kumaratunga responsible for appointing Sarath N. Silva as Chief Justice, and Ranil Wickremesinghe for allowing the system to take root.