Shirani’s last sitting

Friday, 30 January 2015 01:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Dharisha Bastians Witnessing the downfall of the Supreme Court had been as painful as the personal impact of her unlawful sacking in 2013, newly reinstated Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake said yesterday.

“Today marks 746 days since I left office on the basis of an unlawful and illegal impeachment,” Chief Justice Bandaranayake told a packed ceremonial chamber on the fifth floor of the Supreme Court complex. Just 24 hours after she was reinstated as Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake bid farewell to the Supreme Court at a ceremonial sitting held at Hulftsdorp to mark her retirement from office. Her final speech was the first and most extensive statement Bandaranayake has ever made about her controversial sacking in January 2013. Pin-drop silence greeted her poignant speech, in the grand chamber filled with judges, senior lawyers, state counsels and law students. “Since January 2013, our lives were in turmoil and peril. In that time my family encountered immeasurable harassment and suffering,” she told a packed chamber. The 746 days since her impeachment, had been like a sentence of imprisonment, the country’s first female Chief Justice told judges and lawyers at Hulftsdorp in her final speech from the bench. “For those who have devoted their lives to their profession, the compulsion to refrain from it unjustifiably, is a sentence of imprisonment. When such compulsion is based on baseless allegations such imprisonment is made even more rigorous and torturous,” Bandaranayake observed. “It is with great admiration for my country and its people that I graciously accepted a resumption of my duties yesterday,” the 43rd Chief Justice said. Bandaranayake noted that her two-year battle was not personal. “It was fought to uphold the rule of law and the integrity and independence of this institution. I may come and I may go, what matters is not the individual who holds this esteemed office but the continued existence of its independence,” she said. The country’s 43rd Chief Justice said that she was thankful to be saying goodbye on a day that will be looked back upon as one in which time and nature had brought about justice. She welcomed the appointment of her successor, Justice K. Sripavan, the senior most judge of the Supreme Court who will be appointed Chief Justice following her official retirement. Bandaranayake said she firmly believed Justice Sripavan “deserves this opportunity to become the legitimate 44th Chief Justice of the Republic.” Mohan Pieris originally succeeded Bandaranayake as Chief Justice following the impeachment, but President Sirisena yesterday revoked the appointment, saying it was void and without force in law, since Bandaranayake had not been legally removed.Thanking the younger members of the legal fraternity for fighting against her impeachment, Chief Justice Bandaranayake said she felt reassured that the future of her profession lay in safe hands. Bandaranayake said she could have served on the Supreme Court until her 65th birthday, in April 2023. “However, at the time I was appointed as CJ in May 2011, I decided to have a five-year plan for the enhancement of the Judiciary and retire in 2015, in my 58th year,” she said.

The BASL bids adieu

Announces that Govt. has accepted BASL proposal for special committee to make appointments to Apex court Attorney-at-Law and rebellious head of Sri Lanka’s unofficial Bar, Upul Jayasuriya, called on Shirani Bandaranayake to accept responsibility for the introduction of the 18th Amendment and saluted her courage while bidding her a poignant farewell at her last ceremonial sitting. The Bar Association of Sri Lanka, under Jayasuriya’s leadership has fought consistently since January 2013 for Bandaranayake’s reinstatement as Chief Justice. “This will be the last time I bow out to your Ladyship the 43rd Chief Justice. The First ever Lady Chief Justice of Sri Lanka,” the BASL President said. “It has been the continued assertion of the Bar that your Ladyship fearlessly continued in office as the de jure Chief Justice,” Jayasuriya said. “The Bar always fought for this day and the Bar has been vindicated,” he asserted. The BASL President saluted Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake for enduring a difficult period with what he said was “immense courage and unfailing dignity.” “All Your Ladyship’s actions and words during this period, despite immense pressure being brought to bear on Your Ladyship, have kept in mind the paramount need to protect the dignity of the Judiciary,” he said. Jayasuriya recalled that the Bench and the Bar had to make sacrifices during the battle for Bandaranayake’s reinstatement. “Among them Late Justice Sri Skandaraja’s name has to be inscribed in golden lettering, remembered and revered. The Executive wrath had no bounds or confines on him. He was called to pay the supreme sacrifices for what he thought was right. Let no Judge in the future be faced with the torture and agony that he went through for his forthrightness,” Jayasuriya appealed. He said that Court of Appeal Justice Anil Gunaratne also had to face the same “egocentric arrogance of the Executive.” “He was overlooked thrice for the same sin of having quashed the Select Committee findings,” the BASL President said. “I too was called upon to pay the price. I thought to myself that ‘only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to Live’,” Jayasuriya said. The BASL President announced that the new Government had agreed to their proposal to appoint an independent panel consisting of the Chief Justice, the President of the Court of Appeal, the Attorney General and the President of the Bar Association to recommend the possible appointees to the Apex Court. “The same proposal was made to the Executive nearly four months ago to which we did not even receive a response,” Jayasuriya explained. He said that the Bar proposes that any form of canvassing by those who seek such appointments should be made a disqualification. Jaysuriya said that the 17th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka had been meant to put the country right, with independent procedures to make appointments to key state sectors. Jayasuriya said that the 18th Amendment reversed this trend. “Your Ladyship too will have to share the responsibility for the introduction of the 18th Amendment with no referendum by the people,” he noted. The BASL Chief said that with the passing of the 18th Amendment, the Executive had usurped the powers of the Constitutional Council to make these appointments. “All the democratic institutions that we cherished have collapsed around us. We have to build them afresh,” Jayasuriya noted. “It is our call today. I can justifiably be proud that at least we have saved the Judiciary from this autocracy and begun a new journey seeking light at the end of the tunnel,” the BASL President noted. (DB)