President to appoint new CJ today

By Dharisha Bastians

The next Chief Justice is expected to take oaths before President Mahinda Rajapaksa today, amidst charges from the legal community and Opposition parties that the appointment was unconstitutional and unlawful, and the Commonwealth Secretariat putting Sri Lanka on notice regarding the dismissal of incumbent Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake.  

Three names – including that of former Attorney General, legal advisor to the Cabinet of Ministers, Seylan Bank Chairman, Director, Lanka Logistics and Rakna Lanka Security Mohan Pieris – were forwarded to the Parliamentary Council for recommendation and approval by the President’s Office yesterday.

Pieris is the firm favourite for the top post, the Daily FT learns. Two serving judges of the Supreme Court, one lady judge and a junior judge on the bench, were also listed as nominees.

The Parliamentary Council convened yesterday and was expected to give its decision on the appointment today.  Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe who is an ex-officio member of the Council and D.M. Swaminathan of the Opposition did not attend the meeting. Opposition Whip John Amaratunge told the Daily FT that the UNP had never attended the Council sessions because it was opposed in principle to the 18th Amendment to the Constitution.





Amid local agitation, court orders declaring the process illegal, and international outcry, the Government pushed through with the impeachment of Chief Justice Bandaranayake and a Presidential order ratifying the resolution passed by Parliament and removing her from office was served on her on Sunday (14).

According to Government member of the Council A.H.M. Azwer, the new Chief Justice will take oaths before the President today, once the Parliamentary Council informs of their decision. He said that the Council had met over 20 times to recommend appointments, but neither Wickremesinghe nor Swaminathan had attended.

With the passing of the 18th Amendment in 2010, the Parliamentary Council replaced the Constitutional Council set up under the now defunct 17th Amendment. The Council has no powers to make appointments but only to recommend nominees to the President who is the final appointing authority according to the provisions of 18A.

The five-member Council comprises the Speaker, Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition – who are ex-officio members – and two members hailing from the minority communities representing both the Government and the Opposition.

The new appointment comes in the wake of international censure regarding the impeachment process from several countries including the US, the UK, and Canada, and on Sunday a strongly-worded statement from Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma.

Expressing “deep disappointment at the dismissal of the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka,” the Secretary General said that he would consider further responses and initiatives by the Commonwealth “as are envisaged in situations that could be perceived to constitute violations of core Commonwealth values and principles.”

Sharma reiterated the Commonwealth’s profound collective concern at the recent developments with regard to the impeachment. “The dismissal of the Chief Justice will be widely seen, against the background of the divergence between the Judiciary and the Legislature, as running counter to the independence of the judiciary, which is a core Commonwealth value,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Lawyers Collective vowed to continue its struggle for judicial independence in Sri Lanka and take their agitation to the next level. At a media briefing held yesterday, representatives of the Collective said that constitutionally and legally, Shirani Bandaranayake remained the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka since the courts had ruled the impeachment process was illegal and unconstitutional.

Members of the Collective said that they would also extend their fullest support and stand in solidarity with “Shirani Bandaranaike, the incumbent Chief Justice of this Republic before the Law, in whatever decision or step she may proceed to in this connection”.

On Saturday President Rajapaksa yet again justified the move to impeach the Chief Justice saying it was carried out constitutionally.

“During the entire process, the Government never deviated from the Constitution. We also did not try to bring new laws, as some had suggested, to punish wrongdoers,” the President said. He was speaking at a ceremony organised by the Sri Lanka Freedom Graduates Association (SLFGA) to mark the occasion of nearly 51,000 graduate trainees being absorbed to the State sector permanent cadre.

The event, with the participation of over 50,000 graduates, was held at the Sugathadasa Stadium.

Speaking on the impeachment issue, President Rajapaksa said that information regarding misconduct had first come from within the legal fraternity itself and later evidence to prove charges had emerged.

He said as a move to clear his conscience further, he consulted several experts in the legal and banking fields regarding the evidence concerned.