What matters is the continued existence of an independent judiciary – Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake
Issuing a statement the 43rd Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake states “many will come and many will go. What matters is not the person who is the incumbent custodian of this position. What matters is the continued existence of an independent judiciary”.
In her statement, she thanks all those who stood with her and the greater cause to fight for the independence of the judiciary.
“Even though, I have not been meted out with justice today, time and nature will justify, what I have done and what I and others who shared my belief have stood for,” she states.
Dr. Banadranayake points out that during the thirty two years of continuous service at the University of Colombo and the Supreme Court, she had rendered in varying capacities towards the motherland.
She states that she was rewarded unfortunately, in an unjust manner.
Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake states that the treatment meted out to her, in the past few weeks was an ordeal no citizen let alone the Chief Justice of the country should be subjected to.
She says it s not only the office of the Chief Justice but also the independence of the judiciary, that has been usurped.
She says the very tenor of the rule of law, natural justice and judicial abeyance, has not only been ousted but brutally mutilated.
“Since it now appears that there might be violence if I remain in my official residence or my chambers, I am compelled to move out, particularly because the violence is directed at innocent people, including judges, lawyers and committed members of the public,” states Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake.
Courtesy: News First / Pix by Reuters
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You are a brave lady and it will be marked in Sri Lankan history.
Aunty Shiranee,
You have worked hard all your life and you need a rest. Take it easy. Truth and justice will prevail.
We support you in your future endeavours.
God will bless you for all the unbiased justifiable judgements which you have given in all Fundamental Rights Violation application cases filed by poor and middle class persons like me. We Sri Lankan citizens salute you for the said brave judgements and the relevant compensations awarded by you to the citizens of Sri Lanka
This are all nice sound bytes to dupe the gullible public. She had her day at the PSC hearting but she failed miserably to defend herself like anyother ciitizen given the right to do so. Instead she behaved arrogantly and ultimately stompped out of the hearing. If any other individual had behaved in such an arrogant manner in her court she would have punished the person for contempt of court. She had been found guilty correctly of corruption which cannot be tolerated from a CJ. How can the public have faith in the judicial system then? Judges themselves had admitted their corruption and failures to provide fair hearings and impart justice, at a recent conference. Such judges should be ashamed of themselves. They have no conscience. Isn’t it time we now clean the judiciary of such immoral judges?
Instead of bleating innocence, now that she had been voted in the Parliament by more than 2/3rd majority to be removed after having been found guilty, she should leave peacefully instead of doing another SF song and dance.
Corrupt judges have vitiated the judiciary. It is right the Legislative exercise their right to remove such corrupt individuals. That is the right of the Legislative. During her term of office as CJ, she had acted corruptly by removing good judges from hearing cases due to bribes from the other side.Wasn’t their independence then and their rights to hear their cases justly without being subjected to intimidation by the corrupt CJ violated ?
CJ is a post that must be held by a person of supreme integrity and honesty. However Shirani demonstrated quite the opposite. She has to declare her wealth and assets as at a certain date as per every high ranking public officer in the country. Shirani has withdrawn a large sum of money from her bank account, sent to her by her sister in Australia, just before the assets declaration date and declared only the remaining amount. Immediately after that she has deposited back that large sum of money back into the account. This is cheating even if her sister sent that money to Shirani to use for the sister’s property purchase under a power of attorney. This is cheating and false declaration by the top judge who is supposed to understand and execute the law to the highest level.
If a common man on the road did that, Shirani would punish him by saying “you should have declared all your wealth as at that date regardless who gave you for what, and then explain later how and when you received that money, and if they are legitimate money then you have no problems”. Wouldn’t she?
Shirani, you have broken the trust of the nation and must go. No more pretending to be innocent will work and trying to force Sri Lanka government by foreign cronies were things in the past. Sri Lanka do not bend its head to those foreigners any more.
We know some politicians are corrupt and it is wrong but we do not accept a Chief Justice to be similarly corrupt and that is utterly shameful. How can you maintain judicial fairness through corrupt judges like you?
CJ was corrupt and her husband no better, she deserves to be punished.The problem is, that the rule of law applies to all the corrupted, also politicians.