Jaffna lawyers on four day boycott against impeachment

Lawyers in the Jaffna peninsula will boycott courts for four days commencing today to protest the process of impeachment against Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake. The Jaffna Bar Association at an Extraordinary Meeting yesterday passed a resolution to this effect and unanimously decided to stage the boycott, the Association President S. Abimanasingham P.C. said.

The statement said that the Jaffna Bar had decided to launch the boycott from 11-14 December “in expression of their displeasure with the contents and manner in which the Parliamentary Select Committee appointed to investigate the impeachment charges against Her Ladyship the Chief Justice arrived at a decision on the 8th of December 2012.”

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka will also boycott courts for an hour tomorrow to protest the treatment meted out to Chief Justice Bandaranayake.

The Parliamentary Select Committee to probe the impeachment against Bandaranayake on Saturday (8) handed over their report to the Speaker, two days after the Chief Justice and her lawyers walked out of proceedings citing a lack of faith in the committee’s ability to grant her a fair trial and just hours after the four Opposition members on the PSC quit saying the process was patently unjust.

The report found her guilty on three counts and declared her innocent of two charges. The PSC summoned many witnesses late on Friday (7) after informing the opposition members and the Chief Justice’s lawyers repeatedly since November that oral evidence would not be led and cross examination would not be permitted. (DB)