‘President has 72 hours for change of heart’

By Dharisha Bastians

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has 72 hours to have a change of heart and realise that the damage being done to the country by pushing through with the impeachment process will be more debilitating than terrorism, President’s Counsel and UNP Provincial Councillor Srinath Perera said yesterday.

“We have no choice left but to pray that the President will somehow be made aware of the critical juncture we are at,” the senior lawyer said.

He explained that terrorism was a blight because it destroyed dozens of lives at a time, but the impeachment of the Chief Justice, if proceeded with, would take away an entire country’s rights in one fell swoop.

Perera was addressing these sentiments at the Forum with Eran, a panel discussion usually moderated by UNP National List MP Eran Wickremaratne. However, yesterday’s Sinhala language forum on the topic ‘Separation of Powers between the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary: The True Story’ was moderated by Attorney-at-Law Suren Fernando because the controversial Divi Neguma Bill was being taken up for vote in Parliament. The other panellist present was Head of the Department of Law of the Peradeniya University Dr. Deepika Udugama.

Dr. Udugama said that the best way out of the crisis facing the country today was provided in the Supreme Court ruling on the interpretation of Article 107 (3) of the Constitution pertaining to the removal of judges of the superior courts that was delivered on 3 January.

“The Supreme Court recommends the passing of legislation that will set up a process of inquiry that is independent and will secure all the rights of the judge under investigation,” she said.

Dr. Udugama said that once this law was passed, these charges against the present Chief Justice can be brought for investigation under that law, paving a way out of the crisis. If there had been an independent and fair procedure stipulated by the Standing Orders pertaining to the investigation of judges, this crisis would never have come about, she explained.

According to Dr. Udugama, this crisis is one of our collective making. “With all due respect to the Judiciary, now is the time to wonder what we were all doing when the 18th Amendment was deemed constitutional and passed into law. So in some ways, we have dug our own graves, by not recognising injustice and wayward legislation when it was before our eyes – and that applies to all of us – the bar, the bench, civil society, academics and the general public,” she said.

Meanwhile, Perera said that a new chief justice appointment was likely to be made on 14 January after the removal papers are served on Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, but that appointment would have no basis in law, because the process to remove the incumbent had been made void by the Court.