CJ’s lawyers to Speaker: Set up impartial committee to probe impeachment

Saturday, 8 December 2012 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Dharisha Bastians

Lawyers for Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake have called on Speaker of Parliament Chamal Rajapaksa to defer the impeachment probe until an independent committee is appointed to look into the matter.

The letter to the Speaker from Attorneys-at-Law, Neelakandan and Neelakandan said: “In the interests of the Judiciary and in the interests of the country and in the interests of our Client, we request that our Client be given the opportunity of vindicating herself before an independent and impartial tribunal.”

The appeal to the Speaker comes a day after the Chief Justice and her lawyers exited Parliamentary Select Committee sittings citing a lack of faith in the proceedings. Yesterday, the four Opposition representatives on the Select Committee set up to probe the impeachment quit the committee, saying the process was flawed and profoundly unjust.

“The people of the country (the sovereign) have an inalienable right that their Chief Justice be given, a fair trial by an independent and impartial tribunal in keeping with the universally accepted rules and norms,” Neelakandan and Neelakandan said. (See box for full statement)

Meanwhile, the Lawyers’ Collective issuing a media release on Thursday night said that Chief Justice Bandaranayake had walked out of the Parliamentary Select Committee “in protest in the face of hostile and biased conduct of the Government members of the PSC so as to ensure the dignity of the Judiciary of Sri Lanka”.

The Collective said that the Chief Justice was expected to refute allegations that had not even been supported by evidence. “In almost all instances the same members of the PSC, who were in majority, overruled the submissions made on behalf of the Chief Justice without cogent reasons and often without any prior consultation with the other members,” the lawyers said in a statement.

The media release said that Bandaranayake’s lawyers had been handed about 1,000 pages of documents on Thursday to be perused by 1:30 p.m. yesterday with the Chief Justice ready to respond.

“In addition to the above, at various stages of the proceedings of the PSC, two members hurled abuse at the Chief Justice and her lawyers and it became evident that these members had been mandated to ridicule the Head of the Judiciary and the legal profession,” the Lawyers Collective said.

The release added that lawyers for the Chief Justice had requested as far back as 20 November to furnish the information required to reply the allegations.

“This information was never provided. When the PSC commenced sitting on 23 November 2012 learned Counsel for the Chief Justice requested that a list of witnesses and a list of documents relied upon in support of the allegations be made available. It is common knowledge that even in a disciplinary inquiry in the public service or a trivial criminal case that a respondent or accused is furnished with a list of witnesses and documents so that they could prepare for the defence,” the collective added. (See box for full statement)