- District Judges, Magistrates write to JSC over reports of P’ment Privileges Committee potentially summoning SC Judges over interim order on Treasury Secy.
Emphasising that the rule of law, the independence of the Judiciary, and eventually the State mechanism will collapse if Supreme Court (SC) Judges are summoned before the Parliamentary Committee on Ethics and Privileges, the Judicial Service Association (JSA), which represents District Court Judges and Magistrates vowed to take all possible action against any party that obstructs the administration of justice.
The JSA, in a letter signed by its President and Kuliyapitiya District Court Judge, Ruwan Dissanayake and Secretary, Colombo Additional Magistrate, Pasan Amarasena, had informed the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) of its view on the reports that SC Judges who recently issued an interim order regarding the funds allocated for election purposes, are to be summoned before the said Committee. “The three main structures that exercise the sovereign powers of the people, namely, the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary, must maintain a system of checks and balances between each other. We strongly believe that if the Judges who issued an order for the administration of justice with regard to a pending case are summoned before the said Committee, the rule of law and the independence of the Judiciary will be broken, and the next inevitable result will be the collapse of the State mechanism,” the letter, which was seen by The Daily Morning, read. The JSA also stated that its Executive Committee had met on 18 March, and thoroughly discussed the matter which would bring about serious consequences to the process of administering justice.
The letter further read that they had decided to take all possible action to prevent a legal crisis between the Judiciary and the Legislature from emerging. “We would like to inform you that the JSA has taken serious notice of the illegal and anti-traditional effort to summon Judges before the Committee which directly obstructs the process of justice. The Executive Committee of the JSA decided to inform the JSC that it would not hesitate to take all necessary measures against anyone who exerts pressure against maintaining the process of the delivery of justice on behalf of the general public while protecting the independence of the Judiciary,” the letter concluded.
Meanwhile, in response to a query by The Daily Morning, Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reforms Minister, President’s Counsel Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said that he was not aware of any preparation to summon Judges before Parliament. “There were previous instances where the said Committee decided to summon some of the original Court Judges. Once, the Committee was to summon a Magistrate who had issued an arrest warrant against a Parliamentarian despite the fact that a letter related to the matter from the Parliamentary Secretary General had been submitted. At that time, we intervened and solved the situation without summoning that Magistrate. If there is anything we can do, we will look into it.”
After permitting the hearing of a Fundamental Rights petition filed by the main Parliamentary Opposition, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, a three-Judge SC bench comprised of Justices Preethi Padman Surasena, Janak de Silva and Priyantha Fernando issued an interim order on 3 March, on the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, Economic Stabilisation and National Policies and the Treasury, Mahinda Siriwardana, preventing him from withholding the funds allocated through the 2023 Budget for election related purposes. Following the issuance of the interim order, ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Government MP, Attorney Premnath C. Dolawatte raised a matter of privilege in Parliament on 7 March through which he claimed that he sees the said interim order “as a clear breach of the privileges and powers of the Parliament.” While the matter of privilege in question had been referred to the said Parliamentary Committee, it is reported that Judges will be summoned before the relevant Committee, and hence, many parties including politicians, lawyers and other professionals have criticised such preparations, if any.
Source By themorning.lk
