Irresponsible utterances made against judiciary

The Prime Minister at the opening of a new Pradeshiya Sabha in Niyagama, Galle has said those who criticize and ridicule the judiciary should be punished, according to a recent news item in the Daily Mirror. He has further said that one can give his or her opinion on a certain judgment but it is not fair to ridicule judges by talking of their ethnic group, religion, caste or creed etc.

What prompted this was a virulent attack a frontline member of the Opposition made recently in Parliament that judges are promoted to superior courts on the basis of their religion, I believe. Surprisingly, the only condemnation of this allegation was from the Bar Association Sri Lanka (BASL) and Attorney-at- Law Kishali Pinto Jayawardane, who writes a column to the Sunday Times on “Focus on Rights”. It is a moot point as to why this unwarranted criticism has slipped the condemnation of the rest of the legal fraternity and the public.

The Sunday Times of February 3, covered the proceedings of the ceremonial sitting of the Supreme Court to welcome the three new judges namely Justices Preethi Padman Surasena, S. Thurairaja and Gamini Rohan Amarasekera to the Supreme Court.

Reading through the speeches made by the three Judges, Attorney General and the President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, one would naturally get the impres- sion that the three judges in question have secured this prestigious position based purely on merit, seniority, intellectual supremacy, unblemished career record and not because of other considerations such as religious, ethnicity etc.

It is a matter for solace that the Bar Association of Sri Lanka has issued a statement unequivocally condemning the derogatory references. BASL has further pointed out that wild allegations levelled against the Judiciary and the three judges are utterly baseless.

Hence, we expect the members of the Opposition to refrain from making vituperative speeches that could lead to religious conflict. Ranasinghe Nugegoda