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Resistance against any new CJ grows
View(s):Boycott new appointee: BASL urges judges; Lanka faces Commonwealth questioning
The Bar Council, the main policy making body of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), yesterday endorsed a decision by its Executive Committee to support a demand by senior lawyers to Supreme Court Judges.
It is calling upon them not to sit with a new Chief Justice who will be appointed by the Government nor receive him.
The Council also decided that BASL President Wijayadasa Rajapaksha and senior members seek urgent meetings both with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake. This is to ascertain whether there was common ground to bring about a settlement even though it was late.
On Friday, eminent lawyers in a letter to superior court judges urged them not to sit with any new CJ as the appointment would be illegal and unconstitutional in terms of Supreme Court and Court of Appeal rulings.
Meanwhile, Canada is pressing for the Chief Justice’s impeachment to be discussed at the next meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) in what could be a precursor to getting Sri Lanka onto its agenda.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Canada had strongly supported resolutions at both the United Nations and the Commonwealth condemning the Sri Lankan Government’s “lack of action on reconciliation and the country’s disturbing slide in human rights”.
“Canada is pushing for this latest troubling development to be addressed at the next meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), of which Minister Baird is a member,” said a statement, issued just hours after Parliament voted to impeach Chief Justice Bandaranayake.Canada has repeatedly threatened to boycott this year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Hambantotal unless Sri Lanka showed marked improvement in its rights record.
On January 7, Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney said at the conclusion of a visit to Colombo that Canada wanted to see a successful CHOGM. “But as host of the event, Sri Lanka is under close scrutiny for its adherence to Commonwealth values and principles,” he stressed.
Minister Baird’s statement —which called on the Sri Lankan Government to “change its course immediately”—indicates that Canada will work harder towards highlighting Sri Lanka’s abuses of Commonwealth principles.
A diplomatic source told the Sunday Times, “There is no doubt that if the Chief Justice is dismissed, CHOGM will be called into question.”
“Sri Lanka will go down the CMAG path,” he predicted, requesting anonymity. “And how can one envisage a situation where the CHOGM host country is on the CMAG agenda?”
To be on the CMAG agenda is considered internationally to be a “shame”. This source confirmed that Canada would be “the driving force behind putting Sri Lanka on CMAG.
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