Govt. usurps judicial power to decide merits and demerits of court cases: Eran

SJB Opposition Parliamentarian Eran Wickramaratne alleged that the government is trying to usurp judicial power to decide the merits and demerits of the court cases while suppressing the opposition by way of depriving their civic rights.

Taking part in the Parliamentary debate on the report of the Commission of Inquiry on political victimization last week, MP Wickramaratne noted that this is the first time such a resolution being brought to Parliament with cabinet approval.

“We know that it is only the judicial bodies that can discharge or acquit those who are being accused. Nobody else can do this. This resolution is positively against the separation of powers. Over the past 30 to 40 years never has such a resolution come before this parliament and should have been correctly ordered out of the order book by the Speaker. I am afraid that the Secretary-General of Parliament and his department should have advised the Speaker that it should not have been tabled,” the Opposition MP said.

Moreover, some of these cases that have been brought and mentioned in the commission have already been challenged in the Appellate Courts by those directly affected by the findings, he noted.  “These challenges that are ongoing. Above all this resolution cannot be implemented in anyway except by the Courts of Law,”

For example, he pointed out tht there are about 90 cases here that were instituted by the Attorney General and his department during that period. At that time the AG was His Lordship Jayantha Jayasuriya who is the Chief Justice of the country presently.

“What are we actually saying? By acting in such a way, we are actually indirectly moving a no-confidence in the current Chief Justice of the Country. This is what this government is doing by actually tabling such a resolution when they should not be tabling such a resolution. Because those cases were instituted by the AG at that time who happens to be His Lordship the Chief Justice of the country presently. I think this government hasn’t really thought through this. This is a very unfortunate incident,” he told the Parliament.

He also noted that the conduct of these political victimization commission questions the independent functioning of the court and Tribunals, as well as the public trust in the legal system, is being questioned.