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Chief Justice to be impeached

by Chatura Vidyaratne

Ending months of procrastination and misgivings, the Government has finally decided to impeach Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva.

It had by yesterday secured the necessary number of MPs' signatures required to validate its presentation to Parliament. The impeachment document will be presented to the House on Thursday.

Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva

According to Government sources, the Impeachment Motion will include various charges and allegations of misconduct made against the Chief Justice in various quarters. This is the first time that an Impeachment Motion against a Chief Justice had gone before Parliament.

Meanwhile the Government has decided to raise a privilege issue in Parliament against the impending determination by the Supreme Court whereby the President had sought its opinion on the validity of a Gazette Notice issued by Defence Minister Tilak Marapana two years ago.

The Government has called for a ruling by the Speaker on such a determination by the Supreme Court.

The Government has also decided to quote from the ruling made to Parliament by former Speaker Anura Bandaranaike challenging the powers of the Supreme Court vis-a- vis Parliament, when the Privilege Issue is raised concerning the Supreme Court's opinion regarding the Gazette notification issued by Minister Marapana.

The Government has decided to accord priority to the matter of the Impeachment and the opinion of the Supreme Court pertaining to the Gazette notification. In addition, it has been decided to include in the Impeachment Motion certain comments made by Chief Justice Silva during the court proceedings that sought to determine on the President's request in respect of the Gazette notification issued by Minister Marapana.

Sources claim that the Chief Justice while hearing submissions on the matter, had gone on to criticise the Government's conduct and indirectly tried to cast aspersions on the Government-LTTE ceasefire agreement.

The Government is of the view that it could not permit a situation where the country would once again be dragged into a war, the sources said adding that the Impeachment Motion was meant to protect the independence of the Judiciary and that of Parliament.

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