Plaint against former Chief Justice

Petitioner claims Rs. 10m :

Sandasen Marasinghe

A plaint has been filed before the Colombo District Court against former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva alleging that he misused powers vested in him as the Court of Appeal President and as the Chief Justice.

Petitioner B. K. A. Pathmasiri Balasuriya of Bahirawakanda, Kandy, citing Sarath N. Silva as the defendant, alleged that the former Chief Justice with the support of judges in the Lower Courts kept him in remand custody for 294 days and claimed Rs. 10 million as damages. Plaintiff Pathmasiri Balasuriya said that Sarath N. Silva did this to get the avenge of the embarrassment Balasuriya had caused to the former Chief Justice when the Plaintiff went before the Supreme Court and obtained an order against Silva's order delivered when he was Court of Appeal President. Balasuriya filing the plaint before the Colombo District Court said he filed a case against a leading Buddhist monk in Kandy over a land dispute and cheating before the Kandy Magistrate in 1992.

The Plaintiff stated that when the case dragged on for a number of days, he had filed an appeal in the Court of Appeal to get the case transferred to the Colombo Magistrate court Subsequently, the Court of Appeal transferred it to Colombo. But when he went to the Kandy Magistrate Court to inform the order of the Court of Appeal, the then Kandy Magistrate observed that he had misled the Court of Appeal.

The Plaintiff said at this stage, Sarath N. Silva was the then President of the Court of Appeal, and he called the plaintiff's appeal again before him and cancelled the earlier order which had transferred the case to Colombo and scolded him alleging that he had misled the Court of Appeal. Then the case was transferred to the Kandy District Court. During this period the Defendant, former District Judge A.L. Abeyratne had met the Thera involved in the land matter.

The petitioner stated that he thought the case would not be heard fairly and made an appeal before the Supreme Court and obtained an order once again to hear the land case in Colombo.

The plaintiff stated that when he filed a fundamental rights application against his arrest, it was taken up before the then Chief Justice, Sarath N. Silva. Sarath N. Silva dismissed the case even without giving an opportunity to make any submissions and he scolded Balasuriya leveling various allegations against him.