Reviving judicial system in North
The Government is
to reactivate the judicial system in the North which had been
lying largely dysfunctional during three decades of
conflict.This while restoring to the full the country’s
established judicial system in those areas will also serve to
speed up the normalization process.
According to news reports, the Justice and Law Reforms
Ministry has undertaken to revive the judicial process in the
Northern Province. Justice and Law Reform Minister Milinda
Moragoda and his officials had already visited the Appeal and
District Court premises in Jaffna last week and met judges,
officials and lawyers in the Jaffna peninsula.
It was also reported that the Minister and his officials have
undertaken special assignments to assess the social background
and to obtain firsthand information on the infrastructure
facilities available in the areas in question.
The Minister should be commended for taking steps to
establish the rule of law in the areas where the writ of the
Government did not run not very long ago. The measures
constitutes an important factor in the ongoing integration
process.
This is indeed a most welcome move and a timely exercise
-inducting the Northerner into the country’s law and order
system after a 30-year hiatus. True, there were courts operating
in pockets of the peninsula but it is doubtful if the judicial
officers had the independence and courage to administer justice
according to their conscience and the laid down procedure.
This is because although these areas may have been Government
held territory, there was always the overarching presence of the
LTTE to contend with. It was a case of the sword of Damocles
hanging over the judges whose judicial pronouncements may have
not been to the liking of the LTTE. There is no doubt that the
judges themselves would have been meted out summery justice
similar to the Kangaroo Court variety operated by the LTTE in
its territory.
What about the population per se? These hapless souls had no
recourse to the established law to obtain redress to their
grievances. On the contrary, they were subjected to arbitrary
edicts of the LTTE where they were forced to fork out money by
way illegal taxes and other levies. An ‘offender’ was meted out
summary justice with no recourse to an appeal process.
They had to watch helplessly as their land, property and
other chattels were appropriated at the whims and pleasure of
their so called liberators. There was no one to turn to when
their children were abducted to be used as cannon fodder. It was
the jungle law that prevailed. Hence it will be a whole new
experience to these hapless souls to be governed under civilised
codes and established legal practices.
No doubt the Minister and his officials will have a gigantic
task on their hands to turn these people into law abiding
citizens in the context that they would not be familiar with the
basic rudiments of the established law as is known to the rest
of the country. It will have to be a learning process.
True, ignorance of the law is no excuse. Therefore it goes
without saying that these people will necessarily have to be put
through careful and systematic induction to our formal legal
system allowing them to feel their way gradually. They should
not be made victims of the new cannons all of a sudden.
Special programs should be charted under expert guidance to
made these people to come out of the vacuum of lawlessness which
was their lot and be part and parcel of the law abiding
civilized society.
The report states that there were no law courts operating in
the Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi districts. A new High Court is to
be set up in Kilinochchi shortly once the recommendations of the
judicial de-limitation commissions are implemented early next
year. It is these two districts that was in the epicentre of the
conflict and the Minister would do well to concentrate all
resources towards the emancipation of these people from the
blackhole of lawlessness and to enlightened beings, guided by
the established legal system, in their day to day affairs and
transactions.
He should enter this process gradually. First there is a lot
to be done in terms of rebuilding the damaged infrastructure.
Destroyed Court houses have to be rebuilt and all facilities
enjoyed by judicial officers should be made available to their
Northern counterparts such as judges’ quarters, vehicles and
housing. The Minister will have to practically build from the
rubble.
He will have to produce the legal practitioners, and judicial
officers. Above all, he has to create the necessary congenial
environment for a vibrant judiciary to function. There is a
mountainous legal backlog waiting to be cleared in the North.
These people have lost much of their land and property and
among the first tasks of the new look judiciary will be to
restore these possessions to their rightly owners under the
established law of the country. This, while evoking confidence
of the people in our judicial system would also increase the
sense of compliance under the new order, greatly helping in the
integration process.
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