Justice

The road to prevent future conflicts :

Sarath Malalasekera

Excerpts of the speech by Chief Justice Asoka de Silva after opening the new combined Court House in Muttur recently

The test of a civilized government is the efficiency of its judicial system. This Muttur Magistrate Court has helped to give people of this district for nearly half a century impartial administration of justice. Justice is the cement of society. It is that which holds the society together,

Justice, a binding tool

Justice is our only security against private vengeance and armed rebellion. Law is its instrument, and it holds the community together. The aim of all law is the protection of liberty of the individual so as to afford scope for self-expression and self-development.

The Muttur District Judge has just given us a brief but interesting account of the origin and growth of this institution, its past glory, its great traditions and its present position. The eminent judges and great lawyers of this Magistrate Court made it illustrious and it is our hope that the great names will inspire all those connected with this institution to strive to live up to the standards so well established.

The main causes for miscarriage of justice is when Court enters into conflicts with the executive government and take sides in the divisions and fractions that prevail in the executive government. When judges play politics, justice suffer. We have suffered enough in this country due to the ethnic conflict, which had not failed to leave its scars in Mutur district. Conflicts often arise from the failure of a State’s legal system to protect rights and punish perpetrators of human rights violations.

Discrimination, corruption and abuse of power by law enforcement officials, and the military, fuel and exacerbate conflicts and make it even harder to achieve reconciliation after the conflict. A judge or a legal community must embrace certain ethics and beliefs about their role in society.

History shows that time cures many ills and brings about reconciliations which previously seemed impossible. Time has now come for us all to feel that we are members of one whole and that whatever hurts any individual hurts others. It is true the world is getting closer and anything that happens anywhere affects all other parts of the world, but any kind of world reconstruction can take place only with individual reformation. From small beginnings we have to grow to the realization of our ideals.

Causes and cure

As members belonging to a noble profession and responsible for maintenance of the rule of law and administration of justice, we must not tolerate any kind of corruption, nepotism and communal prejudices and conflicts which are to be found so much all over our country and which have brought down this country again and again to a state of degradation. We know the causes, we know the cure, and all that we have to do is to take the advice of our past seers, whatever religion they may belong to. They ask us to work for unity. Democracy must betaken seriously.

In general, the members of our Bench and Bar have been noted for their integrity, independence and impartiality, qualities which we require today when the common citizen looks to our Supreme Court for the protection of his fundamental rights and liberties.They have set an example of interracial and inter-communal unity.

If you take democracy in the proper sense of them, it is tolerating of differences, it is accepting the variety of the world as something to be encouraged and not as something to be destroyed or obliterated. If you have differences, they have to be settled by peaceful methods. We talk about democracy but when it comes to any particular thing, we prefer a man belonging to our community or religion or cast. So long as we have this kind temptation, it means our democracy is phoney kind democracy.

We must be in a position to respect a man as a man and to extend opportunities for development of those who deserve them and not those people who happen to belong to our community or race. This fact or favouritism, nepotism, has been responsible for much discontent and ill will in our own country.

If anyone asks us why we suffer, we need not point to the stars above or say that god has punished us. We have to put it down to our iniquities, our disloyalties and our deviations from the ideals which we profess. We have the best ideals inscribed and embodied in our Constitution, but how many of us are carrying them out properly?

It is my earnest desire that those associated with this Magistrate and District Courts will in their conduct follow these traditions.