CJ buckles under pressure

Pulls out of ceylinco case :

Jayantha De SILVA

Under heavy pressure to refrain from hearing cases while the impeachment hearings in Parliament are set to begin, Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake stepped down from the three Judge Bench of the Supreme Court hearing the Golden Key Shiram case.

Earlier, she appeared to take up the position that there is no harm hearing such cases, and some senior lawyers such as K Kanga-Isvaran had taken the same view, apparently in her support.

Giving the lie to such pre-emptive but obviously flawed observations, the Chief Justice observed during the hearing of the case that on the next call date fixed for December 14 the case will be heard before a reconstituted Bench comprising Justice Gamini Ameratunge, Justice K Sri Pavan and Justice Sathya Hettige.

The Chief Justice is facing flak on one impeachment charge where while hearing the Ceylinco case,

she is alleged to have, with a special power of attorney, purchased a house from the Ceylinco Group of Companies.

However, the Chief Justice if she hears any other cases during the impeachment hearings, will still be going counter to all conventions and expectations of propriety expected from a person facing an impeachment investigation in the Legislature.