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Saturday, 5 January 2013

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 SC AND THE PSC - THE BOTTOM LINE

Some NGO whiners and other fellow travellers seem to have got some sea legs after the Supreme Court came out with a ruling to the effect that Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) proceedings on the impeachment of the Chief Justice are 'not valid.' Under the circumstances that the Speaker of the Parliament has stated that such notices are null and void, these sea legs will not take these people anywhere really -- not any further than their voices will carry.

To be charitable, the Supreme Court judgment is tortured - that's with the stress on the word charitable! It is in total, flagrant denial of the fact that the relevant constitutional clause {107(3)} states explicitly that the procedure to investigate misbehaviour charges against a judge is either by process determined by law, or by Standing Orders.

Under these circumstances, if the Legislature once upon a time stood by the Anura Bandaranaike ruling and ignored the Supreme Court ruling passing a writ over it, it is more than certain that the Legislature's disdain on this present ruling will be doubly dismissive. That is rightly so, as no branch of the State has the right to arrogate to itself, powers that it does not possess.

Moreover, there is solid precedent to this matter in the form of the said Bandaranaike ruling anyway, so there is certainly no issue here in terms of the strict legality of the Legislature's position. It is however, important that the country moves on from this situation of some sort of temporary discomfort prevailing between the Legislative branch and the Judicial branch, and builds on this palpable achievement of keeping the integrity of the judiciary intact, despite all of these recent NGO funded shenanigans that worked towards keeping the Judiciary corrupt and manipulated.

There is no doubt that this beating back of an extraneous threat to the country, is comparable with vanquishing the Tamil Tigers. If there was anybody that thought that there would not be war by other means after the Prabhakaran led Tamil Tigers were laid low at the banks of the Nandikadal, such a person would have been in some sort of surreal world of make believe.

A Supreme Court that lacked the required component of integrity, would have been an institution akin to a cancerous tumour in the body politic. The repercussions of such a threat would have been enormous.

Insidiously, the Judicial branch would have acquired the power to chip away at the gains that were made as a result of the rout of the LTTE.

The Divi Neguma Bill was but one indication only. It was delivered despite the fact that there had been an explicit judgment by Justice Mark Fernando that the Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake should not hear cases that deal with the issue of devolution of power.

There is no further need for explanation really. There cannot be two or three centres of executive or legislative power in a country. Certainly, the Divi Neguma decision is not progressive judicial activism by any stretch -- this clear usurpation of the role of the Legislature, by sections of the Judicial branch.

So certainly the issue seems to be far more complex than what those such as S L Gunasekera would probably imagine in their naivete, that nobody could pull the wool over their eyes - the same S L Gunasekera who is a devoted non-devolutionist who would not hear of a 'political solution' let alone devolution as a political panacea!

Constitutional niceties and other niceties in the end all boil down to the level of the irrelevant, when taken in relation to the fact that in the end all this is about a power issue. The anti national NGO led forces seek to make subtle inroads through what they argue are constitutional means, into the territory of governance. Surely, S L Gunasekera even in his monumental naivety would have heard of constitutional coups. Of course S L G is not the point here - it is just that it is funny almost, that a man who on the one hand sees a threat to the country by the Tiger rump and associated external threats, does not have the grey cells to get his head round the elementary nexus between the current power grab through the Judicial branch, and the protection of the Sri Lankan-ness that he so professes to cherish. Fortunately, many others are not unwitting cat's paws the way he is, and they understand the issue with reference to all its bearings and ramifications.

PSC members, not Judges but investigators - Part II :

CJ playing into hands of international saboteurs

The Constitution clearly states that Judicial powers are exercised through Parliament. Even when this is clearly stated in the Constitution an order will be taken by making a law point here and there. Such an order will create conflict and through this conflict the country will be taken to an anarchic situation and destabilized to make it a trump card for the resolution in Geneva next March.

Full Story

UN Special Rapporteur breaches Code of Conduct

As discussed in the editorial of this newspaper on January 3, the comments of the ‘UN Special Rapporteur’ on the independence of judges and lawyers’, a lady by the name of Gabriela Knaul, are based on partisan information she has received from the (foreign) Government Organised Non-Governmental Organisation (GONGO) minders of the chief justice (CJ).

Full Story

Sari and Dhoti politics in Tamil Nadu targets New Delhi

The near country-wide protests against the recent gang rape of the 23 year old medical student at New Delhi has compelled UPA government to act on what is a burning issue, through its moves came too late in the view of most protestors,

Full Story

 

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