Past Bar Association of Sri Lanka president Saliya Peiris has said the present government will one day understand why there is so much opposition to the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, warning that “one must not monkey with the Judiciary”.
Peiris made the remark at a seminar organised by an independent movement called Save our Sovereignty (SOS) in Colombo, Daily Mirror reported.
He illustrated the point with an episode from the J.R. Jayewardene era. “At the time the investigations were going on against late Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike during the time of the late President J.R. Jayewardene, she had told an eminent lawyer that the very judges whom she had once appointed are carrying out a probe against her,” Peiris said. “This lawyer then replied, saying, ‘That is why Madam one should not monkey with the Judiciary.’”
Bandaranaike was stripped of her civic rights in 1980 following a presidential commission inquiry conducted during Jayewardene’s presidency.
Claims of private opposition
Peiris also claimed that almost everyone in the legal fraternity opposes the 22nd Amendment, and alleged that some public supporters of the Bill hold a different view privately.
“Some lawyers who hold press conferences welcoming the legislation have told us that they are against it personally, though they welcome it in public,” he said. “There are Ministers and MPs who silently oppose the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution.”
Daily Mirror carried no response from the government to either claim.
The wider dispute
The remarks add a further voice to a legal-profession campaign against the Bill that has been building since it was tabled in Parliament on August 18. The Bar Association itself has said the amendment requires approval at a referendum and has briefed MPs on its concerns over judicial independence and vacancies on the bench.
Petitions challenging the Bill before the Supreme Court had reached 13 by Friday, with several petitioners likewise asking the Court to rule that the Bill can be passed only at a referendum.
