The Gampaha Magistrate who asked the Court of Appeal to open contempt proceedings against the Inspector General of Police has been transferred out of his court — and the order came shortly after he submitted his observations on a complaint the IGP had lodged against him.

Magistrate Bandula Gunaratne has been moved to the Judges’ Training Institute, the Daily Mirror reported. The transfer was ordered by Judicial Service Commission (JSC) Secretary Prasanna Alwis.

Hiru News, filing in Sinhala, reported that the magistrate was notified by a letter bearing the JSC Secretary’s signature on Friday the 6th.

The sequence, as the Daily Mirror sets it out

The Daily Mirror gives the order of events, and it is the order that makes this a story rather than a routine posting.

  1. Gunaratne directed the IGP to issue a circular instructing police officers not to institute frivolous proceedings against innocent members of the public.
  2. Alleging the IGP had failed to comply, the magistrate asked the President of the Court of Appeal to initiate contempt proceedings against him — saying the failure had brought the judiciary into disrepute.
  3. The IGP then lodged a complaint with the JSC against Magistrate Gunaratne, and the Commission called for the magistrate’s observations.
  4. The transfer order was issued shortly after the magistrate submitted those observations.

That fourth step is the whole of the news. The Daily Mirror does not assert a causal link between the complaint and the transfer, and neither does this desk. What is reported is the timing.

What preceded it

This desk covered the original referral on 21 October: the magistrate sent the case files to the Court of Appeal after the police answered an order for a nationwide circular with guidelines covering only the Gampaha, Kelaniya and Negombo divisions, issued by a Deputy Inspector General rather than by the IGP. The magistrate said that appeared to be an attempt to mislead the court.

The underlying case was the prosecution of a Makandana man on two drug charges filed against him on the same day, which the court found baseless. It ordered three officers and the Police Department to pay him Rs. 200,000 in compensation, and directed the circular as a service-wide remedy. On the reporting available then, the circular had not been issued.

The IGP is Priyantha Weerasooriya. The President of the Court of Appeal, to whom the files were sent, is Nalin Rohantha Abeysooriya, PC.

A successor is named the same day

Within two hours of the transfer filing, both newsrooms reported the replacement.

Kosala Senadheera has been appointed the new Chief Magistrate of Gampaha by the JSC, the Daily Mirror reported, on an appointment letter signed by Secretary Prasanna Alwis and issued on 6 November. He is to assume duties on Monday 9 November.

Hiru News reported the appointment in identical terms — the JSC, the Secretary’s signature, the letter issued the same day, and the Monday start.

Two discrepancies worth recording

The effective date of the transfer. The Daily Mirror says Gunaratne has been moved “with immediate effect.” Hiru says the transfer takes effect from the 9th. Both outlets agree his successor starts on Monday the 9th, which makes Hiru’s version internally consistent — out on the 9th, in on the 9th — and leaves the Daily Mirror’s “immediate effect” implying a gap in the Gampaha chair over the weekend. No filing resolves this, and this desk is not choosing between them.

The title. Gunaratne is described throughout as the Gampaha Magistrate, and by the Daily Mirror as the “incumbent Magistrate” whose transfer the new appointment follows. Senadheera is appointed Chief Magistrate of Gampaha. Both newsrooms carry this asymmetry, in both languages, and neither explains whether the two refer to the same post.

Not reported

No filing gives an official reason for the transfer. None reports any comment from the JSC beyond the fact of the order, from the IGP or the police on the complaint to the Commission, or from Magistrate Gunaratne.

None states what the IGP’s complaint to the JSC alleged, when it was lodged, when the Commission called for observations, or when the magistrate filed them — only that the transfer followed. None says whether the Court of Appeal has taken up the contempt files, set a date, or made any order, and none reports whether the nationwide circular has since been issued or whether the Rs. 200,000 compensation has been paid.

Neither outlet reports what becomes of the cases pending before Gunaratne in Gampaha, including the matter that produced the contempt referral.

A caution on searching this story. A separate contempt proceeding concerning the police leadership and MP Wimal Weerawansa is recorded at Contempt probe over the IGP’s conduct. Different court, different magistrate, different case. No filing links the two, and this desk is not linking them.

On sourcing. Two verified newsrooms filed independently on the transfer and two on the appointment, agreeing on the magistrate, the destination, the JSC, the Secretary’s name, the successor and his start date, and differing only on the effective date noted above. Ada Derana also carried the transfer, but its site has returned a block to this desk on every route attempted for more than a month and could not be fetched, so it is not cited here. A transfer is an administrative act and is not a finding against anyone.

Sources