Petition on JSC resignations
Senior lawyers in Sri Lanka have urged a parliamentary probe on the recent resignations of two members of the Judicial Services Commission (JSC).
Senior Counsel Elmo Perera has filed a Fundamental Rights petition to the Supreme Court asking for the authorities to fill the vacancies in the JSC created by the resignations of two senior judges. The legislature is responsible to look into the claims made by two of the most senior judges in the country, he told BBC Sandeshaya. “If two members out of the three in JSC, the highest judicial authority in the country, say that they cannot work with a conscience, there is something seriously wrong,” he added. The three-member JSC has been made dysfunctional after the resignation of justices Shirani Bandaranaike and TB Weerasooriya. The two senior judges have sent a letter of resignation to President Mahinda Rajapaksa saying they could not carry out duties to their conscience. Chief Justice Sarath Nanda Silva is the chairperson and the remaining member of the JSC. Counsel Elmo Fernando recalled that justice Bandaranaike was appointed twice as the acting chief justice in 2004 but nobody was appointed to the post when CJ Silva left the country twice last year. “But this year somebody else, the fifth most senior judge in the Supreme Court, was suddenly appointed as the acting CJ,” he told bbcsinhala.com. He questions whether it is worth to seek judicial remedy if the judiciary, where the public usually approach to rectify matters related to unjust appointments, commits the same violations.