Judicial system

From the day on which Rizana was arrested on a false charge of murder to the day of her execution, seven years elapsed. During this time, if proper diplomatic effort was made with the required seriousness, the life of this young girl could have been saved. The following are some of the reasons for the […]

Lawyers Collective Press Release 9th January 2012 Ignoring the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal judgments, Parliament will debate the Impeachment against the Chief Justice tomorrow – Thursday 10th January. The Executive and Parliament have jointly decided to proceed with the impeachment, notwithstanding the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal determination holding it to be […]

Sri Lankan teenager Rizana Nafeek arrived in Saudi Arabia to work as a house maid when she was 17 years of age. ‘Our family was having hardships and so our eldest daughter volunteered to go and work abroad to send money home,’ the father Mohammed Sultan Nafeek, a wood cutter from Muthur, Trincomalee, said in […]

The Court of Appeal in Sri Lanka has issued a writ of Certiorari, declaring that the determination and the findings and/or the decision or the report of the Parliamentary Select Committee constituted to impeach the incumbent Chief Justice of Sri Lanka is unconstitutional, illegal and is therefore quashed. The decision ends all legal basis of […]

Today, January 8, is the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lasantha Wickrematunge. Lasantha Wickrematunge was one of the best known journalists and the editor of the Sunday Leader, a newspaper critical of the government. Despite the enormous publicity generated by this broad daylight assassination both locally and internationally, the government has refused to conduct […]

The judiciary of Bangladesh is struggling to be an independent institution, free from executive control since the inception of the country. This struggle was formally exposed when a group of judicial officers led by Mr. Masdar Hossain – currently a District and Sessions’ Judge – took the matter to the High Court Division in 1995. […]

A government’s spokesman, Minister Vimal Weerawansa, was quoted in the BBC Sinhala Service today saying that the judges who have issued summons on the Parliamentary Select Committee will be called before the parliament to answer under the parliamentary privilege provisions of the constitution. He went on to say, “Now NGO fellows will catch Shirani Bandaranayake […]

Predictably, Government propaganda hitmen wasted little time in rushing to condemn the Supreme Court’s most extraordinary and exceptional Determination this week that the parliamentary impeachment of a superior court judge has to be determined by law and not by Standing Orders. The level to which this Government has deteriorated was amply seen by the fact […]

Sarath Nanda Silva is heavily quoted in SLBC programmes trying to criticize the Supreme Court judgment relating to the question on the interpretation of law referred to it by Court of Appeal. He says that the Supreme Court has not properly interpreted the words “or standing orders” as found in Article 107(3) of the constitution. […]

Kindly see below link to a petition relating to the Government proposal to impeach Chief Justice based on PSC report which is illegal in terms of the judgment of the Supreme Court issued as an opinion to the Court of Appeal of Sri Lanka. Kindly see full judgment at here Kindly click here to sign the petition There’s […]

AHRC declares a week of concern for threats against the independence of the judiciary in Sri Lanka The Asian Human Rights Commission alerts all concerned persons in and outside of Sri Lanka to the possibility that a five days from now there may not be a judiciary that can exercise judicial power with independence in […]

According to the news received from Saudi Arabia Rizana Nafeek, who has been the Dawadami Prison since 2005 may be executed at any moment. This was revealed to the BBC Sinhala Service by Dr. Kifaya Iftekhar, who is based in Saudi Arabia and who has been looking after the interests of Rizana for several years […]

The Supreme Court in its decision made on January 1, 2013 finally put the debate on the issue of the impeachment of the Chief Justice to rest by providing the following answer to the question referred to it by the Court of Appeal. In view of the reasons we have set out above we answer […]

The brutal incident of rape in New Delhi, the death of the victim and the public response to the issue has brought to the forefront several vital issues plaguing India. Of primary concern were three aspects (i) the nature and frequency of violence, committed against the vulnerable sections of the society, most importantly women; (ii) […]

The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, marking perhaps the greatest day of its 200 year history, today declared in a historic opinion that the Standing Order of the parliament, bearing no. 78/A, is null and void and has no effect in law. By this opinion, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka has nullified the impeachment […]

The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) is concerned at the circumstances surrounding the impeachment of the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, Shirani Bandaranayake, and at reports of attacks against the judiciary and the legal profession within Sri Lanka. The independence of the judiciary and the rule of law  The independence of […]

We have self-made our destabilization. We are destabilizing ourselves and blaming others for destabilizing us. Our recent history is a history of decay. With each year, we are destabilized more than the previous year; our social organization has decayed more than the  previous year. Let us take our parliament, our police, our prosecutor’s  department (Attorney […]

Basil Fernando The state media continues their non-stop misinformation campaign on the impeachment move by the government. Several ministers also participated in this media campaign. The central topics of the campaign are that it is the charges that are important, and not the process – meaning that whether the inquiry took place by a competent […]

“The court system is skewed against ordinary folk,” says Malinda Seneviratne, writing a comment on my last article. His argument is that the people will not defend the courts as the court system is skewed against the people. However, people do have a reason to defend even the highly inadequate and problem ridden justice system […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a man was burned alive by an enraged mob while he was in the custody of the police, held on the charge of blasphemy. The man was taken into the custody of the police and was kept in a police station overnight. The […]