Litigants condemn Court desertion

Activities in many of the Courts were severely affected yesterday and the litigants faced many difficulties due to the sudden unannounced action by the judges to abandon some of the Court houses to attend a meeting in Colombo.  

The Secretary to the Commission Mr. Manjula Thilakarathne on the advice of the Chief Justice Mrs. Shirani Bandaranaike has requested the Judges and the Magistrates to attend this meeting.  

Some judges/magistrates expressing dissatisfaction have said that since this decision to call the meeting had been taken on Sunday which was a holiday they had to attend the meeting by taking leave.

Reports from the provinces that many court houses were closed yesterday but some of them functioned.  Unknowing that the Courts will be closed yesterday several thousand people who came from faraway places to attend to face their cases scheduled for yesterday have faced much inconvenience and have incurred unnecessary expenditure.  Many of the lawyers have also criticized the meeting saying that it will not make an acceptable precedent. Reports also said that some of the disgruntled litigants even staged demonstration against the desertion of Court house by the judges.  

The Judges meeting has called for an impartial and transparent inquiry into the allegations leveled against Chief Justice Mrs. Shirani Bandaranayake and accused the media of tarnishing the image of the Chief Justice and the judiciary. They have requested media institutions to put an end statement insulting the country’s judiciary.  

Meanwhile, the Former Chief Justice Sarath Nanda Silva told the media that there was no tradition in this country of calling the District Judges and the Magistrates together for a meeting.(niz)