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Constitutional Council refuses to give extension of service to AG Sanjay Rajaratnam

The Constitutional Council has rejected the proposal for another extension of service to Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam.

President Ranil Wickramasinghe had proposed this service extension and although the Constituent Council met recently, it was not possible to take a final decision.

However, the council that met today has rejected the President’s proposal.

This service extension has been proposed in the background of the fact that Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam is scheduled to retire on the 26 of June.

It was reported that the real reason for giving the relevant service extension was the desire to appoint Sanjay Rajaratnam as the next Chief Justice, from the end of the tenure of the current Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya.

Below is a note we wrote about it.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has shamelessly tried to abuse the tragedy of the Easter Sunday terror attack to influence the law and judiciary of this country. Now it has been revealed this is one of the Ranil’s ugliest attempts at democracy in the country.

Ranil is caught in the act of taking his pants off when he is ready to abuse the independence of the judiciary. Ranil’s disgraceful attempt is to blame the great tragedy of the Easter Sunday attack using the Catholic religious co-orporation for this act of abuse, which Sagala Ratnayake, Saman Ekanayake and Sanjay Rajaratnam were ready to do.

What is Ranil’s latest abuse allegations?

1. The tenure of the current Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam is scheduled to end on June 27. That means he has less than a month.

2. The tenure of the current Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya is scheduled to end in December.

3. Now the President, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has sent a proposal to the Constitutional Council to extend the service period of the Attorney General.

4. Generally, when the post of Chief Justice becomes vacant, there is a tradition of appointing the Attorney General to the chief justice post. In some of those cases, Attorney Generals who worked for the wishes of the executive were made Chief Justices and they became a part of political conspiracies.
5. Sarath N. When Silva was appointed as the Chief Justice, the Ravaya newspaper published a story with black color on its front page saying ‘The funeral of judicial independence’. In some cases, the Attorney Generals who worked for the best interest of the government in power have been appointed as Chief Justice in crucial times.

6. So, there are times when the Attorney General behaves as the President wants while waiting to become the Chief Justice.

7. It is said that now the Attorney General is being extended with a plan to appoint him as the next Chief Justice. This goes beyond the appointment of the Attorney General, and a Chief Justice with an extension of service strictly politicizing the post of Chief Justice and extending service to a retiring Attorney General sets a very dangerous precedent.

8. The Colombo Telegraph website has written an even more terrifying story. As we do not want to face accusations of contempt of court, that story will not be written here. However, it states that if the extension of the Attorney General’s service is challenged in court, the President will not hesitate to influence the court as well.

10. The President is already acting in a dictatorial manner in relation to other appointments in the High Court. He is confronting with the Constitutional Council as well 

There are now four vacant positions in the Supreme Court. In another month or two, there will be five vacancies. There are five vacancies in the Court of Appeal as well. Since he was not allowed to appoint the people he wanted, the President can arbitrarily remain without making any appointments to those two higher courts which would start a serious mess in the courts.

Earlier, when Deshbandu Tennakone was appointed as the Inspector General of Police, the President and Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena violated the proper provisions of the Constitution. To put the complex matter simple, the Inspector General of Police was appointed by counting the abstained votes as valid votes and sending a letter asking them to count the Speaker’s vote if they wished.

So, within a few months, President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is to be kicked out of the government forever by the people, is currently exerting his undue influence on a number of appointments before he leaves.

To govern a country properly, not only the president, prime minister, ministers and parliament, but also who is in the top positions of the country is important. How can a country survive if someone like Deshbandu Tennakoon is the Inspector General of Police? However, as we said earlier, the position of Chief Justice is the most important position for the existence of a country as much as the position of public representatives.

Who will be the next president? We all talk about it. Everyone is trying to appoint a progressive executive who thinks for the people. Why, even in the next general election, the people are dreaming to eliminate half of the politicians who are jumping here and there. The people are thinking how the executive and the legislature can be changed. 

But, there is another problem that is crying in our mind. Who is the next leader of the judiciary in this country? The people can change the executive and the legislature in the general election. But can the Chief Justice of the judiciary cannot be changed?

People cannot influence the judiciary.

Today’s society has not created the space to criticize or raise a word against the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. There are new laws on contempt of court. Even if a word is said, it will be interpreted as an insult to the court. We know about different judges. Judges are also human beings. Humans have opinions. Those ideas belong to different ideologies. That is why we usually ask before a case who the judge is. But, journalists like us are prevented from discussing such topics. That is why, even if a person who is a pro government ally or a disreputed person after sitting on a judge’s bench in the Supreme Court, there is no space for any critique. But, the Supreme Court has the power to change history. The Supreme Court is capable of stopping historical disasters and possible to approve historical destruction.

Due to the progressiveness of the SUpreme court judges and appeal court judges in some countries, the countries have undergone massive transformations. It is through such a discussion that the judiciary is better connected with the people.

As we briefly stated above, the President had tried to argue that the decision to extend the service to Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam was because he was in the committee to coordinate the future activities with the Bishops’ Hoard related to the Easter Sunday attack investigations. President Ranil had said this when he met a group of MPs on Thursday, May 30. Actually, the President had said this when Vajira Abeywardena and Premanath Dolawatta raised a question to the President.

It had been said that the report of the presidential commission appointed after the Easter Sunday attack had been forwarded to Harold Perera, the chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Council of Sri Lanka and Bishop of Kurunegala, and a committee had been set up for discussions.

The President said that a group of people including President’s Secretary Saman Ratnayake, Sagala Ratnayake who behaves like the Prime Minister and Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam were appointed in that committee. 

The President has stated that he has decided to extend the service of the Attorney General as it will take more time to study this matter if a new Attorney General is appointed.

This story was published in the Dinamina newspaper as well. Alas, two years after the arrival of the innocent president, a committee for the victims of Easter Sunday have been lamed. The President, who made the notorious Deshbandu Tennakoon the Inspector General of Police, who has clearly failed to prevent the Easter attack, is trying to retain Sanjay Rajaratnam as the Attorney General to do justice to the Easter Sunday terror attack. Who believes these craps?

However, the Catholic Bishops’ House issued an announcement saying that the statements claiming to be made by its institution are false, malicious and misleading.

Also, the Bishops’ House has written in the announcement that they deny Sanjay Rajaratnam was present in the discussions with the Bishops’ House. The announcement states that the Bishops’ House did not have such a special conversation or coordination with the Attorney General. Accordingly, the Bishops’ House has said they are bizarred that  this is used to extend the service of the retiring Attorney General.

“We are appalled at the statement that the President is using the Easter Sunday attack and the Catholic Bishops’ House of Sri Lanka to justify this extension.

We would like to express deep concern and displeasure over the failure of Attorney General Rajaratnam, who was appointed as the Attorney General on 26 May 2021, to implement the recommendations of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry’s final report on the Easter Sunday attack in the last 36 months.

During Attorney General’s Rajaratnam’s tenure, the Catholic Church wrote to the Attorney General to do justice to the victims of the Easter Sunday attack.

We strongly declare that the Catholic Bishops’ House of Sri Lanka has absolutely nothing to do with the extension of the Attorney General’s tenure.

The Catholic Bishop House condemned the intention of the President to request an extension of his tenure by using the Easter Sunday attack and involving the Catholic Bishops’ House of Sri Lanka”

The real problem here is the contrast between the character played by Ranil Wickremesinghe and the real Ranil Wickremesinghe. Ranil is really a very cheap man, not second to Mahinda Rajapaksa. However, the Rajapaksa’s make their illegal appointments, political appointments openly. 

After the appointment is done, it is not pretended that there are serious reasons behind it. We appoint the people we want, and they do them with the feeling that we are the same.

Ranil would you like to play the role of a democratic ruler Ranil wants to play the role of a liberal – human rights defender – constitutional ruler despite the fact that the crimes committed by Ranil in Bataland in the 90s have been exposed in the Colombo court itself he creates arguments for everything he does.

Dear Ranil, if you want to appoint the Attorney General to the post of Chief Justice, do it. There is no need for fake acting. You are an idiotic authoritarian ruler, not an advanced progressive ruler. From Bataland to the fate of your own party, from the imprisonment of Wasantha Mudaligela to the suppression of the struggle, your perverse dictatorship is exposed. There is no character left to play.

The other thing we like to emphasize is the vacancies of judges. There should be 20 judges in the Court of Appeal. According to Article 137 of the Constitution, there should be a minimum of 7 and a maximum of 20 judges in the Court of Appeal. Currently there are only 15 judges. Normally all 20 judges should be appointed.

According to Article 119 of the Constitution, there should be between 6 and 17 judges of the Supreme Court. But now there are only 13 judges. Accordingly, there are vacancies for four posts. Judge Vijith Mallalgoda is scheduled to retire by August. By that time the number of vacancies will increase to 5.

The impact of this is enormous. The amount of work judges have to do is too much. Several senior lawyers explained this to us.

For example, usually after a trial at a bar in the High Courts, if someone goes for an appeal, that appeal comes to the Supreme Court. Then five judges will be assigned to the task.

When five out of 13 judges leave, only eight judges remain. It is difficult for the Supreme Court judges to sit on the bench for five days because Supreme Court judges must read the law very broadly and write final judgments. It is not like the judges in a High Court or a District Court give orders from time to time. Cases that have dragged on for decades, after considering many factors, long judgements have to be written.

Due to this situation, a Supreme Court judge used to hear the case two days a week. The remaining three days are devoted to writing judgments. Judges should also go to foreign training and conferences etc. for the sake of standards Supreme Court judges should be on duty after resting. As the amount of work increases, the standard and quality of the judgments may decrease.

Now the government is bringing very dangerous bills twice a week. Citizens file petitions against them in large numbers. Severe human rights violations are increasing in the country. They file petitions. As the Supreme Court becomes a place where the public come and go regularly, judges get busy. Judiciary is tired and weakened by not filling vacancies.

Now, President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is angry with the Constitutional Council for not allowing him to appoint whoever he wants, is in the middle of unnecessary judicial problems and has fallen to the point where vacancies are not being filled. It also affects the rule of law.

In the midst of all that, the Colombo Telegraph wrote in an article that the President was trying to influence the judiciary in some way. A Defeated President Cannot Appoint The Chief Justice! It was written with the headline.

A Defeated President Cannot Appoint The Chief Justice!

https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/a-defeated-president-cannot-appoint-the-chief-justice/embed/#?secret=BzVrAj4eIs

The facts in that story are not facts that we have confirmed, therefore we will not report them here. However those matters are difficult for us to prove properly, but matters that shock a citizen who is interested in judicial independence.

However, according to the Telegraph article, Ranil Wickramasinghe only has a few months left. These dictatorial and defeatist influences have been around for a few months. This kind of fraud is about to end. We have to be careful about the future of the executive, the legislature as well as the judiciary.

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