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Politice, Justice & the Rule of Law

This is the most controversial Book, containing complex shocking revelations, in the series of Books by the Author, wherein most difficult topics are excellently and diligently dealt with, exposing realities in politics, and non-dispensation of justice, with judiciary acting sans jurisdiction, ultra-vires the Constitution, denying natural justice, making a mockery of the ‘rule of law’, paying scant regard to United Nations Conventions on Human Rights. The range of cases and topics dealt with is indeed amazing making exhorbing reading. Commencing with his own exposure to politics, paying high tribute to minority Tamils in Sri Lanka, the Author brings out stunning prevalent reality. Makes startling disclosures on Sri Lanka’s most controversial Presidential Election of 2010, and incarceration, as a villain, a Presidential Candidate, a trusted Army General, once hailed, as the ‘best Army General in Asia’, having led the country’s armed forces to crush one of the most feared terrorists organizations, internationally banned, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam. The most difficult and delicate subject of ‘judicial bias and disqualification’ at highest levels of the judiciary is dealt with, including the controversy which reverberated on the endeavour by the Legislature to impeach a Chief Justice, whose husband, having held high profile political office, was impleaded in a dubious share scandal, involving the country’s leading Savings Bank. Author incisively delves into an important case of abduction of a Tamil businessman, and the horrendous anonymous allegations of trading in human body parts, during the war against the terrorists,allegedly with Indian and Israeli connections. Author analyses real case studies, involving foreign investments, demonstrating classic instances of dubious judicial processes, including subversion of action, vis-à-vis, fabricated forged documents of public officers tendered to Court, involving questionable professional conduct, and indifference by law enforcement authorities, including Attorney General, Chief Law Officer of the State.

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Click here to view Media Exposes

After I made my aforesaid Application on 18th October 2012 to the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka for a review and re-examination of the Special Determination of 24th October 2011, inter-alia, on grounds of ‘perceived judicial bias and disqualification’, as morefully dealt with in the preceding Chapter, I was indeed quite shocked and taken aback, when just two weeks thereafter on 1st November 2012, the Hon. Speaker of Parliament, Chamal Rajapaksa, a brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, entertained a Motion signed by 117 of the total of 225 Members of Parliament of Sri Lanka, containing 14 Charges therein, moving to impeach Her Ladyship Chief Justice Shirani A. Bandaranayake

Whilst the first media release of 8th November 2012 by Neelakandan & Neelakandan, Attorneys-at-Law, gave specific responses, the aforesaid Statement released to the media on 6th December 2012 had been based on a prognosis of a ‘hypothetical’ model, devoid of specifics to have debunked completely the aforesaid media expose, giving rise to the question, as to why ?

Ironically, some of the Charges contained in the aforesaid Motion handed over to the Hon. Speaker of Parliament of Sri Lanka, Chamal Rajapaksa to impeach Her Ladyship Chief Justice Shirani A. Bandaranayake had been significantly on the very same grounds of ‘perceived judicial bias and disqualification’, which I had adduced in my further Written Submission of 9th February 2012 tendered to the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, as given hereinbefore !

In comparison with the foregoing violation of the provision of Article 121(1) of the Constitution, which was concerning the matter of having served Notice on the Secretary General of Parliament, in place of the Hon. Speaker of Parliament, would it not constitute to be a far more fatal violation of the mandatorily deeming provision in Article 123(3) of the Constitution, when the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka made a per-incuriam Special Determination on 24th October 2011 on an Urgent Bill, generally referred to as the ‘Expropriation Bill’, acting without constitutional jurisdiction, ultra-vires the mandatorily deeming provision in Article 123(3) of the Constitution, which specifically governs Special Determinations on  ‘Urgent Bills’ ?

Consequently on 8th December 2012, the Chairman of Parliamentary Select Committee, had presented the Committee’s Report to the Hon. Speaker of Parliament Chamal Rajapaksa, reporting that the Parliamentary Select Committee had found Her Ladyship Chief Justice Shirani A Bandaranayake guilty of Charges Nos. 1, 4 and 5, and but not guilty of Charges Nos. 2 and 3 due to lack of evidence; and that in such circumstances they had not proceeded to investigate the other Charges. Subsequently, the 7 Members of the Parliamentary Select Committee, who made such findings held a media conference to give their version of what had transpired. The Report of the Parliamentary Select Committee on its findings is given at Appendix VI-B.

It was indeed appalling to witness religious leaders at the highest levels, publicly appealing to President Mahinda Rajapaksa to have the impeachment Motion process stopped, when, in fact, the President of Sri Lanka had no power under and in terms of the Constitution of Sri Lanka to have interceded in such Parliamentary procedure being followed in terms of the Constitution. It is indeed intriguing, as to why religious leaders, who should be more concerned of the vast haplessly poor masses, some of whom are arraigned before Courts of Law and remanded instantaneously, causing great hardship to their families, do not intercede in such instances on behalf of such haplessly poor masses. This clearly demonstrates duplicity of recognition that those in upper echelons of society are above the ‘rule of law’, whilst the cardinal dicta of the ‘rule of law’ is that all are equal before the law !

At the foregoing discussion, Ranil Wickremesinghe intimated to me that he did not propose to contest the forthcoming Presidential Election scheduled for 26th January 2010 i.e. the very next year. He inquired, as to whether I could persuade former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, P.C., to agree to contest President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the forthcoming Presidential Election, as a common opposition candidate, primarily with a view to changing the prevalent Constitution of Sri Lanka, which was being condemned all round. I agreed to speak to former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, P.C.

I instantly realized the dilemma Ranil Wickremesinghe, Leader of the UNP was in, in not wanting to contest President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the forthcoming Presidential Election on 26th January 2010, just after the Sri Lanka Armed Forces of which President Mahinda Rajapaksa was the Commander-in-Chief, had after a 30 year long brutal civil war defeated in May 2009, the internationally famed terrorist organization of the Liberation of Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE).

Being personally committed to bringing about a real reconciliation and genuine peace and harmony among the communities, and having worked behind the scenes to go down the road towards such an objective, as borne out by the foregoing public statements released and the invitation extended by the TNA to the common opposition candidate retired General Sarath Fonseka to visit Jaffna to campaign as a Presidential candidate, I, together with former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, too went to Jaffna with the common opposition candidate retired General Sarath Fonseka.

At the very outset of the discussions at my residence on the above subject of interim amendments to be effected to the Constitution of Sri Lanka, vis-à-vis, the sharing of power between the Executive President, Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Leader of the UNP, ‘let the cat out of the bag’, as it were, revealing his hidden agenda and his ulterior motive, by stating that common opposition candidate, retired General Sarath Fonseka, can come to power, as the Executive President, but that he should not have any power, even to lay a ‘brick’ or make a ‘drain’ !

I was indeed taken aghast and was astonished, and helplessly looked at former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, who intervened and brought about some sanity and sensibility, stating that if the common opposition candidate, retired General Sarath Fonseka wins and becomes the Executive President of Sri Lanka, that he naturally had to exercise power, and what had to be done was to bring about a balance of power, between the functionaries, the Executive President, Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers.

In a complete turn of events, no discussion, whatsoever, took place, as had been anticipated by Ranil Wickremesinghe, Leader of the UNP on the foregoing interim amendments to be effected to the Constitution of Sri Lanka vis-à-vis the sharing of power by and between the Executive President, Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers, but on the contrary, the common opposition candidate, retired General Sarath Fonseka, shocking all those present alerted that there was an imminent threat to his security, and that he had already made arrangements to move out of his Office, and was moving to the Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel on the day of the Election i.e. the next day, and that he had booked a large number of rooms for all those, who wanted to come and occupy the same, to conduct Election activities from the said Hotel.

By the foregoing, the Armed Forces under some intriguing directions, had prevented the common opposition candidate, retired General Sarath Fonseka, from exercising his legitimate right to visit the ballot counting centers, and to satisfy himself, that the counting process of the ballots cast was correct. As to why such step was taken only further adds to the mystery. I later came to understand that such siege by the Armed Forces of the Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel, had taken place around 9.00 p.m. on the Election night, significantly at the very time around which, the counting process of ballots commences at the counting centers.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, Leader of the UNP, offered Anoma Fonseka, wife of the common opposition candidate, retired General Sarath Fonseka, the proposition for him to be made a Deputy Leader of the UNP, and to be nominated on the UNP National List to become a Member of Parliament, and for his wife Anoma Fonseka  to contest under the UNP List in the Gampaha District. Ranil Wickremesinghe, Leader of the UNP confirmed that arrangements had been kept open to fill in the requisite nomination papers on such basis.

Retired General Sarath Fonseka was found guilty of all charges in the above second and third Charge Sheets, and was sentenced to 30 months rigorous imprisonment, resulting in him losing his position, as a Member of Parliament of Sri Lanka, having won comfortably in the Colombo District, contesting under his own party at the General Election on 8th April 2010, and further depriving him of his civic rights for a period of 7 years !

Subsequently reality dawned on all concerned, that N. Sriskandarajah, Managing Director, Kala Traders (Pvt) Ltd., had been abducted, upon learning from his Office that night that the mobile telephones of N. Sriskandarajah and his driver, which had been repeatedly tried, but had not been answered, had suddenly been answered in the night, but had been immediately cut off, which calls had been later traced to Minneriya and Medirigiriya areas.

He said that there were reports of serious allegations against N. Sriskandarajah, Managing Director, Kala Traders (Pvt) Ltd., of having financed the Tamil terrorists. He disclosed that the Army was in  no way  involved in such abduction, but some para-military forces working outside the Army, had apparently carried out such abduction. When I pressed Inspector General of Police, Chandra Fernando for more information he repeatedly said – “Nihal, my lips are sealed” ! This to me spoke volumes !

Whilst I was making searches on the internet, I was indeed appalled to learn of the socio-political reality in war zones in different parts of the world, where trafficking of human body parts, allegedly takes place, often on the pretext of obtaining the same to carry out ‘DNA’ tests. Once I witnessed a case in Russia, where a mother, acting against the direction of the authorities not to do so, opened a ‘sealed coffin’ of her son, who had allegedly died in a war front. She had opened the ‘sealed coffin’ to see that the body of her son, had been ‘slit open’ right in the middle, and sewn together again, like shoe laces being tied.

“Can a person be given refuge to hide in Sri Lanka, and hold on to a valuable asset of a Trustee in Bankruptcy in UK, now for over 7 years, enjoying the benefits of such Shareholding, and cheating the Creditors of the Bankrupt Estate in UK ? ….. The Courts in Sri Lanka obviously are unwilling or unable to arrest and/or prevent such blatant fraud being continued to be perpetrated, under the very nose of the Courts. ”

On such a serious matter of tendering fabricated and forged Documents as evidence in a Court of Law, intriguingly, neither the Chief Magistrate’s Court Proceedings had been pursued with by the Hon. Attorney General, nor had the Commercial High Court taken judicial notice of the grave and serious fact of suspicious Documents having been tendered to Court, as had been intimated by Letter by the Criminal Investigation Department, in taking the originals of the said Documents into custody for investigations thereinto.

The cogent question also arises as to whether the Bar Association of Sri Lanka condones and shields its Members from criminal investigations and prosecutions thereon before the law, turning a blind eye to the principle that no one is above the law ?

What is even more intriguing, is that, His Lordship Justice K. Sripavan, the Listing Judge, prior to forwarding my said Application to Her Ladyship the Chief Justice, had pre-empted the operation of the constitutional mandate as, aforesaid, and had taken upon himself, to express his own opinion on my said Application. In doing so, His Lordship Justice K. Sripavan unilaterally had gone on to interpret Article 80(3) of the Constitution of Sri Lanka, that too, without having heard me thereon, thereby denying me natural justice, whereas my clearly and specifically stated stance in my said Application was that Article 80(3) of the Constitution was not applicable to my Application. In any case I am advised, that a sole Judge sitting in Chambers cannot interpret the Constitution of Sri Lanka.