SL chief justice complains of derogatory references during hearing

Colombo: Sri Lankan chief justice Shirani Bandaranayake has complained that derogatory references were made against her during a much-criticised impeachment hearing in the parliament where ruling party lawmakers found her guilty of accumulating wealth and misusing power. The country’s first woman chief justice has maintained that charges against her were false had walked out of the impeachment hearing calling it unfair and one sided. [caption id=“attachment_558096” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AP[/caption] She said she was not allowed the right to cross examine the witnesses who deposed against her. Bandaranayake’s lawyers, in a letter to the parliament Speaker, cited ‘derogatory references’ made on her by the government members of the parliamentary select committee which investigated her. The panel had ex-parte ruled Bandaranayake guilty and she is now awaiting her removal from office next month. The legal fraternity carried out extensive protests against the impeachment of the judge who is now accused by the government of becoming a pawn for elements with political ambitions. Meanwhile, a contempt of court plaint against the editor of the state-owned English daily, has been filed by a lawyer over the ongoing impeachment controversy. Sunil Cooray said in his plaint that Rajpal Abeynayake, the editor of the Daily News by carrying the paper’s lead story on 3 December and several other articles had accused Bandaranayake of leading a coup against the state. The petitioner claims that the articles were a clear violation of law and amounts to contempt of court. PTI