The Island Editorial

Courts in crossfire

14 February 2017

A court order is never acceptable to both parties to a legal battle. The losing side always finds fault with it while the other hails it as justice. The law is no healer and this is why legal action should be considered a pis aller. It is only natural that there has been a mixed reaction to the recent Court of Appeal judgment allowing the SAITM (South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine) medical graduates to register with the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC).

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has torn into the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government for invoking the jurisdiction of courts over the SAITM dispute, which, he says, requires a political solution. One is intrigued. It was on his watch the SAITM came into being; he even intervened to have scholarships awarded to some students. If he had then practised what he is preaching today, the SAITM issue could have been nipped in the bud. He has joined forces with the campaigners against the SAITM. What he has done is akin to a father acting out of expediency to disown his child.

Interestingly, the UNP is cuddling Rajapaksa’s baby! It condemns almost everything the Rajapaksa government did, but it is defending the SAITM, which the UNP top guns looked askance at while they were in the Opposition. Higher Education and Highways Minister Lakshman Kirielle has asked the critics of the SAITM to respect the Appeal Court ruling at issue. He has warned that unless they do so they run the risk of being charged with contempt of court. It is heartening that the UNP, which, in 1983, had the Supreme Court judges’ residences stoned by its goons for delivering a judgement in favour of Vivienne Gunawardena in her fundamental rights violation case against police, now respects judicial decisions!

Some JVP heavyweights have declared in public that no court can prevent them from going flat out to have the SAITM abolished. University student activists have also expressed similar views. The JVP and its student wing have a predilection for taking the law into their own hands while campaigning purportedly to protect the rule of law.

Unfortunately, the judiciary has been caught in a crossfire on the question of SAITM. True, it has its share of bad eggs, but, overall, it is one of the few state institutions which enjoy public trust. People have lost faith in the other two branches of government—the legislature and the executive. Irresponsible utterances of politicians et al are likely to tarnish the image of the judiciary. If they take exception to a court ruling they can always appeal against it.

The black-coated fraternity is also responsible for assailing the dignity of the judiciary. A person who recently shouted in a court in support of former minister Wimal Weerawansa has been thrown behind bars. There have been instances where people were sent to jail even for letting out ostentatious yawns in courts. But, some unruly lawyers who wreaked havoc on the Colombo High Court when the White Flag case judgment was delivered in 2011 went scot free. Refusing to accept that ruling they abused a female judge in raw filth and damaged court furniture in protest. The Bar Association of Sri Lanka never so much as condemned their rowdy behaviour which brought the entire legal fraternity into disrepute. Most of the rowdies in the garb of lawyers were backers of the UNP, which is now threatening legal action against those who do not respect court rulings.

One of the first few executive actions of President Sirisena after being inaugurated in 2015 was to deem the then Chief Justice (CJ) Mohan Peiris to have never held that post, which, he declared, had never fallen vacant as the impeachment of CJ Shirani Bandaranayake was unlawful. In other words, according to President Sirisena, Peiris had functioned as the CJ, made appointments, signed vital documents, drawn a salary and enjoyed perks illegally. If one is to go by the President’s argument then there has been a huge financial fraud. Moreover, are the judgements delivered by an outsider who ‘illegally’ functioned as the CJ valid? Why has no action been taken against Peiris for fraud? The government is obviously wary of opening up a can of worms. So much for its good governance! It has caused irrepealable damage to the image of the judiciary.

President Sirisena has done something sensible by undertaking to settle the SAITM dispute. He ought to order a special inquiry into the issue at hand as well as the quality of medical education provided by the state universities, the SAITM and foreign institutions.

Meanwhile, let all stakeholders be urged to refrain from causing an erosion of public faith in the judiciary. Such action will only help political elements with anarchical agendas to plunge the country into lawlessness again.