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.
