At least one political heavyweight of the UNF was saying so. Particularly if it is correct that the order (to be read by the Speaker this week) says 'the referendum requirement is not necessary, if the President's powers of dissolving parliament were to be curtailed only for a period of three years.'

It is for the first time that an incumbent government has not failed to secure a favorable order on such a crucial (let us say life threatening) amendment. The three-year compromise solution, at least according to some government heavyweights, leads to an assumption that the Supreme Court is perusing the political agenda of the Executive. (Rajitha Senartne, MTV, on Thursday.)

Those who have advocated that the Chief Justice be removed from his post, which include some of today's very heavyweight legal minds, such as, for example Lord Brennan of the IBA, have simply said that his incumbency would negatively influence the court. This newspaper carried an interview with Lord Brennan in full, which very clearly laid out this position.

Now, government MP's such as Rajitha Senaratne say, after a Supreme Court verdict that went against the government , that " yes, I think the government made a big mistake in not impeaching the Chief Justice.'' (MTV.)

That's galling, even though Senaratne was one of the few UNF frontliners who were consistently for the impeachment move right along. It means the UNF is unhappy with the Supreme Court, only when it feels that the Chief Justice's bias has worked against them.

If the Chief Justice is perceived to be biased and lacking in integrity, it is a fact that affects the entire country, and all its litigants. Therefore, the UNF should have moved to impeach the Chief Justice in the interests of the entire country, and not just its own interest.

But it now appears that the UNF - or at least some of its members - is saying - 'we should have impeached him, because his bias is affecting us.' Sad to say, but it means the UNF is concerned about the judiciary's negative influence on its own fortunes, and not about the larger negative influence that a Chief Justice may have on all the litigants of the country.

Senaratne says - the Chief Justice is biased. After all, isn't that why the UNP sought to impeach the Chief Justice, and isn't it why the considerable bulk of UNF frontliners have been saying all along that the Chief Justice should be impeached, even after coming to office in December 2001?

But, the UNF never had the guts to follow up on its convictions - - and for its lack of the courage of its own convictions, the UNF now says it is paying a price. The UNF has only itself to blame on this count, and will not have the sympathies of a large number of public interests and civil society groups, that have been in the forefront of the campaign to impeach the Chief Justice.

One way of putting it of course is that the UNF did not have the integrity to get rid of a Chief Justice who is possibly, accused about his own integrity. An entity which is not wedded to upholding the integrity of institutions of governance, and which acts by political expediency, cannot expect that there will be a sudden flush of integrity that will be manifest at the apex of this country's judiciary - in an order concerns its own political life.

It is not as if the UNF is NOT a party that believes the Chief Justice is unsuitable to hold the post. Of course the UNF believes so - that is why the UNP which constitutes the UNF's major constituent party, tabled an impeachment resolution against him when in opposition. At no point did the UNF disown that resolution. But, upon forming a government, the UNF started prevaricating about reintroducing the impeachment motion. The UNF appears to falsely believe that a CJ whose integrity is compromised, can be brought to serve its own ends. The UNF seems now to have fallen victim to its own expediency.

But it is also pathetic that the judgments given by the country's highest court, on issues of vital import to the country's future, are not credible, in the eyes of some of the government's leaders. A cloud has been cast not just by several concerned individuals in civil society, and in the international arena, but by the government party itself. When this government party is subject to the judgments of this palpably flawed court, its own members (such as Rajitha) will no doubt, ridicule the court.

But the fact that the Court has come to this pass, shows to what a pathetic depth the country has come - because of this little matter of the Court and its chief incumbent judge. It is a state of affairs that would have been laughable, if not for the fact that the Supreme Court deals with matters of enormous national import.

If the impeachment motion against the Chief Justice is not introduced, and if there is no resolution of the impeachment crisis, the apex judiciary of this country will always be under a cloud, whether deciding in the big league of constitutional matters, or in the lesser league of, say , fundamental rights. That is the reality, and there is no point in blaming anybody for that state of affairs when the issue of the CJ is so far gone. Just the other day, Victor Ivan issued a book saying this Supreme Court is a farce because the Chief Justice is a fraud. He did so in the presence of the country's Prime Minister, who made a speech on the occasion!

In other words, the country's Prime Minister is agreeing that this country's Chief Justice is a fraud. There can be no two words about it - this country's Prime Minister leads a party which wanted to impeach this Chief Justice. That's why he was the chief guest on an occasion in which it was being said the Chief Justice should be removed. But, yet, a court headed by this same Chief Justice holds on issues that concerns the life or death of his party in government. Can anybody be blamed for questioning the credibility of these judgments under these circumstances - anybody that is, except the government that neglected to pursue his impeachment?

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