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CBK asked to name rogue judges
The Executive Committee of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) yesterday decided to write to President Chandrika Kumaratunga, requesting her to make available whatever information she had on corrupt judges to the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) and other relevant authorities such as the Bribery Commission.

The decision was taken at BASL's executive committee's monthly meeting which had been scheduled for yesterday before the President's remarks on Tuesday about corruption in the judiciary, but the topic was included in the agenda as a special matter, The Sunday Times learns.

The committee also unanimously decided it could not totally agree with the President's remarks that the entire judiciary was corrupt. "Any institution has black sheep. That does not mean everyone is bad. There may be a few corrupt persons," a committee member said.

The committee resolved to issue a statement and write to the President asking her to disclose any information she had about corrupt judicial officers. "We also want to clean up the judiciary. This is the best way to do that," the committee member said.

The BASL in a statement said it was "greatly perturbed" by the recent public statement made by the President that the judiciary of Sri Lanka was corrupt. The Bar Association said it did not agree with the statement and that the association had confidence in the judiciary as a whole.

The Bar Association said it was requesting the President, in the interest of justice and in fairness to the members of the judiciary, to report any judicial officer about whom the President had information of corruption to the JSC and to any other relevant authority.

President Kumaratunga addressing the National Advisory Council on Prevention of Crime said the judiciary was a corrupt place and there was no use of trying to hide the fact and added that even Transparency International has said that the police and the judiciary were the most corrupt institutions in the country. She said the two institutions meant to maintain law and order were both corrupt, adding that the Attorney General too had endorsed this view.

Minister and Government spokesman Mangala Samaraweera in a statement accused a section of the media of trying to distort the President' speech and said the President was trying only to further analyse the report submitted by the Transparency International Sri Lanka. Mr. Samaraweera said the comments made by the President about the judiciary and police had been commended by the honest officials attached to the judiciary and police.

The Minister recalled that during the previous UNP regimes there had been a series of incidents where politicians interfered with the judiciary.

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