Chief Justice Sarath N Silva, declaring open a High Court and an Appeal Court complex in Batticaloa yesterday said that his landmark judgment on the de-merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces was given taking into consideration not any political reasons, but differences in culture and traditions in the two provinces.
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| Chief Justice Sarath Silva is seen declaring open the courts complex as High Court judge S. Paramarasa looks on.
Pic by M. Noordeen |
He said the Eastern province people were different from the Northern people. Therefore, the East had to be de-merged.
“Today the power has being devolved more than what is mentioned in the 13th Amendment. Peace will prevail, only if power is devolved. Today, even the judicial powers have been devolved.
So certainly peace can be achieved. In 1994, when I visited Kalmunai, a friend of mine, M. M. Mustafa, said there would not be peace in this area any time. But I said one day there would be a peaceful situation.
Today we can see this. This is a very prosperous province. We can witness that,”
he said. | 
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