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Threats within the judiciary a far more difficult matter than those from outside : Amarasekara J
View(s):By Ranjith Padmasiri
While a judge with correct convictions can stand against threats from outside to the independence of the judiciary, and such outside threats can easily be defeated by lawyers and judges getting together, threats from within is a far more difficult matter, said retiring Supreme Court Justice Gamini Amarasekara.
He made these remarks at the end of his final day of delivering judgments from the bench this week. Addressing the court with permission from the Chief Justice and other justices of the court, Justice Amarasekara described himself as an “ardent believer in the independence of the judiciary.” He recalled a story narrated to him by Justice Soza, who had guided him during the formative years of his judicial career, about a Kalif who dismissed a magistrate who stood up while on the bench when the Kalif visited his Court house. “In a competitive society, how do we stop this tendency of Judges who surrender their independence before the Kalif or go after them for their personal benefits? I sense that it is a threat to my dream of independence of the judiciary.”
“Lawyers may not speak because it is their judge. Judges may not speak because it affects their stature. Who will suffer at the end? I say this because I was proud of being a judge but my experience in the JSC (Judicial Service Commission) and recent past somewhat shattered that feeling. It is the duty of all of us to overcome such threats,” Justice Amarasekara added.
He further recounted that he joined the Judiciary during the 1988/89 insurgency period and his first appointment was to the Walasmulla Magistrate’s Court. “From Walasmulla to Supreme Court, I had the fullest corporation of the Bar, and in many stations, I had bar-bench meetings to solve day-to-day issues. I must thank almighty for giving me an ability to maintain a human touch in my relationship with others that brought me this far smoothly and safely.”
Justice Amarasekara thanked his family for their steadfast support and also made special mention of the eminent lawyers who argued cases before him for keeping his “childhood enjoyment alive” till retirement through their creative legal arguments. “If it was not for this creativeness of a lawyer, a judge’s task would have become boring as it is not easy to hear worries of others,” he observed.
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