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“We did not make arbitrary decisions, we did not take malicious decisions”: CJ Surasena
View(s):By Ranjith Pathmasiri
“It is no secret that in today’s context a person would not want to litigate unless it is really necessary to do so. In the process, many silently bear the injustices caused to them. Even if such a person retains a lawyer and institutes action it will not see the light of the day during his lifetime. His next generation upon seeing this will not get into the path of litigation. How can there be a Rule of Law when the system of administration of justice causes delays. It is that problem that I will address as a prioritised move,” he said.
CJ Surasena was speaking at the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) felicitation dinner in honour of former Chief Justice Murdu Fernando, PC, and present Chief Justice Preethi Padman Surasena held this week at the Imperial Monarch in Kotte.
He recalled that in his ceremonial sitting speech in July he promised to undertake three things, namely start disposing cases quickly; take action against the guilty, and fast-track the digitization of the courts system throughout the country.
“I, with the assistance of my sister and brother judges in the SC, have started disposing of cases through regularly sitting five benches in the SC. On September 12 we launched the case management and e-court system portal for the Sri Lankan Courts system. By now we have definitely achieved more that 50% in all three spheres of those activities. We have been able to achieve all these in less than two months,” he said.
The Chief Justice also defended the decisions made with regards to the appointments of High Court judges, as well as the decisions to interdict or terminate judicial officers, saying there were no malicious decisions taken.
“We did not make arbitrary decisions, we did not take malicious decisions. Those decisions are difficult decisions to make. Yet we have to make them. We do not derive any pleasure by interdicting a judicial officer. But our prime duty is to protect, develop, improve and foster the legal profession at large. That we cannot achieve without first taking action against judges who do not simply care about the dignity, respect, quality and well-being of the legal profession. This profession surely will not be interested in retaining the service of such judicial officers.”
CJ Surasena also praised the members of the legal profession stating that “lawyers are the leaders in every sphere of activity in this country.” One cannot just enter this profession merely passing some exams; filtering processes are in place; it is governed by a team of senior members of our profession. I am fully aware of their dedication. I know how much they struggle to bring back the old glory to this profession,” he said.
He added that it is not sufficient only to have good lawyers. “The system must comprise a good, efficient and fair minded set of judges also. In the absence of such an efficient set of judges it is the practicing lawyers who will start suffering first, then the suffering is passed on to the litigants, then to the society and then to the country as a whole.”
He added that if there is a not-so-good lawyer, he can still find a place at the Bar. “That is not because the Bar is of low quality, but because the cases ranging from the simplest to the most complex cases are available depending on the competence of the lawyer. But it is not the same with a person who presides as a judge in court. A judge destroys many good things in the society by pronouncing a wrong judgment. Higher the court, higher the responsibility placed on the shoulder of the presiding judge. It is for that reason, that when people have lost confidence in a person who presides as a judge in a court the JSC has to step in.”
He said the time has come to dust off the profession, repair it, polish it, do a bit of reorientation in it and then live in the reoriented high quality dust-free rejuvenated profession, enjoy it before handing it over to our next generation.
Former CJ Murudu Fernando, President’s Counsel Faiz Mustapha, President of Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) Rajeev Amarasuriya, and BASL Secretary Chathura Galhena addressed the ceremony which was attended by a large number of members of the legal fraternity.
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