News: judiciary

In a very perceptive article in “The Sunday Leader” of 17 July 2011, Uvindu Kurukulasuriya has exposed the cosy and mutually profitable relationship that exists today between the highest levels of the executive and the judiciary. However, he has prefaced his excellent analysis with an allegation that the politicisation of the judiciary in post-colonial Sri Lanka commenced under Justice Minister Felix Dias Bandaranaike “who invited judges to political parties and offered drinks”. It was also alleged that “that was only one method among many that Felix used to politicise the judiciary”. The author of the article attributed both these allegations to Mr.Walter Jayawardene Q.C.

Sri Lanka Army occupying Jaffna has restarted its terrorising mission of photo registration of people in Jaffna peninsula. Some times back, when the ‘obligatory’ SL military registration of the people in Jaffna was challenged in the courts by the Tamil National Alliance, the SLA said in the courts that it had stopped the process. But, while the matter is sub-judicial, the registration has restarted and forms to this effect are being distributed by the occupying SL military, accuses TNA parliamentarian Mavai Senathiraja. A few days ago, overlooking the SL Supreme Court's request to postpone the mandatory military training programme to students entering the universities, Colombo went ahead with the programme citing that it had already spent money on the project and students had already started travelling to the military bases.