COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has sacked Supreme Court Chief Justice Mohan Peiris and reinstated the latter’s predecessor, Shirani Bandaranayake, who will retire on Thursday (today).

Mr Peiris was sacked on the grounds that the government of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa had removed Ms Bandaranayake through a flawed and illegal impeachment process.

Ms Bandaranayake returned to her chamber on Wednesday to a rousing welcome by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL).

Explaining the reinstated chief justice’s extraordinary decision to retire just after a day in office, her attorney, K. Neelakandan, said that Ms Bandaranayake only wanted that justice be done to her.

“Now that justice has been done, she is satisfied.”

After the retirement of Ms Bandaranayake, the most senior judge of the Supreme Court, K. Sripavan, would be sworn in as chief justice, sources said.

The BASL had been arguing that Mr Peiris had been appointed as the chief justice when the post was technically “not vacant”.

The parliament had not passed a proper resolution asking the then president to sack Ms Bandaranayake. What the house had passed was an older resolution seeking the appointment of a Parliamentary Select Committee to probe charges of misconduct against her.

The BASL’s case against Chief Justice Peiris was strengthened when it became known that he was at the official residence of president Rajapaksa on the night of January 8 when a military coup to thwart Mr Sirisena’s victory in the presidential elections was allegedly being discussed.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2015

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