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| Sunday, 19 October 2003 |
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BASL members call for removal of Chief Justice by Deepal Warnakulasuriya Lawyers yesterday intervened in a prestigious lecture function of the Bar Association held in Colombo to urge the BASL Chairman to take action concerning both the recent premature retirement of Supreme Court Judge Mark Fernando and what they argued was the need to remove Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva. The calls for BASL action came during the discussion session after the yesterday evening's special BASL lecture delivered by visiting United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of the Judiciary, Dato Param Cumaraswamy. Dato Cumaraswamy, out-going UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of the Judiciary and Lawyers, gave a lecture on the subject 'The Independence of the Judiciary and the Role of the Legal Profession'. The UN Special Rapporteur, in his lecture, drew attention to the controversy over the court action against human rights activist Anthony Michael Fernando and challenged the local legal profession to maintain the dignity of the judiciary. Dato Cumaraswamy said he was addressing a wake-up call to the Sri Lankan legal profession and the judiciary. He claimed that several decades ago the Sri Lanka judiciary had functioned in a manner that was much appreciated but, noted that this quality had deteriorated today. The discussion time that followed, however, saw several lawyers diverting the discussion to their demand for action by the Association on the twin issues of the premature retirement of Justice Mark Fernando and what they claimed was the need for the removal of Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva. BASL Chairman Ananda Wijesekara, who chaired the lecture function hosted by the Human Rights Committee of the BASL at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Colombo, urged members to focus on the subject of the lecture and to raise the other issues at the appropriate regular meeting of the Association. During the lecture function, a special event was held for the award of the prestigious Asian human rights title of 'Human Rights Defender' awarded annually by the Hongkong-based regional human rights body, Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). Sri Lankan human rights activist Anthony Michael Fernando, who has been awarded the AHRC title, was presented the award in the special function chaired by eminent human rights lawyer Desmond Fernando PC. |
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