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| Sunday, 13 April 2003 |
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The law's delays Sel lipi by Gotabhaya Swasthi Shree! Thus says his sacred Majesty, the gracious Great King, glorious Chakravarthi, King of the Kings of Maya, Pihiti and Ruhuna, Mahoora of the Vanniala-aeththo and ruler of all lands from Yapapatuna to Sampanthota: It has come to the notice of the Maha Vasala that 900 prisoners are to be sent from the great yudhdha-baandaagaara prison of Vaalukaakandha to the more salubrious environment of the prison by the mouth of the Kalu Ganga. These prisoners are those whose alleged crimes or misdemeanours were committed in the Raigam Korale and the Pasyodun Rata, and hence whose cases could be facilitated if they were kept imprisoned close by, at Kaluthota. It appears that the Valukaakandha prison is overcrowded with prisoners awaiting trial, so that their health and hygiene is put at risk. Indeed, it has become so overcrowded that, recently a man convicted of rebellion jumped over the wall into the premises of the acchu angshaya, which lies next door to the prison. Even granted that he had the special training in angam shaathraya, the black arts that the rebels are given, nevertheless the extent of his disgust with the conditions there may be gauged by this super-human effort of his. Why are there so many excess prisoners? Has the prison shrunk in size? Has there been a drastic increase in the detection of crimes by the murakaara hewayas? Has there been a mass surrender by the soora chaurayas the skilled rogues - of the realm? None of these things, it seems. It is simply that there are too many cases pending in the courts for those not already heard to be examined. In vain have the maethi-aemathis, the ministers of the state, promulgated law after law to prevent the delays in the law. The neethi-reethi, the laws and regulations of this sublime kingdom, have woven an ever more complex web about the courts, the judges and the judged. The result has been like unto the hells of Yama, the lord of death, as prisoners languish for years, awaiting their call, within the hira-kutis, the prison cells of this dhammadweepa. Some litigants have been known to use the fabled angam shaasthras of krama saha vidhi, ways and means, to get their cases taken up earlier than others. But all too often, it is said, the court pronounces the magic 'baalagiri dhosa' manthram: 'date for hearing fixed for...' Indeed, it has come to the notice of the Maha Wasala that, in certain cases, the accused in murder trials have been released after a decade or so of, the witnesses to the alleged acts having been duly taken away to the Yama lokaya, by the passage of time. So what is to be done? Hitherto, space has been made for the not-yet convicted prisoners by releasing convicted criminals, who have shown good behaviour in prison. Alas, all too often some of these individuals become miscreants once more; timely detection by the murakaara hewayas leads to their re-incarceration pending examination before the law. Thus it becomes like a chakraya, a wheel in perpetual motion, but each turn of the wheel depositing more prisoners in the hira-kutis. Therefore, it has been decreed that, for the want of any alternative, the prisoners awaiting trial shall be shifted from one prison to another. At least that will allow the prisoners an occasional change of scenery. And the view of the Kalu Ganga is surely superior to that of the serpentine by-ways of Vanathamulla. Swasthi Shree! This rock edict is made on this last day of Ravi of the month of Bak of the Year of the Saka Era 1929. |
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