 to the executive until finally, for reasons best known to himself, their relationship faltered.
Sarath N. Silva makes many speeches now and, at times, expresses partial regret for his allegiance to the executive. However, by then irreparable damage had been done to the power, as well as the image, of the judiciary.
Over the years this situation led to the creation of disillusionment among the people as well as the lawyers. The following quote from S.L. Gunasekara’s recent book Lore of the Law and other Memories reflects the demoralisation caused by the weakening of judicial independence. In answer to a question from a junior lawyer: “Sir, is Hulftsdorp much different today to what it was when you joined the Bar?” He replied, “When I joined the Bar we had no air conditioners, no computers, no lifts, no ponds inside the Supreme Court premises, no photocopying machines or free trips abroad sponsored by the Government or nongovernmental organisations; but we had justice………I did not, by this, mean to say that there is no justice whatever done in the courts today, (in that some measure of justice is done) but that the difference between then and now lay chiefly in the fact that while there were doubtless many shortcomings in the administration of justice even in those days which we nostalgically recall as having been the gold old days, that was a time when we almost always won good cases and lost bad cases whereas today, there are so many occasions when we lose good cases and win bad cases that it has now become virtually impossible to properly advise a client about his prospects in a case whether already filed or in contemplation……”
The new impeachment motion
The advantage that President Rajapaksa may be trying to cash in on now as he brings the new impeachment motion against the incumbent Chief Justice may be this disillusionment and demoralization, prevalent among the people as well as among the lawyers themselves about what they see as the deterioration of the judiciary. Perhaps the executive may be seeing this as a suitable moment for striking a final blow against the judiciary and thus complete the process started by J.R. Jayewardene when he filed his impeachment against Neville Samarakoon.
The 18th Amendment to the Constitution was a determined attempt for the full realisation of the aim of the 1978 Constitution, which was to give absolute power to the executive president. In 1978 this was still a difficult task as there were the habits formed over a long period to trust the local institutions and still a belief in the possibility of justice and fairness was quite alive. Perhaps the executive thinks that the opportune moment has arrived to realise the full potential of the 18th Amendment.
Already there are public rumours about who the executive is aiming to put in place of the incumbent Chief Justice once the impeachment process is speeded up by the utilisation of the toothless majority that the government has in parliament. If those rumours are correct then the last days of even the limited independence of the judiciary are close at hand.
However, it may not all go that way. The people may use this occasion not only to critique the absolute power of the executive but also as a critique of the weaknesses of the judiciary itself. They may use this occasion to demand a stronger judiciary. That, of course, implies that the people will have to deal with the displacement of the absolute power notion which was created through the tyranny of a four-fifth majority in parliament that J.R. Jayewardene had in 1978.
Whichever way, for better or for worse, the present impeachment motion will prove decisive.