Courtesy The Daily News

There is a ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”legal coupƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ or constitutional coup attempt brewing in Hulftsdorp among certain sections of the legal fraternity backed by powerful vested interests, informed sources tell this newspaper.

These sources say that for a long time now, there have been subtly engineered attempts to subvert the elected government of the people, by attempting to legitimize the transfer of supremacy springing from the sovereignty of the people via the elected legislature, to the appointed judiciary. Certain prominent persons in the legal fraternity have been advocating that position in open court, while in a more subtle way, they have been promoting that view in the public domain — even as there is an impeachment motion before the Legislature that seeks to investigate the Chief Justice for actions unworthy of her office.

This ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”legal coupƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ or constitutional coup attempt has a recent history, these very sources some from the legal fraternity say – – though they have not been willing to divulge their identities due to possible peer pressure in the so called legal fraternity. (Please see editorial on page 8).

These sources say that the first step of this design is to mislead the people into thinking the fountainhead of peopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s sovereignty is the appointed judiciary, and not the elected House of peopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s representatives, the parliament.

WhatƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s brazen, they also say, is the flagrant attempt to publicly take up that position when the peopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s elected legislature is attempting to restore integrity to the judiciary, when there is a prima facie case of misdoing on the part of the Chief Justice. Moreover, all of the constitutional processes observed elsewhere in the world have been observed, in the impeachment process – – the same process used for impeachment of Supreme Court and federal judges in the United States for instance.

http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/11/22/news01.asp