by The Sri Lanka Study Circle  (Sheets 1- 5 of 14 sheets)

Preamble

This is an open letter issued by the members of the Sri Lanka Study Circle to the former Attorney General de Livera, calling him to explain why punitive action should not be initiated against him for alleged professional malfeasance connected with the Port City Bill.

He is accused of having conducted himself in a manner that compromised the Country’s sovereignty and threatened her National Security; his alleged impropriety is more fully described in the body of this letter.

Charges levelled against Mr. de Livera

The charges levelled against you, Mr. de Livera, are:

·        Serious dereliction of duties during the time you held the post of Attorney General.

·        Bringing the post of AG and the AG’s Department, into uttermost disrepute.

·        Conducting yourself in a manner that was prejudicial to good order and departmental discipline.

·        Compromising the Constitutional role and responsibility of the Attorney General.

·        Collaborating with elements attempting to subvert the Constitution of the Country.

·        Conducting yourself in a manner unbecoming of the Attorney General of Sri Lanka.

We, the members of the Study Circle, are aware that you are no longer the AG; we therefore request you to submit an explanation expeditiously.

We opine that you owe an explanation to the people of this Republic, who had financially sustained you in the department all these years and whose benignity would contribute to your pension and sustain you during your lifetime on Earth.

If an explanation is not provided

Failure to provide an explanation, as requested in this letter, may result in the public being compelled to pursue a course of action against you which could result in the suspension of any foreign travel you may have planned, your passport being impounded, your pension and assets being frozen and punitive legal action being initiated against you, even in absentia; if you are ensconced abroad, it may compel the people to take measures to have you extradited.

In the absence of your explanation and in the unlikely event of successive Governments displaying a reluctance to initiate action against you, the people shall patiently bide their time until the opportunity is afforded when you could be brought before court to face charges. 

If perchance you have deceased by the time the opportunity is afforded to initiate action against you, the trial against you shall proceed, with your progeny being given ample opportunity to defend your name.

There shall be no time prescription in initiating charges against you. 

Why did you mislead the Government and the people?

Mr. de Livera, you are kindly requested to explain, why you misled the Government and the people and brought your department to such disrepute by assuring all stakeholders that the Port City Bill was not in violation of the Constitution when it was glaringly obvious, to even a layman, that the Bill was indeed in violation of the Constitution?

Your conduct, an enduring blotch on the office you were privileged to hold, smeared the reputation of the Department when the Supreme Court found the Bill to be in violation of the Constitution in a record 25 instances!!

If you were to plead that your ignorance of the Constitution and the law occasioned this apocalyptic faux pas in the history of the Department, it would indeed be a sad commentary on your professional ability; if that is your explanation, it is strongly suggested that you tender your resignation forthwith and walk away from the Department without your pension, hanging your head in everlasting shame.

Failed in your Constitutional responsibility

Article 77 of the Constitution makes you mandatorily the prime Legal Protector of the Constitution. You have failed miserably in your Constitutional responsibility.

When a blunder of this proportion is made by a man of your experience in the twilight of his government career, would it be unreasonable to entertain suspicions that you could possibly have been influenced politically or otherwise, especially when a ridiculous offer of a diplomatic assignment, at retirement, is made to you?

Asset declarations and Bank statements

To allay suspicions in the minds of the people (and also in the name of transparency) you are kindly requested to forward to the public, copies of your annual asset declarations for the last five years, which presumably you have already submitted, and to make available all your bank statements for public scrutiny for the same period of time.

/Contd