KAMALIKA PIERIS

The Mullaitivu judge T. Saravanaraja who heard the case relating to the Kurundi vihara, resigned from his position of District judge and Magistrate, on September 23rd 2023.  He said there were threats to his life due to the orders he delivered in the Kurundi case.   Saravanaraja submitted his resignation letter to the Judicial Service Commission on September 23 and went abroad on September 24.

Saravanaraja resigned without formally informing the police or the Judicial Service Commission about the alleged death threats against him. His action is baffling, Justice Minister, Wijedasa Rajapaksa said. As a judge he had the power to deal with death threats.  Sri Lankan judges had power to issue summons and take action against those who attempted to exert influence over them. He asked why the judge concerned had not used his powers.

Saravanaraja has stated on social media,” I have had to resign from all my judicial posts due to life threats, pressures, and harassments that I have been subjected to since delivering the order. Constant pressure was applied by the government to reverse the orders I had issued in Kurunthoormalai case. Members of Parliament and others belonging to the majority community have issued threats against my life, both in Parliament as well as outside it. The police protection afforded to me (the judge) was recently reduced, whilst the intelligence officers continued to surveil me. The Attorney General invited me (Judge) to meet him in his office on 21.09.2023 and during the meeting he compelled me to reverse the orders that I had issued in the Kurunthunmalai case. The above said are just a handful of examples of the threats, pressures, and harassments I received. Two cases have been filed against me personally in the Court of Appeal in connection with the Kurunthoormalai case.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe ordered a comprehensive investigation into the abrupt resignation. CID reported that Mullaitivu Police Station has provided all necessary security to him. No safety or life threatening issue has been raised at any time by him.

Police Inspector Thilakaratne has given a statement that two officers with arms were deployed for the personal protection of the Magistrate and four officers were deployed daily for the security of the official residence including 12 hour shifts.

Mullaitivu SSP D.U.P.Amaratunga has in a statement said that since last January, he has been closely associated with the judge while on duty and personally and at no time has he mentioned that there are any problems related to the judges’ security.

Mullaitivu Magistrate’s Court Registrar has stated in a statement that he has been working in Mullaitivu Court since January this year and the judge never informed him that there was a death threat.

The Judge’s personal security officer, Police Constable Preman has stated that the Judge had never said the security is not adequate and that the judge has never mentioned to him that there is a threat to life.

Court Clerk P. Suchikan, Fiscal S. Sivakumar, Mullaitivu Court official J. Linton Raja, had all said that Judge had never mentioned that there were any threats against him.

Legal authorities told Sunday Times, that Saravanaraja had asked for a lawyer to appear for him in court in the cases against him.  The Attorney General could have refused to appear for the Judge and asked him to retain his own Counsel. Instead, as a courtesy to a judge, a consultation was held in the Attorney General’s Chambers with the participation of the three Senior Counsel who are handling these cases.

The meeting was very cordial. Saravanaraja attended as a client. The submissions to be made to the Court of Appeal were made known to him. Saravanaraja gave instructions and we discussed with him various issues. At no stage was any pressure exerted on the Judge to change his orders.

 There was no threat to life or any other threat to the former Mullaitivu District Judge and Magistrate T. Saravanaraja and his sudden departure abroad was a pre-planned one, concluded CID. He had sold his car a week before going abroad. It is reported that he had come to Colombo and met two ambassadors of western countries, added Wijedasa Rajapaksa.

The CID report said that the judge had applied for leave to travel to India on September 25. This was approved but the judge had instead departed for Dubai on September 24. The return ticket was for travel via Sharjah, Nairobi and Delhi,  but the Magistrate has not proceeded to Nairobi after Sharjah.

Payment for the air ticket was made from Kalmunai area. Ticket was purchased through an American phone number. A Kenyan telephone number had been provided to the ticket sales agent to call back if the given telephone number is not operational.

Anti-Eelamists took a dim view of this departure. Saravanaraja is seeking asylum in a foreign country. Now that he has jumped ship and escaped probably to the West, we will hear that he will be granted asylum as he is facing human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, observed Ranjith Soysa. 

Sunday Times reported that there are seven (7) Writ Applications filed in Supreme Court on the Kurundi court case. Saravanaraja is the 1st Respondent in three (3) of these Writ Applications nos 474, 482 and 528 of 2023. He has been named in person. There is also another case in the Court of Appeal, unconnected to Kurundi, where Saravanaraja was named as a respondent, by another judge.

Jayantha Samaraweera said that he has gone to Supreme Court against the judgments given by   Magistrate Saravanaraja on the Kurundi matter. We have made a complaint against Saravanaraja to the Judicial Services Commission too. The Kurundi issue should be transferred to another court, Samaraweera said. 

Saravanaraja supports the notion of Hindu kovil at Kurundi, continued Samaraweera. He sent an order to break down the stupa. Further, Saravanaraja permitted the arguments in court to be in Tamil only. He did not get a translator for the Sinhala lawyers.  The OIC, Mullaitivu Police had asked for an order to prevent the Pongal ceremony planned for 18.8.2023.  The OIC had waited till evening but did not get the order. Instead on the 18^th Saravanaraja gave permission for the Pongal.     ( https://youtu.be/O1HJKrFIvyw )

A new campaign that has been launched in social media abroad, over the resignation of Mullaitivu District Judge and Magistrate T. Saravanarajah, noted  amused observers.  Tamil Separatist Movement depicts Saravanaraja as a hero. Saravanaraja is presented as a righteous judge, and the Kurundi  excavation as an utter fraud. The Tamil Separatist Movement is using Saravanaraja as yet another example of persecution of Tamil separatists.

University  Teacher’s Association, University of Jaffna issued an emotional,   highly exaggerated statement on the matter. Judge T. Saravanarajah, District Court Judge of Mullaitivu, has resigned from all his positions in the judicial system and fled the country amidst threats to his life and political pressure from the top, shouted the UTA.

Judge Saravanarajah  condemned the illegal nature of the archaeological excavation carried out in Kurunthurmalai and issued rulings that are considered fair. He also ruled in defense of people’s right to demoralization, whenever there were attempts to abort commemoration events organized by the Tamil community.

Recently, extreme Sinhala nationalist forces in the South launched a hate campaign and issued threats against this judge who is widely perceived as a person of integrity and great courage. Judges and administrators who refuse to support or connive with the Sinhala-Buddhist agenda face intimidation and come under heavy political duress, declared  UTA.

It is reported in the media that the Attorney General summoned Judge Saravanarajah to his office on the 21st of September 2023 and, in the guise of advising the judge, exerted pressure on him to change his ruling in the Kurunthurmalai issue. If a judge who carried out his responsibilities in line with the law of the land is facing such an unsettling, dangerous situation, what is the predicament of the minority communities who face and resist racism on a daily basis, asked UTA.

The University of Jaffna Teachers’ Association strongly condemns the intimidation and the hate campaign against Judge Saravanarajah and the pressure applied on him to prevent him from discharging his responsibilities in an independent manner. The Association demands that all those who are involved in the hate campaigns and the acts of interference and intimidation against the judge be held accountable. ( End of statement)

The Bar    Association of Sri Lanka    demanded  an  inquiry into the resignation. There were serious questions and concerns about the independence of the judiciary following the resignation of Mullaitivu District Judge T. Saravanarajah, citing threats and harassment  BASL said. Government replied that the JSC was the relevant body to handle the matter. If anyone had any issue, they could complain to the Judicial Service Commission. Government had no powers to investigate a matter involving the Magistrate .

In the Northern and Eastern provinces lawyers boycotted courts , condemning the recent incident where Mullaitivu judge T. Saravanarajah claimed he was forced to resign and flee the country due to threats to his life. A ‘human chain’ protest  was held, organized by civil society  organizations, political parties and lawyers collectives calling for an independent probe over the resignation of the magistrate. The human chain protest was from Jaffna town to Maruthanarmadam covering some ten kilometers along the main Kankesanthurai (KKS) road. Observers noted that while Bar Associations of Northern and Eastern districts protested, Bar associations in the south did not. 

Sarath Weerasekera managed to entangle himself in the Kurundi issue. He had gone to Kurundi when Saravanaraja  had gone there    to check on the stupa. The Magistrate  went because the Chief justice had ordered him to,  but the Tamil Separatist Movement said that he went there to investigate the complaint made by Adisivan Iyer Temple that the construction of the  Kurundi  stupa was being carried out despite court orders, Parliamentarian Sarath Weerasekera was also present there along with  others.   They  had come to look after the interests of Kurundi vihara.

The magistrate had ordered some monks worshipping at the stupa to leave as he had come  on official business.  He also refused to allow Sarath Weerasekera to speak on their behalf. Justice Saravanaraja,  emphasized that since it is a judicial matter, only the submissions of the lawyers could be entertained.. This incident  can be viewed  on https://youtu.be/w68HPcfxJJ8

On July 4^th 2023, Mullaitivu magistrate T Saravanaraja visited the site to determine whether the court order was being observed or not, just as a group of monks and politicians were preparing to carry out a religious ceremony. When the magistrate ordered the ceremony to be stopped, parliamentarian Sarath Weerasekera tried to intervene. The magistrate pointed out that  this was a judicial proceeding, only lawyers could speak, not parliamentarians or religious leaders or politicians, reported media.

Sarath Weerasekera spoke on this in Parliament  on 11.July 2023. A few days ago, this Tamil magistrate came to Kurundi vihara on an observational tour. I was also there. I objected to the magistrate asking the monks to leave the stupa on his arrival. Why was this necessary.  We must remind this magistrate that this is a Buddhist country, he said.

The Magistrate  does not have the power  to decide whether  clay, cement or concrete or whatever was used in the restoration, continued Weerasekera. I would add, probably not the  knowledge either. Further, the Magistrate does not have the power to give permission for Hindus to worship a trisula put  there . This is how ethnic disputes start and magistrates of this sort are also responsible, not only politicians , said Sarath Weerasekera in Parliament.. (https://youtu.be/w68HPcfxJJ8)

Tamil Separatist Movement pounced on this joyfully. This was just what the Tamil Separatist Movement was waiting for. University Teachers Association of the University of Jaffna said that  Sarath Weerasekera, MP, made vituperative statements against the judge. The Mullaitivu Bar Association,  unanimously passed a resolution condemning the statement of Rear Admiral Weerasekera, and planned  to hold a protest in front of the Mullaitivu Court.

 Lawyers from the North protested in front of several court complexes saying that SLPP MP Dr. Sarath Weerasekera had undermined the judicial system by making a hateful statement in Parliament in a way that belittled the name and judgement of the Mullaitivu Magistrate.

These protests were held in front of court complexes in Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Mullaitivu and Vavuniya districts. Lawyers said that  even though Sarath Weerasekera is a MP, he should bow to the court’s decision and if any decision given by the Mullaitivu court is wrong, they can seek the help of another court and challenge the original decision according to the law of Sri Lanka. Due to these protests which lasted for about two hours in the morning, hearings of all cases in courts in the North came to a standstill.

 In Parliament MA Sumanthiran said that the judge went to Kurundi with other parties to see if the court order related to the Kurunthurmale archaeological site has been violated. He condemned  Sarath Weerasekera’s threatening statement of the government member. Wigneswaran said that  Sarath Weerasekera was inciting Sinhala racism saying this is the country of Sinhalese Buddhists.

Jehan Perera said, Parliamentarians have made use of parliamentary privilege to criticize the judiciary, including by naming them individually. The conduct of some parliamentarians has now reached a point where a judge who was deciding on controversial cases involving ethnic and religious conflict has chosen to resign and even leave the country.

, Parliamentarians have made use of parliamentary privilege to criticize the judiciary, including by naming them individually. The conduct of some parliamentarians has now reached a point where a judge who was deciding on controversial cases involving ethnic and religious conflict has chosen to resign and even leave the country, concluded Jehan Perera. 

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) issued a statement objecting to Sarath Weerasekera’s speech in Parliament.  They said   the statement made by MP Sarath Weerasekera in Parliament, on 07 July 2023 was an unfounded, brazen attack on the judiciary The BASL says it is of the view that the judiciary should be allowed to operate free from external pressure, threats or any interference we find the recent statement by Sarath Weerasekera MP in Parliament, on the 7th of July 2023, currently circulating in social media platforms, as an unfounded, brazen attack on the Judiciary . The concluded by referring to the United Nations Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary,

Sarath Weerasekera, replying  the  BASL statement rejected the allegation that his speech in Parliament was a brazen attack on the judiciary. Weerasekera said I think your press release was to show your solidarity with the lawyers in Mullaitivu without probing the relevant incident at Kurundi Buddhist Temple Complex.”

Every citizen in the country is fully aware that the judiciary should be allowed to operate independently, free of external pressures, etc., which the Bar Association doesn’t have to emphasize, continued Weerasekera.

 I would like to remind the Bar Association of the report submitted by the Special Rapporteur Monica Pinto on Sri Lankan judiciary” to the UNHRC,   where she made critical observations on the judiciary. BASL  did not  make any statement against this  derogatory report.

I, as a parliamentarian, am fully aware how to conduct myself in parliament. I request the BASL to visit the North and observe how the Buddhist ruins are being plundered and destroyed by ruffians and how the Chaithyas are raised to the ground. The archaeological officers are threatened with death and cases filed with the help of Mullaitivu lawyers to delay renovations and then destroy what has been already done.  Lawyers  have a moral obligation to think twice before appearing for goons who destroy our heritage.” ( Continued)