{"id":114786,"date":"2021-06-01T17:14:20","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T00:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=114786"},"modified":"2021-06-01T17:14:20","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T00:14:20","slug":"dappula-de-livera-called-upon-to-explain-what-special-interests-did-messrs-g-l-peiris-and-p-b-jayasundera-have-to-intervene-in-the-proceedings-that-you-could-not-take-care-of-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/06\/01\/dappula-de-livera-called-upon-to-explain-what-special-interests-did-messrs-g-l-peiris-and-p-b-jayasundera-have-to-intervene-in-the-proceedings-that-you-could-not-take-care-of-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Dappula de Livera Called upon to Explain – What Special Interests did Messrs G L Peiris and P B Jayasundera Have to Intervene in the Proceedings that You Could Not Take Care of?\u201d Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

by The Sri Lanka Study Circle (Sheets 5- 8 of 14 sheets or Part 2)<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

\/ Contd from sheet 5 (or\nPart 1)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abandoning your\nresponsibility as AG when Messrs G L Peiris and P B Jayasundera intervened in\nthe hearings as intervenient petitioners <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are also called upon to\nexplain, why you acted the way you did at the Supreme Court hearings when the\nPort City Bill was taken up?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Constitution of this\ncountry has specifically entrusted you with the role of ensuring that Bills\nplaced before Parliament are not in violation of the Constitution. It is your\nsacred Constitutional duty to do so diligently with all the legal acumen at\nyour disposal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It devolves on you to defend\nthe Constitution whenever it needs to be defended in any Judicial forum; you\ncould be described as the helmsman of the Constitution.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When therefore 19 persons\npetitioned the Court against the Constitutionality of the Bill, not only were\nyou regulatively and constitutionally required to defend the Constitution and\nthe interest of the Government \u2013 both objectives being mutually inclusive – but\nindeed you were the best person to do so considering your opinion that the Bill\ndid not violate the Constitution in any way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It came as a surprise, to\nyou too it so seemed, when two members from the Government side \u2013 Messrs G L\nPeiris (a member of the President\u2019s cabinet) and P B Jayasundera (the Secretary\nto the President) \u2013 applied to the Court for special leave to intervene in the\nhearing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To many it seemed as if the sacred\nprecincts of the Judiciary had been invaded by the Executive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, what was even more\nsurprising was when, contrary to practice, these two persons had two private\nlawyers to represent them. Representing Mr. G L Peiris was Mr. Gamini Marapona\nwho, we learn now, has been tipped to be the \u2018Chairman\u2019 of the Port City\nCommission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did it not cross your mind,\nMr. de Livera, that this may have been a subtle attempt by these Executive\nminions to impose undue influence on the Judicial process?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though not entirely\nconvincing, your performance that followed, conveyed the impression that you\nwere somewhat miffed by the turn of events. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But at the end you relented\nwith hardly a bleat and permitted Messrs Peiris and Jayasundera to take on the\n\u2018prima donna\u2019 role while you seemingly sulked and slinked to the background.\nIndeed, your performance was bizarre for more reasons than one and had many,\nsmelling a rat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What surprised many was how\neasily you relented and like Esau, the biblical character, forsook your rights\nenshrined in the Constitution, allowing Messrs Peiris and Jayasundera from the\nExecutive Arm of Government to take centre stage; thereby you seemed to\nundermine the repute of your office and your department while leaving the\npeople of the country, in abject despair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theoretically, you were the\nperson most competent to refute the arguments of the petitioners and you were\nthe one Constitutionally entrusted with that task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We ask you, What special\ninterests did Messrs Peiris and Jayasundera have that you could not have taken\ncare of?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 And, What were your\nsubmissions and responses in Court to this intervention by the \u2018Executive\u2019 duo\nwith their private lawyers?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is customary that the AG\nappears gratis for those on the Government side. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The implication of employing\nprivate lawyers meant that the cost of their fees would be an additional\nfinancial burden on the people; unless of course in hind sight, it is a case of\nthese lawyers appearing pro interesse suo.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNHRC and the establishment of\na parallel AG\u2019s department<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A thought crossed our minds;\nit was in Geneva, just earlier this year, that the UNHRC attempted to establish\na parallel AG\u2019s Department in Sri Lanka and failed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If anyone, holding a\nprominent position, intentionally undermines the repute of the AG and the\nDepartment, such conduct would only aid the Americans who are bent on\nestablishing that parallel Attorney General\u2019s Department in this country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reports are circulating that\nthe Americans are passing Human Rights resolutions against Sri Lanka in their\nSenate; there are also unconfirmed reports that you are being short listed by\nthe Americans for a post in this parallel AG\u2019s department, the Americans wish\nto establish. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We would appreciate if you\nwould, in your response, shed any light to this persisting rumour, regarding\nsuch an appointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\/Contd<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by The Sri Lanka Study Circle (Sheets 5- 8 of 14 sheets or Part 2) \/ Contd from sheet 5 (or Part 1) Abandoning your responsibility as AG when Messrs G L Peiris and P B Jayasundera intervened in the hearings as intervenient petitioners You are also called upon to explain, why you acted the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sri-lanka-study-circle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114786\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}