Professor of Law at the Canterbury University, a former Judicial Officer of the European Court of Human Rights and a former Adviser to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Prof.Dinesh K Gunasekera said the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka had lost its legitimacy the preceding day following its pronouncement against the President’s gazette dissolving Parliament.
The Court has ignored the pulse of the people, the supremacy of a sovereign nation and put the pulse of the law above that supremacy in passing this verdict, he pointed out.
It has challenged the franchise of the people which was the underlying principle of the President’s dissolution of Parliament.
“What if a referendum is to be held over holding an election and people voted for it it this respect and won it,” he asked. “What will be the state of judiciary then, where will it run for cover; would the executive and the legislature protect them?”
“The Courts have ignored that that the masses have not voted for the 19th Amendment. What had been the Constitution of Sri Lanka at the time that the President of this country was elected into power, has also been ignored,” he said.
He said there were only three judges of the seven- member judge bench that were with one voice up until the last moment till they sat in judgment on the bench over the petitions.
“Unlike in other cases, the Supreme Court had some foreign diplomats constantly visiting its premises throughout the process of this case being heard.Some of these foreign agents were from the US, the UK, the European Union and Canada.They were seen sending messages to Lord-only-knows who, until the verdict was read out,” he said.
The Courts could have learnt a lot from the Jammu-Kashmir case in which the Supreme Court of that state declared that it refuses to interfere with the decision of Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik to dissolve the state assembly of that state.The tenure of the state was till October 2020 in this case.
“Malik was a governor of a state.We are talking about a dissolution decision of an executive President here,” he explained.