Lankan CJ challenges impeachment in court

The Sri Lankan Chief Justice, Shirani Bandaranayake, on Wednesday filed a petition in the Appeal Court challenging the findings of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), which had impeached her, local media reported quoting her lawyers.

The Parliamentary Select Committee had found her guilty of three of the 14 charges that the 117 ruling coalition MPs had levelled against her.

The Chief Justice’s plea was that the Parliamentary Select Committee had flouted norms of natural justice and the rule of law and had used abusive language to browbeat her into submission. She, as well as the four opposition members in the 11-man committee, had walked out in protest, resulting in the submission of an ex-parte report to the Speaker of Parliament. The Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court have before them several other petitions challenging the constitution of the PSC and the procedure it had followed.