| by Saliya Pieris
For and on
behalf of the lawyers for the Chief Justice
(December 8,
2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Government Information Department has
announced that the parliamentary select committee has called several witnesses
to give evidence against the Chief Justice within the course of today going onto the night. Until the Chief Justice
and her counsel walked out of the Select Committee yesterday it was maintained
by the Committee that no oral evidence will be led and despite our demands to
cross examine the witnesses we were not given the list of witnesses or
documents and were told that there will be no witnesses called. This same
observation has been made by the Opposition Members of the Select Committee
today at 2.30 pm, according to the statement issued by them.
We now find that
after the Chief Justice and her lawyers walked out of the Select Committee, the
Committee has called for witnesses and led their evidence. We understand that
all those witnesses were summoned today (the 7th ) after the lawyers
walked out. It appears to us that as long as the Chief Justice and her lawyers
were present witnesses would not have been called. We are shocked to find that
witnesses have been hurriedly summoned and their evidence led, taking advantage
of the absence of the Chief Justice and her lawyers who were prepared to cross
examine each and every witness in order to expose the truth. In fact the
lawyers demanded that the witnesses be called, demanded a list of witnesses and
document and demanded that the procedure be laid down, all of which were refused.
