The Bar Council of England and Wales has called on Sri Lanka rulers to respect the independence of the judiciary, in the wake of judges being called before a parliament panel following an order on releasing funds for a local election. Sri Lanka’s Treasury has so far not provided allocated funds to hold an election, effectively delaying it indefinitely, after President Ranil Wickremesinghe as Finance Minister set up a priority list for spending. Instead of carrying out the order, judges are to be called before a Parliament committee. The full statement is reproduced below: Bar Council statement on judicial independence in Sri Lanka Elections to Sri Lanka’s Local Authorities are supposed to have taken place by 19 March 2023. The Sri Lankan Parliament has allocated funds through the National Budget, but release of the funds has been blocked despite requests from the Elections Commission. On 3 March 2023 a three-judge bench of the Sri Lankan Supreme Court issued an interim order to the Attorney-General and to the Secretary to the Treasury to refrain from withholding funds for the elections to the country’s local authorities. The Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament has recently accepted a request to refer the conduct of the three Supreme Court judges to the Sri Lankan Parliamentary Committee on Ethics and Privileges, and on 10 March the Sri Lankan Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe told Parliament that “it is a serious offence to implement the interim order before hearing the privilege issue by the Parliamentary Committee on Ethics and Privileges.” The Minister then requested the Deputy Speaker to advise all relevant authorities not to act on matters relating to the polls until the said Parliamentary Committee concludes its inquiry on the matter. The Parliamentary authorities have now written to the Court Registry asking for a copy of the interim order to be placed before the Committee on Privileges on 22 March 2023. The UN Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary state that “it is the duty of all governmental and other institutions to respect and observe the independence of the judiciary” and “there shall not be any inappropriate or unwarranted interference with the judicial process, nor shall judicial decisions by the courts be subject to revision.” 0 Comments

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