Nov 01, Colombo: Former Chief Justice of Sri Lanka Sarath N. Silva says that the government's move to hand over a motion against Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake would deal a devastating blow to the entire judiciary.

Silva told a press conference today that the move would have an adverse impact on the independence of the judiciary and create a bad precedent to the entire judiciary.

Also addressing the news conference former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka expressed his opposition to the move to impeach the Chief Justice and said the move would damage the country's judiciary.

Legislature's decision to move against the Chief Justice came after weeks of bickering between the executive and the judiciary. The judiciary has accused the executive of unduly influencing the country's justice system.

Meanwhile, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, who had headed the group of five governing party legislators that handed over a motion against Chief Justice, said that the charges leveled against Dr. Bandaranayake could be proven.

The motion handed over to the Speaker of the parliament, Chamal Rajapaksa, today has requested the Speaker to appoint a Select Committee to remove the Chief Justice.

According to the Minister, there are several counts of "misbehavior" on the part of the Chief Justice in order to move for her removal. Wanniarachchi has said that one of the issues were the Supreme Court's failure to recognize the Speaker's authority in the parliament in regarding the decision on the petition to the Divi Neguma Bill. Earlier this month the Speaker warned the country's apex court for disregarding his authority in the parliament when the court sent its ruling on the controversial Divineguma bill to the Secretary General of Parliament instead of the Speaker.

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