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S.Lanka's Supreme Court Issues Order to Prevent Impeachment Against Chief Justice
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court issued an order on Wednesday to block impeachment proceedings in parliament against Chief Justice Sarath Silva proposed by the main opposition United National Party (UNP).
The Supreme Court was trying to prevent Parliamentary Speaker Anura Bandaranaike, President Kumaratunga's brother, from appointing a panel of legislators to investigate allegations of chief justice's misconducts.
The UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe said the Supreme Court had no right to issue orders on the rights and powers of parliament and it should only act within its limitation.
"Supreme Court was responsible for protecting fundamental rights but should not intervene unnecessarily in the activities of other constitutional institutions," he said.
"Supreme Court had no authority to issue an order over an impeachment of which it knew nothing and therefore it was not necessary to debate the Supreme Court ruling," he added.
Meanwhile, Anura said the Supreme Court's order was unprecedented. "This is the first time this happened in Sri Lanka' s constitutional history," he said.
However, he said he had received the impeachment and after taking into consideration the views of all members, he would issue a statement.
The UNP handed over proposals with 77 signatures to the Parliament earlier on Wednesday to impeach the chief justice on allegations of misconducts.
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