The Sri Lankan courts were said to be at a standstill on Friday as lawyers abstained from work across the country, resulting in cases presented before the Supreme Court, Court of appeal, High court and district court being postponed until next week.

A statement from the Asian Human Rights commission has outlined plans by lawyers and judges in Sri Lanka to boycott legal proceedings in protest of an attack on the Magistrate’s Court and High court in Mannar. The attacks on the Magistrate’s courts were allegedly instigated by a government minister after he contacted the Magistrate to discourage him from placing sanctions on a group of criminals.

Earlier this week, lawyers from the North also protested against the minister. See the report from TamilNet here.

Noting the current state of the Judiciary in Sri Lanka, the Asian Human Rights Commission stated that,

“Today the situation has come to a point where the functioning of the judiciary has become almost impossible. The judges complain of warrants not being executed by the police. The police in turn complain of being brought under the thumbs of politicians and therefore being unable to enforce the law. The people, in turn, complain that there is complicity between the police and the criminals and the criminals and the politicians.”

The statement outlined a root cause of the problem in the 1978 Constitution in Sri Lanka, which gives the president the power to appoint or dismiss the chief justice and every other judge in the courts.

Discussing the judiciary section of the 1978 Constitution, the Asian Human rights commission stated,

“The crisis the judges, lawyers and the very legal system itself are facing now is the result of a prolonged crisis beginning, particularly with the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka. The very purpose of this Constitution was to undermine the parliament and the judiciary and to place the executive president above the law. As a result of this Constitution all the public institutions such as the civil service, the police, the office of the Election Commissioner, the Attorney General's Department and other commissions such as the Human Rights Commission and the National Police Commission have all lost their independence.”