Fmr. CJ case dismissed

24 March 2011 04:36 pm Views - 7687

A civil suit filed against former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva alleging that he misused his power and avenged personal animosities in his capacity as the CJ was dismissed by the Colombo District Court with costs today.

Dismissing the civil suit filed by B.K.A. Pathmasiri Balasuriya of Bahirawakanda in Kandy, the District Court ordered that the former CJ be paid five times the tax costs of the case, considering the frivolous and vexatious nature of the action.

Mr. Balasuriya had filed this action in September 2009 citing Sarath N. Silva of Gregory’s Road, Colombo 7 as the defendant and sought an order to declare that the former CJ had misused his powers and acted with malice and had remanded him for 294 days after having him arrested on a false allegation. Mr. Balasuriya said he had estimated the suffering he underwent having to be in remand and the damage caused to his reputation at Rs.10 million.

Supporting the action, Mr. Balasuriya said Mr. Silva who was then President of the Court of Appeal was angry with him over an action he filed in Kandy in 1992 against the Ven. Rambukwelle Vipassi Mahanayake Thera of the Malwatta Chapter over a land dispute and subsequent order he had obtained from the Court of Appeal. Later on March 30, 2007 when the plaintiff went to the Kandy Magistrate’s Court he was falsely arrested on an order of Kandy District Judge for alleged impersonation as a lawyer within the Kandy court complex he was kept in remand for 294 days till January 8, 2008. (Susitha R. Fernando)