COLOMBO: Sri Lankan lawyers continue to recognise Shirani Bandaranayake as the country’s chief justice, although she had been impeached by parliament and sacked in January this year.

This was evident at the ceremonial induction of the newly elected president of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) here on Saturday. Departing from the tradition of getting the serving chief justice to be the chief guest, the BASL invited the sacked CJ, Shirani Bandaranayake, to be the guest of honour.

As she arrived at the venue, a smiling Bandaranayake was greeted by BASL members with the beating of drums and loud applause. She was the first to be called upon to light the traditional ornate oil lamp and was given the pride of place at the head table. Serving Chief Justice Mohan Peiris (the former attorney general) and Law Minister Rauff Hakeem chose to absent themselves.

In his speech, the newly elected BASL president, Upul Jayasuriya, swore to uphold the independence of the judiciary against the executive’s tendency to tread over the courts “with police boots”.

Quoting from Rabindranath Tagore, he said: “Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it. Let me not look for allies in life’s battlefield, but to my own strength.”

Former Supreme Court judge, C.V. Vigneswaran, warned that defiant lawyers could be subject to character assassination and even violence, and appealed to them to stick to the path they had chosen because the journey was necessary to “oust coercion” from judicial administration in Sri Lanka.

Among those present were former Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga and key opposition leaders Karu Jayasuriya and Lakshman Kiriella.