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Sri Lanka's talkative Chief Justice, Sarath Nandana Silva, recently threatened that he would expose the corruption of the Sri Lankan government's finance officials unless the government increases salaries in his trade.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the District Civil Court at the Mount Lavinia court complex, he asked the judges not to let the corrupt and wasteful public servants to make decisions on their salaries. Referring to widely speculated mass fraud committed by the Finance Ministry, he said he will expose the other acts committed by these chair-heaters in the near future. He also blamed the officials who refused to increase his salary as those who are trying to destroy the country and his trade. These are big allegations and one hopes that the Chief Justice has enough proof to back up his words, but looking at his past record one shouldn’t be too hopeful, for even if he does have proof, the salaries for the judges will probably increase and if not for all the judges then most definitely Mr. Silva’s at least and with it all the proofs shall cease to exist as well. Threatening is something that has been associated with Mr. Silva in his career for a while now. In February 2003, Mr. Silva was charged by two district judges over misconduct and mishandling the case of Michael Anthony Fernando, a man who came to seek justice and was unjustly imprisoned by Mr. Silva for over a year and beaten by prison guards. Many people in Sri Lanka say that it is quite simply a country without justice. It may be unreasonable to attribute this entire condition to the Chief Justice, but it is reasonable to say that he has contributed to this situation greatly. Lawyers typically claim he intimidates them when in court, and threatens to debar them from practice, especially in human rights cases. Others tell of his manipulating panels and dates of hearings in a manner that casts doubt on the objectivity of proceedings. In a lengthy book entitled The Unfinished Struggle for the Independence of the Judiciary (2002), prominent journalist Victor Ivan has exposed extensive misconduct and abuse of authority by Sarath Silva both as Attorney General and Chief Justice. There has been no official denial of the allegations made in this book, nor has the author been subjected to any legal action, despite inviting it. In fact, most of the material in the book was previously published in newspapers and is widely known to the public in Sri Lanka. With such a track record the one person whose corruption needs to be exposed before anything or anyone else is Mr. Silva himself. Apparently there are only 295 judges in Sri Lanka and the Chief Justice is not happy with the amount of salaries paid to the judiciary. There are many ways to go about asking for an increment, however the way opted by the Chief Justice is definitely not one of them. He exposed himself when threatening to expose the officials. Is not that official bribe in other words, if his salary is increased he will not expose them? Should such a person be allowed to be the Chief Justice for a state? Being the Chief Justice of a country it is his duty to expose corrupt government officials regardless of the fact if he’s paid a handsome salary or not. This statement of Mr. Silva gives a clear idea about how easy it would be to manipulate the judicial system of Sri Lanka, all one has to do is fill the coffers of the Chief Justice and his officers. 
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