Justice Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapaksha told Parliament on Wednesday that unethical conduct of a handful of judges had led to erosion of public faith in the judiciary.Speaking after SLPP-dissident Kurunegala District MP Dayasiri Jayasekera raised a privilege issue, Dr. Rajapaksha said that the conduct of some judges had raised concerns and some people blamed him and the government for not acting against such judges with questionable conduct.

“The judges are expected to conduct as per the Latin maxim, Fiat Justitia ruat caelum, which means that ‘Let justice be done though the heavens fall’. There is a serious situation prevailing with regard to the judges in this country right now. Whenever a case is filed the first question the lawyers and other counsels ask in the Chambers is who the judge is. If the judge is not to their liking, they consider the options of whether they could file the same case in another court. There are some instances where the clients of certain lawyers announce in public the judgement to be delivered by the judges on the following date. There are some lawyers who assure the clients of getting certain judgements from the judges and they get the same. Such lawyers can get orders from certain courts against the rulings given by some other courts. This is leading towards an unprecedented crisis in the judiciary and legal profession. People question us how such things happen. They go on blaming the government and the Justice Minister for the misdeeds of these judges. We have no control over them.

There was an instance where two investigations confirmed that a Magistrate living in a bungalow next to the Mount Lavinia court had obtained electricity and water illegally. That was uncovered when another judge complained of this illegal act to the Judicial Service Commission. The Commission sent an electrician to look into the matter and the latter almost got electrocuted. He had to be admitted to the ICU to save his life.

There are some other judges who instruct their colleagues to give bail to those who were produced before the courts by the police for narcotic related offences. We have found evidence that irrespective of the quantity of the drugs, some judges impose paltry sums as fines and some have been given bail even without fines.

There was one instance where a stock of whiskey worth over Rs 200 million went missing from the Colombo Magistrate’s Court’s storeroom. There were police and government analyst investigations. Both investigations concluded that there had been no break-in, but the actual keys had been used to take them away. No action has been taken against those who are responsible by the judges for reasons known only to them.

In the same court, it was found by a new Magistrate that the fingerprint machine recording the attendance of court employees had been tampered with. When questioned by the new judge, the employees responded that it had been the known practice and the former judge had approved of it.

Such misconduct is only on the part of a handful of judges, who have brought their profession into disrepute. For example, among us in this House are some corrupt MPs, but all 225 of us have to face public opprobrium. The same goes for judges. This is a very serious matter and we must find solutions for this without further delay because this situation will lead to unintended consequences,” the Minister said.