Appeal Court suspends Puttalam Court order to remand lady lawyer

THE Court of Appeal yesterday (31), on the day of the Eid-al-Fitr festival, to hear a matter of grave concern upon the application made to Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) President, attorney at Law Ranley Amarasuriya, and granted interim relief suspending an order by the Puttalam High Court Judge, resulting in the release of a remanded lawyer on contempt charges.

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The matter at hand concerned a lady lawyer practicing in the Puttalam High Court since 2019, who was found to be in contumacious conduct. According to the charge sheet, the lawyer was found to be in contempt for failing to respectfully address the presiding judge and failing to bow when entering the courthouse.

For the longest time, Sri Lanka has heard and dealt with contempt matters based on people, as there was no codified law governing contempt matters. It was under that era that people witnessed the imprisonment of Manorigama Pattini Ralahamy, Hemapala, but spend years for conducting himself in a contemptuous manner.

Due to the vagueness of what amounts to contempt, the law falls outside. The codification, there were many calls for the codification of the law, thereby minimising arbitrariness or the veracity of such action through regular institutions. It was also the hope of clearing the path between contempt and constructive academic criticism of judgments and other judicial conduct of courts and similar institutions that called for such codification.

On 28 March, the High Court Judge of Puttalam brought charges against the Attorney, who is a member of the Puttalam bar. Proceedings commenced at about 2 p.m. on Friday (28), which then headed towards a three-day holiday, including yesterday.