Media Statement
Justice - not haste - should be overriding concern
There is a basis for this concern and the new Chief Justice seems to recognise this problem.
He was right on target when he stated that it was an "unpalatable fact" that public confidence in the judiciary had eroded to the detriment of justice.
The alleged conduct of the former Chief Justice and his family consorting with a lawyer and his family during a holiday in New Zealand has shattered public confidence in the impartiality of the courts. Some recent controversial court verdicts have brought the entire judiciary under a cloud while Justice Syed Idid's explosive letter implicating a dozen judges has inflicted a grievous blow on the judiciary from which it has not yet recovered.
All this has seriously undermined justice and eroded the integrity of the judiciary.
The Chief Justice has pledged that his mission is "to bring the judiciary back to its past glories when it was highly respected."
This can only be done when a Commission of Inquiry reaffirms the integrity of the 12 judges named by Justice Idid and confirms that the recent court verdicts were fair and without bias.
P Ramakrishnan | |||||||||||||||
Redistribution of defamation and contempt court cases to a pool of judges may hasten the process of clearing cases. But our concern is justice: will justice be dispensed fairly and with integrity?