– Highlighting that the present government will one day understand why there is so much opposition to the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, past President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) Saliya Peiris stressed that ‘one must not monkey with the Judiciary’.Peiris came up with this remark at a seminar organized by an independent movement named ‘Save our sovereignty (SOS) in Colombo.

He stressed the point using a real life example. “At the time the investigations were going on against late Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike during the time of the late President J.R. Jayewardene, she had told an eminent lawyer that the very judges whom she had once  appointed are carrying out a probe against her. This lawyer then replied, saying, “That is why Madam one should not monkey with the Judiciary,'”  he said. Also, he claimed that almost everyone in the legal fraternity is against the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution. “Some lawyers who hold press conferences welcoming the legislation have told us that they are against it personally, though they welcome it in public. There are Ministers and MPs who silently oppose the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution,” he said.