Sri Lanka’s Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake is facing 14 charges of misconduct and financial impropriety in the motion of impeachment presented against her in the parliament on Tuesday.
Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa informed the parliament the receipt of the motion signed by 117 MPs of the ruling party.
The motion was placed on parliament’s order book and the Speaker called a meeting of party leaders to discuss the issue.
The charges include the purchasing of property, “by paying a sum of Rs. 19,362,500 in cash, the manner in which such sum of money was earned had not been disclosed,” the impeachment motion read.
She was charged of not declaring in her annual declaration her assets and liabilities, the details of approximately Rs 34 million in foreign currency deposited at a bank.
She is also charged of failing to declare details of more than 20 bank accounts maintained in various banks.
The motion notes that Pradeep Kariyawasam, the lawful husband of Ms. Bandaranayake, is a suspect in relation to legal action initiated at the Magistrate’s Court of Colombo in connection with the offences regarding acts of bribery and/or corruption.
The impeachment of Ms. Bandranayake, 54 was the culmination of months of a dispute between the government and the judiciary.
Parliamentary officials said the next step would be the appointment of a select committee to probe the charges.
The Rajapaksa government was angered by an earlier ruling of the court that the ‘Divi Naguma’ bill, as it is called, needs to be approved by the island’s nine provincial councils before being adopted in parliament.