Gampaha Magistrate Bandula Gunaratne has referred a case file to the President of the Court of Appeal (CoA) to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the Inspector General of Police (IGP) for contempt of court.
The Magistrate ruled that the IGP had disregarded the court’s instructions and accused the police of attempting to mislead the judiciary.
He also directed the court registrar to refer 02 case files to the CoA involving a person charged with possessing drugs on the basis of false information allegedly provided by officers of the Gampaha Police Anti-Corruption Unit.
When the case relating to the incident was taken up yesterday (Oct. 21), officers from the Police Legal Division, appearing on behalf of the Sri Lanka Police, submitted to the court a set of guidelines issued on Oct. 19 by the Deputy Inspector General responsible for the Western Province North Range.
The guidelines covered officers in the Gampaha, Kelaniya and Negombo police divisions.
The Magistrate then asked the police to whom the court had issued its orders. The officers responded that the relevant order had been issued to the IGP.
The Magistrate also asked whose letter had been submitted to the court yesterday.
The police officers informed the court that it had been issued by the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) responsible for the Western Province North Range.
The Magistrate said, “This is like asking a donkey to do a dog’s homework. When the court orders the issuance of a circular covering all police officers throughout the country, is it sufficient to issue separate instruction sheets to police officers in each province? If a similar incident occurs in another province, will a separate instruction sheet be issued to the police officers there as well? In a country where circulars are issued the following morning after someone dreams something at night, it is only when a court orders the issuance of a circular on an issue like this that it cannot be done. If the police treat a court order in this manner, what can be said about everything else in the country? Even after the police begin investigating a crime, they do the same thing. They drag cases out until the parties lose interest. They delay filing cases until witnesses forget the incident. This letter itself shows the extent of the regard the police have for the court.”
The Magistrate strongly criticised the conduct of the police, stressing that informing the IGP or the National Police Commission (NPC) would serve no purpose.
He also noted that the police had been given nearly 05 months to take the necessary action in the matter but appeared to have failed to do so.
In these circumstances, the Magistrate ruled that the IGP had committed contempt of court by failing to implement the orders issued to him and referred the case file to the President of the Court of Appeal for contempt of court proceedings to be initiated against the IGP.