{"id":48872,"date":"2016-10-09T16:31:14","date_gmt":"2016-10-09T20:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=48872"},"modified":"2016-10-09T16:31:14","modified_gmt":"2016-10-09T20:31:14","slug":"ex-district-judge-lenin-ratnayake-gets-injunction-against-the-filmsilence-in-the-courtabout-the-wife-of-an-accused-being-raped-by-a-magistrate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=48872","title":{"rendered":"Ex-District Judge Lenin Ratnayake Gets Injunction Against the film”Silence in the Court”About the wife of an Accused being Raped by a Magistrate"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Rasika Jayakody<\/strong><\/p>\n

Veteran film director Prasanna Vithanage\u2019s film, \u2018Silence in the Court\u2019 was at the centre of a major controversy when the Colombo District Court issued an injunction against the screening of the film, following a lawsuit filed by former judge Lenin Ratnayake.<\/p>\n

A day before the injunction order was issued, the film was screened at the Regal Cinema, Colombo, to a selected audience that included politicians, activists, journalists and artistes. \u2018Silence in the Court\u2019 was a documentary based on the controversy surrounding Ratnayake, which made headlines in media, in the late 90s, under the Presidency of Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.<\/p>\n

It was alleged that Ratnayake raped the wife of an accused on the pretext of obtaining a statement about her husband and also to have embezzled funds while functioning as a clerk at the National Insurance Corporation. At the time the allegations surfaced, Ratnayake served as the Magistrate of Mahawa.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The allegations against Ratnayake were first revealed in the Ravaya newspaper, edited by Victor Ivan. After the newspaper published the story, Ratnayake lodged a complaint with the CID against Ravaya newspaper and it ultimately resulted in a prolonged legal battle between the judge and the newspaper.<\/p>\n

As the battle progressed, Ivan, a well-known journalist, charged that the Attorney General at the time, former Chief Justice Sarath Nanda Silva, had allegedly taken steps to prevent the issuance of a report to the President of the Court of Appeal by the CID Director on the investigation and allegedly suppressed documents made available by the CID.<\/p>\n

This plunged Ivan into a parallel battle with Sarath N Silva who later headed the country\u2019s judiciary. When Silva was appointed the Chief Justice by the then President, the Ravaya carried an upside down picture of the new Chief Justice on the front page, saying it was the \u201cdeath of the judiciary\u201d. The controversial front page of the Ravayais considered a landmark in Sri Lanka\u2019s contemporary journalism.<\/p>\n

The documentary film was jointly produced by H. D. Premasiri and Prasanna Vithanage. Although the producers decided to release the documentary for a limited audience locally, it was screened at several film festivals including Sakhalin International Film Festival, South Asian Himal Festival \u2013 Nepal, San Francisco South Asian Film Festival, Seattle South Asian Film Festival, Ottawa Human Rights Festival, Toronto Human Rights Film Festival and Melbourne Indian International Film Festival.<\/p>\n

The injunction order, issued by Colombo District Judge N.U. Gunasekara, barred the screening of the film, until October 18.<\/p>\n

In his lawsuit, former District Judge Rathnayake said the film, based on the story of a woman sexually abused by a judge, was causing damage to his character and the reputation of the entire judiciary. He said the allegations against him were baseless, unproven and unfounded and that no legal action had been taken against him, over the matter. The former District Judge, in his lawsuit, said he had also filed a case against a TV programme, for making similar allegations.<\/p>\n

The District Court\u2019s injunction order, however, opened up a fresh dialogue, especially in the social media space, over the transparency of the judiciary and the conduct of judges. Many critiques who contributed to the dialogue highlighted the need for independent bodies such as the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) to ensure independence and transparency is the system.<\/p>\n

They said the documentary film spoke volumes of the downfall of the system- at large, rather than an isolated incident involving a woman and a judge.<\/p>\n

Apart from the dialogue it has opened up over freedom of expression of an artiste vis-\u00e0-vis interest of a controversial judge, the incident surrounding the movie pushes the country\u2019s lawmakers to adopt a robust framework to ensure checks and balances in the judicial system, especially at a time when Sri Lanka is moving in the direction of formulating a new constitution.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Daily News<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rasika Jayakody Veteran film director Prasanna Vithanage\u2019s film, \u2018Silence in the Court\u2019 was at the centre of a major controversy when the Colombo District Court issued an injunction against the screening of the film, following a lawsuit filed by former judge Lenin Ratnayake. A day before the injunction order was issued, the film was …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Ex-District Judge Lenin Ratnayake Gets Injunction Against the film”Silence in the Court”About the wife of an Accused being Raped by a Magistrate’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48872"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48873,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48872\/revisions\/48873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}