Gampaha Magistrate Bandula Gunaratne has been transferred to the Sri Lanka Judges’ Institute with immediate effect, following his referral of a contempt of court complaint against Inspector General of Police (IGP) Priyantha Weerasooriya to the President of the Court of Appeal.
The complaint concerned the IGP’s alleged failure to comply with an order to issue a circular directing all police stations to refrain from filing baseless cases against innocent citizens.
The matter arose after the Anti-Vice Unit of the Gampaha Police filed two separate cases against the same suspect on the same day, involving identical drug possession charges.
When questioned by the Magistrate, police acknowledged that the duplicate filing had been an oversight and sought permission to withdraw one of the cases.
The Magistrate strongly reprimanded the police, ordered compensation to be paid to the suspect and directed the IGP to issue a circular instructing officers to refrain from instituting unlawful cases.
After determining that the IGP’s failure to comply with the directive constituted contempt of court, the Magistrate referred a complaint to the President of the Court of Appeal, seeking action.
The IGP subsequently complained to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) about the Magistrate’s actions. The Commission then requested observations from Magistrate Gunaratne.
Following the submission of those observations, JSC Secretary Prasanna Alwis issued a letter notifying the Magistrate of his transfer to the Sri Lanka Judges’ Institute with immediate effect.
