-By LeN Judicial Affairs Correspondent
(Lanka-e-News -09.Sep.2025, 10.45 PM) It sounds like a parody, but it isn’t: Sri Lanka’s judiciary has yet again been rocked by revelations of another scandal-tainted judge — this time a sitting High Court judge in Ampara, accused of corruption, misconduct, and abuse of office stretching back years.
The individual in question is Srinith Wijesekara, currently serving at the Ampara High Court, who is accused of presiding over what lawyers describe as a parallel code of law known locally as the “Wijesekara Code” — a bizarre and arbitrary set of rulings that appear to defy both domestic and international legal norms.
Complaints against Judge Wijesekara have been stacking up since the Rajapaksa era, according to lawyers. Dozens were submitted to the Judicial Services Commission but were quietly buried, allegedly because of his political protection. His brother, Srimal Wijesekara, was considered part of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s inner circle.
Allegations include obtaining free alcohol from excise officers while serving as magistrate in Gampola, hosting private drinking parties with police officers, expelling his first wife and two children from their home to marry a female lawyer using his office for leverage, and handing down favourable rulings to drinking companions. Despite this record, he continued to rise.
In one notorious case, while sitting in Kandy, Wijesekara allegedly told the Judicial Services Commission he needed official fuel allowances to destroy court-confiscated firearms in Trincomalee — only to instead use the trip for a holiday. Former Kandy High Court Judge R.S.S. Sapuwidha lodged a formal complaint with supporting evidence. Yet no action followed. Instead, during Ranil Wickremesinghe’s tenure, Wijesekara was elevated to the High Court — a promotion critics describe as “crowning corruption with honours.”
Today, in Ampara, lawyers and court staff speak of the judge’s own private legal system. Under this so-called “Wijesekara Code”, decisions are made on eccentric personal rules, creating conflict with the Bar Association, friction with police officers, and misery for litigants.
Court staff report that even though an official vehicle was allocated for his travel, he still regularly commandeers police vehicles, placing additional strain on officers.
Local lawyers have now petitioned Chief Justice Preethi Padman Soorasena and the Judicial Services Commission to unseal the long-suppressed files and open an immediate investigation into Wijesekara.
A photograph accompanying the complaints shows the judge himself — dubbed by campaigners as another “judge-burglar” polluting the courts.
Adding to the disquiet, separate revelations have emerged that a senior High Court judge has no fewer than 477 allegations filed against him — a tally so extraordinary that lawyers joke it may qualify for the Guinness Book of Records.
The charges, received during the tenure of former Chief Justice Murdhu Fernando, include falsifying court reports and claiming to have concluded cases that were never adjudicated.
Following the appointment of Chief Justice Soorasena, Supreme Court judge Janak de Silva has been tasked with reviewing the responses of the accused judge and overseeing a full inquiry.
For a judiciary tasked with re-establishing public trust after decades of political interference, the scale and surreal quality of these allegations raise a stark question: is the rule of law finally standing on its feet in Sri Lanka, or still tottering under the weight of its own corruption?
-By LeN Judicial Affairs Correspondent
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by (2025-09-09 17:47:58)
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