-By LeN Special Correspondent
(Lanka-e-News - 13.Oct.2025, 11.00 PM) A disturbing confrontation inside the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court has sparked outrage across Sri Lanka and among international policing bodies after a serving police constable was allegedly verbally abused, stripped of his uniform, and remanded following a clash with a lawyer.
Video footage widely shared on social media shows attorney Gunaratna Wanninayake hurling a stream of filthy insults at the officer, who had been assigned to guard the court complex. Witnesses said the lawyer taunted the policeman, demanding to know where he was from and declaring that “lawyers are superior to police officers.”
Moments later, the situation deteriorated: the officer was accused of “pushing” the lawyer, arrested on the spot, forced to remove his uniform, and brought before the magistrate in civilian clothes. The magistrate then ordered him remanded in custody, without questioning the conduct of the lawyer whose outburst had triggered the altercation.
Observers were astonished that no senior police officers or fellow lawyers intervened to calm the scene or defend the officer from abuse. “The language used was threatening and contemptuous,” said one court staff member. “But everyone stood silent.”
The magistrate, criticised for failing to inquire into the lawyer’s behaviour, has been accused of taking the side of the legal fraternity while ignoring the officer’s basic rights. “The lawyer was given a free pass,” said a senior retired police official. “The officer was treated like a criminal.”
News of the incident has travelled beyond Sri Lanka, reaching several Commonwealth police federations. The Sri Lanka Police Department is a signatory to an MOU with the Commonwealth Police Association, linking it to networks in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Agencies in these countries, as well as partner police organisations in the United States, European Union, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia, have reportedly expressed concern.
“How can a uniformed officer performing his duty be humiliated inside a court of law?” asked a senior member of the Commonwealth Police Federation. “This undermines respect for the rule of law itself.”
The incident has ignited a wider debate about class and professional hierarchy in Sri Lanka. Critics argue that the country’s legal community often behaves as an elite class, wielding social privilege and political connections to intimidate public servants.
“This police officer may earn a modest salary, but he is still a public officer protected by the Constitution,” said a human-rights advocate. “Equality before the law is not a privilege of income or profession.”
The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL)—which receives funding from the Commonwealth, the US, Australia, the EU, the UK and India—is now facing calls to suspend the lawyer and investigate the confrontation. Legal observers note that under Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court disciplinary rules, such conduct could amount to contempt of court, carrying a possible prison term and disbarment.
Some BASL officials are reportedly attempting to mediate the dispute privately, but senior lawyers insist that the issue “must be addressed publicly and institutionally.”
Civil-society organisations have condemned the officer’s treatment, describing the forced removal of his uniform as a violation of human dignity and a breach of due-process standards. “There is a legal mechanism for inquiry if a police officer misbehaves,” said a Colombo attorney. “Arbitrary humiliation is not justice.”
The incident has also drawn comment from three Commonwealth police trainers currently working at the Sri Lanka Police College, who expressed shock at what they described as “a culture of professional contempt between lawyers and police.”
For many Sri Lankans, the episode symbolises the deep-rooted imbalance between the nation’s police and legal elites.
“If lawyers can threaten and abuse a uniformed officer inside a court complex, what happens outside it?” asked one senior journalist. “This is about power, not law.”
Legal scholars say the absence of standardised billing and ethical oversight has allowed parts of the legal profession to behave as an unregulated aristocracy, turning the courts into “private fiefdoms of privilege.”
As outrage mounts, police unions and Commonwealth partners are preparing to raise the matter through international human-rights mechanisms, including the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers.
“The dignity of the police uniform must be defended,” said a senior British policing expert. “When that dignity is stripped away, it is not just one officer who suffers—it is the credibility of the justice system itself.”
For now, lawyer Gunaratna Wanninayake has made no public comment. But among both Sri Lankan citizens and the global policing community, one question echoes:
“If this can happen inside a courtroom, what hope is left for justice outside it?”
-By LeN Special Correspondent
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by (2025-10-13 17:29:19)
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