A magistrate has been stripped of his position following a complaint lodged by a Civil Society Organization, for the first time in Sri Lankan judicial history. DMAI Dissanayake, who allegedly obtained his position by submitting an application using a false address has been removed from his post.

Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon, Executive Director of Centre for Human Rights (CHR) lodged a complaint against Dissanayake's appointment at the Judicial Services Commission stating that Dissanayake has given a false address in his application, at No 73/1, Water Tank Road, Colombo 10, had engaged in active politics for some time, organized meetings supporting the removal of former CJ Shirani Bandaranayake and taking part in actively supporting the forces that removed Shirani Bandaranayake from her position, ignoring the Bar Association of Sri Lanka's directives.

It was further said that Dissanayake also posts highly political material on his Facebook profile.

Appointment of suitable persons as magistrates is of vital importance as the rule of law and the judicial system had degenerated significantly in the recent past.

Sri Lanka Bar Association had lodged a verbal complaint against Dissanayake at the Commission. Although they wanted to lodge a complaint later that was not done as of the intervention of a senior judicial officer.'

Commenting on the development Tennakoon said that "this is a landmark in our attempts to reform the judicial system. We have come a long way and it was painful. But now finally we have accomplished something."

This is the first time that a magistrate was removed from the judicial service after a complaint was lodged by a civil society activist