Members of Lawyers’ Collective, who were protesting in Colombo demanding the resignation of Chief Justice Mohan Peiris charged that the CJ was involved in former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s alleged plot to retain power through military intervention.
They asserted that the Chief Justice was present at the Temple Trees in the wee hours of January 09, when Rajapaksa allegedly ordered the Attorney General and security forces to prevent the Elections Commissioner from issuing results – through emergency regulations.
Prime Minister and UNP National Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, when he visited Temple Trees on early Friday morning, had met Chief Justice Peiris inside the former President’s residence. It was learnt that Wickremesinghe had asked Peiris as to what he was doing inside the President’s residence at that particular hour.
Peiris, in response, had said he visited Temple Trees to give some “legal opinion” to former President Rajapaksa.
The protestors charged that the Chief Justice’s alleged involvement in the ‘coup’ should be investigated, while adding that he was not a ‘suitable candidate’ to hold the office of the country’s Chief Justice
Peiris joined the Attorney General's Department in 1981 as a state counsel, later becoming a Senior State Counsel. He left the Attorney General's Department in 1996.
Peiris was appointed Attorney General on 18 December 2008.
He withdrew murder charges in a case against former deputy minister Chandana Kathriarachchi and served an indictment on unlawful assembly for which the accused pleaded guilty. Furthermore, he withdrew a rape case against Government Party Parliamentarian Duminda Silva.
Peiris was appointed Senior Legal Officer to the Cabinet in September 2011. He also became the chairman of Seylan Bank in April 2012.
He represented Sri Lanka in The UN Committee Against Torture in 2011 in which he said that the Sri Lankan government has received intelligence information that missing lankaenews cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda is living in a foreign country. However he concurred that he lied when he was summoned by a local court.
The same person was appointed as Sri Lanka’s 44th Chief Justice following the impeachment of CJ 43 Shirani Bandaranayake.
