AWARD WINNING ARTICLE- "THE DOCK-TO HAVE OR NOT HAVE - JUSTICE GAMINI AMARATUNGA MEMORIAL AWARD

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The image below depicts a Dock.




බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය යටත් විජිත යුගයේ පටන් "විත්ති කූඩුව" අප රටේ උසාවි තුල අපරාධ යුක්ති විනිශ්චය පද්ධතියේ සංකේතාත්මක ව්‍යුහයක් විය. සියලු අපරාධ නඩුවලට සම්බන්ධ චූදිතයන් නඩු විභාගය අතරතුර විත්ති කූඩුවේ සිට ගැනීමට සැලැස්වීමට විරුද්ධව කිසිදු අභියෝගයක් එල්ලවී නොමැත. විත්ති කූඩුව යනු පිළිකුල් සහගත ස්ථානයක් බව පොදු මතයක් පැවතුනද, එකී මතය හුදෙක්ම පදනම් රහිත එකකි. විත්ති කුඩුව නීතිය ඉදිරියේ පරිශුද්ධ ස්ථානයකි. මන්ද, විත්ති කූඩුවේ සිටගන්නා පුද්ගලයන් නිර්දෝෂී බව (ඔවුනට විරුද්ධව එල්ල කර ඇති චෝදනාව සහේතුක සාධාරණ සැකයෙන් ඔබ්බට ඔප්පු කරන තුරු) ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව පූර්වානුමානය කරන්නේය . බොහෝවිට නීතිඥවරුන්ට හා වෙනත් වෘත්තීන් ට අයත් පුද්ගලයන්ට විරුද්ධව චෝදනා එල්ල වන අවස්ථාවේ දී නඩු විභාගය අතරතුර ඔවුන් විත්ති කූඩුවෙන් එළියේ සිට ගැනීමට කැමැත්තක් දක්වන අතර, එකී ක්‍රියාවලිය දිරිමත්කිරිම අධිකරණ හමුවේ රට වැසියන්ව දෙවිදියකට සැලකීමක් බව සමහර අයගේ මතයයි. විත්ති කූඩුවේ සිට ගැනීම යමෙකු නින්දාවට පත් කරන සුළු ක්‍රියාවක් බව නොසැලකිය යුතුය. නිතිය හමුවේ සියලු අය එකසමාන බව මෙමගින් පිළිබිඹුවේ.  

                                  Justice Gamini Amaratunga addressing a seminar. 

Since the British colonial era, the DOCK has been a symbolic structure of the criminal justice system in our country's criminal courts.  The dock is a sacred place in the eyes of the law, despite the common perception to the contrary. The significance attached to the DOCK is such that everyone standing inside it, is presumed innocent until his guilt is proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The dock is a sanctuary and the one who stands in it cannot be questioned even by the King. The protective umbrella over the DOCK is not creation of an ordinary Statute but the Supreme Law of the Republic. Often Lawyers and other professionals prefer to stay out of the dock during their trials when accusations are made against them. such an arrangement to facilitate selected individuals to be out of the dock may amount to discriminatory treatment that violates the principle of equality enshrined in the Constitution. For this reason, having to stand in the dock should not be considered an act of humiliation. 

The esteemed article appended to this post is titled THE DOCK-TO HAVE OR NOT HAVE and authored by a well-respected Judicial Officer. It won the Justice Nimal Gamini Amaratunga Memorial Award. Gallelawblogger takes great pleasure in publishing the article for the reading pleasure of its subscribers. 

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