Chief Justice of Sri Lanka

[2] The chief justice Mohan Peiris PC was appointed on 15 January 2013 following the controversial impeachment of Shirani Bandaranayake.

[3][4] Prior to his appointment he was Chairman of Seylan Bank, Senior Legal Officer to the Cabinet and held the post of attorney general.

On 28 January 2015 Peiris was removed from office and his tenure demoted as de facto chief justice as the Government of Sri Lanka acknowledged that his appointment was void at its inception as the sitting judge, Shirani Bandaranayake, was not impeached lawfully and therefore no vacancy existed for the post.

The appointment and removal of judges of the Supreme Court is outlined in Chapter XV Article 107 of the Sri Lankan Constitution.

It states that "the Chief Justice and every other Judge of the Supreme Court shall be appointed by the President of the Republic by warrant under his hand".

[5] The chief justice serves as chairman of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), which consist of two judges of the Supreme Court appointed by the president of the republic.

[5] The mission of the JSC is to accelerate the development of the nation by ensuring prompt and equal protection of the law to every citizen through providing infrastructure services required for administration of justice, safeguarding the independence of judges and maintaining proper human resources management in the support staffs in court.

This capacity ceased with the second amendment to the republican constitution in 1978, when the executive presidency was established and order of succession defined.

[8] The chief justice is ranked fourth in the order of precedence after the president, prime minister and the speaker of the Parliament.