What do you perceive is the most important challenge for the judiciary after the impeachment of the CJ in early 2013 (500 characters)?


maintaining the independence of judiciary
Taking independent decisions based on laws.
Whether the Judiciary could withstand the various pressures of unprincipled and illegal ways is the biggest and worst challenge faced.

restore credibility 
overcome political pressure

being independent on its own and bringing justice for the ordinary or waek sections, specially in the case of devolution of more powers to regions.
Being trusted.
Kicking Mohan Pieris out, ASAP. 
Relevance. 
maintaining judicial independence and thereby helping ensure the independence and integrity of the police and other law & order agencies.
Do a productive job, work from 0800h tom1700h.
Remain neutral and let justice be served
To retain its credibility given the appointment of Mohan Peiris as 'successor' to Shirani Banadaranayake
The challenge is to retain the principles ( whatever is left now) under the new CJ who is alleged as corrupt and ensure that the people do not lose confidence in the system of law and justice
Ensuring that the legislature and executive do not force through harmful constitutional amendments
Silence of citizen
firstly to remain principled, and maintain justice. Secondly to go uphill in making justice effective and quick

To maintain professional standards 1) through legal education in Sri Lanka, 2) through continuous professional engagement with fellow judges through the bar association to uphold the independence of the judiciary, 3) to engage with the public to make them aware of the value of the rule of law for their own security, 4) wider engagement with the international legal community and UN to keep vigilance on the abuse of people's mandate given to politicians.


Duly and legally appointed CJ was illegally removed.Credentials of the current CJ are proved to be at stake owing to his statement at UN and in Court in Sri Lanka. Hence future SC judgements become unacceptable and ineffective.
A discredited peson (former presidential advisor) is now the Chief Justice. The Court lacks leadership, direction and stature. building the trust of the people, of business community, investors will be difficult. Now that the head has been axed the courts will be like a decapitated snake of lizard - the body will continue to wriggle and writhe but to little effect.
It is not the Judiciary that face a challange of the dictatorship, it's the People of this Country will have a BIG Challange to have a free & fair legal system 
To be independent and not to be subservient to the Govt.
SEPARATION OF LEGISTLATURE AND JUDICIARY AND ITS INDEPENDENCE
Now established political influence and Government yes men.
To continue to be independent.
It is now left for the few judges who are still keen to restore the confidence of the people in the judiciary to show with their courage to act fearlessly and take appropriate decisions that would restore the confidence of the people in them as individuals who stand for the independence of the judiciary.  They should be able to make it appear to people that they are fair judges but also must show the people that they are so by their actions such as turning down offers of positions after retireme
Time to get off their backsides and show some balls (if they have them).  They must refuse to accept the illegal appointment of the 'replacement' CJ by this illegal regime.  Total non-co-operation.  Tell the new arse-licker to get lost.
To regain its lost independance

Ability to serve the people of Sri Lanka without fear of political and career persecution
To find a statesman-leader who make the people to unite
Building credibility and trust on the judiciary 
Re-establishing the balance among the Executive, Judiciary  and the Legislature.
Well, one is to maintain credibility. How can the incumbent maintain credibility when everyone sees him as a political appointee. Rightfully, he should have declined the position. Also, faith in due process has been lost, not that it deserved any faith in the first place. Now all pretensions are gone.
The apparent passivity towards the growing feeling that the Rajapakses can do anything and that they are justified in whatever they do 
To keep on the idea of an independence judiciary and the access to justice for all.
its been subordinated
To stand up for what is right regardless of the Govt position

The time of "challenges" is past, the rule of law has been destroyed.
To remain independent
It is to regain its independence (as the BASL has done in its recent election) by starting with a better showing of impartiality in the pending cases about the impeachment and the cases against the unlawful CJ Mohan Peiris.
The challenge would be to regain the faith of the International Community in SL's judiciary since the impeachmment brought disgrace on SL's judiciary.
I ahve always had my doubts about the independence of the judiciary. I was a bit pleased to see that things might change. Hope it continues to change and the judiciary rises above Mohan Peiris.
Former CJ SNS rouind the judicery not the politician at that time
The loss of a sense of Justice and fairplay.
The judiciary is now another department of the Executive and subject to the whims of the President
Upholding and sustaining the role of watchdog of rule of law and democracy in the country
maintaining judicial independence despite the current CJ being staunchely pro-govt and with a record of subverting the law. the judiciary is also partly politicized already and judgements sathya hettige and shiranee T questionable. public confidence rapidly eroding and danger of govt using the judiciary for its own ends.

Its independence & the erosion of the Rule of Law


To maintain its integrity and independence despite the replacement Chief Justice being appointed under a flawed process.
To regain its lost credibility; a task made most difficult with a usurper sitting in the CJ's seat.
Retaining some fight until a larger mass movement grows

How to navigate through political pressures
Regaining the confidence of the public in their independence.

Preserving its independence where the law is applied without favour or fear & equally to all citizens of this Country.
Not give in to govt demands 
Demanding independence, not just for judiciary but also auxiliary institutions, such as police, NHRC etc
Maintaining even a semblance of independence and resisting direct political interference. 
They have to stand against this injustice. I understand the plight of the lawyers who stand against this and want the rule of law upheld. Maybe international pressure can be used at this stage. I feel a sense of hopelessness, but I think the independence of the Judiciary has been gradually eroded by successive governments. This has to be reversed. 
Judiciary should uphold the law. That is their job. They should adhere to the principles of discharging justice and do their job. Its the judiciary and the likes of Sarath N Silva who are responsible for the totala destruction of rule of law. they should wake up and do justice- do their job. 
To Restore Dignity
By way of being courageous enough to uphold the rule of law contineously, being a model for a rallying point around which all democratic forces would be mobilized.
To restore public confidence that the law of the land will be respected.
To judge cases on their merits and not on political connections

Stand together and fight on legal points.  world will support
To re-establish credibility, confidence in the public and independence. They have become political puppets like the civil service. Only they can save this country from being over-run by political thugs.
corruption
maintaining its independence;
to preserve the independence of the judiciary
The entire justice system needs a complete overhaul. Cases take far too long

The challeneg is to educate the people about the need for an indpendent judiciary.




to uphold the law where there is no rule of law
The constitution has adopted the unconstitutional/unfair things to be constitutional through the 18th amendment and through urgent bills passed by the money bought parliament which doesn't represent the choice of people 
STRICTLY FOLLOW THE LAW AND ITS PROCEDURES 
Independence of judiciary is killed

Restoreits integrity


Securing its independence and being able to take independent decisions in line with the Sri Lankan Constitution. Moreover, the judiciary needs to be able to ensure that the constitution is not tampered with and that rule of law follows the principles of the constitution (albeit the serious deficiencies in the Constitution). 
nothing
FIGHT FOR THE RIGHTS OF THE SRI LANKANS
Keep from deterioration further. 
independance
Independence, impartiality and the quality of determinations will all be affected.  
the government. not only its influence on the present CJ but also its ability to prevent any action occurring against it even if it means violating the constitution in the rare case of a fair controversial decision being made. even if the judiciary wanted to play its role fair there wouldnt be much point as if they do make a fair decision that doesnt appeal to the government they will be kicked out and it seems like the impeachment of shirani that nobody will do much about it.

To remain impartial.
Will write later as have no time right now.
the judiciary needs to regain its independence
To maintain its supremacy, legitimacy and most importantlyits honour and integrity would be a great challenge for the supreme court in 2013.  would be the most
staying in office until retirement without being run over by a bus 
Regaining independence. 
remain united in its resolve to uphold its standards
maintaining the dignity of the judiciary.  Gone seems the day of Justices who never visited politicians nor where their spouce accepted positions offered by politicians (such as the husband of the current CJ, Dr Bandaranayaka)
To get the respect from the general public. Irrespective of the impeachment ther are some judges who do not posses the required qualities to be a judge. As a result it is difficult to command respect for the judiciary.
To get rid of the boot lickers who occupied the high postion in judciary
Maintaining their independence and ensuring that Government stooges dont get away with everything just becase they can make a call. I guess though we are past that now. The most important thing for teh judiciary now is to find some sense of dignity and sense of purpose.
The judges should posses the capacity to deliver without fear or favour.As most of them are paid servants they may not be able to be fare. It is an acceptred fact the those who adorn the bench are lawyers who do not have good practice and hence money is an important factor for the judges too.

To preserve the independence of the judiciary, which is the last bastion of democracy and the civil society to play a pro active role instead of silently allowing the principles of democrcy to be snuffed out by authoritarianism.
Accountability and transparency
To regainTo re establish it's independence and bring back confidence and respect it deserves by the citizenry 
The main issue is that the rule of law is being eroded by Parliament, with the porgressive loss of independence of the judiciary
Ensuring that the de facto CJ does not become an out and out instrument of the present regime.
To claw back some semblance of independence from the executive.
The inability to give a fair hearing to any case that the State is an accused or even a govt politician 

Begining of the end to the judiciary I knew
To establish some credibility and demonstrate that it is more than a puppet of the government
Vote against it, introduced for selfish reasons and quite unfair by  Shirani Bandaranayake
if by judiciary you mean levels aside from the CJ, there will be serious challanges if they want to ensure justice in certain cases
To ensure that all are equal before the law, this is the greatest challenge. They will have to contend with the constant threat of any decisions they make being overturned if it doesn't suit the government.
To fight to maintain its independence. Not be tempted with carrots offered from to time so that judiciary can maintain its independence and not be viewed as a subservient institution of the Executive


The judiciary has over the years proven to be corrupt, unlawful and driven by politics. Now it is going to be harder to keep up the masquerade it maintained all these years and flouting of laws will probably be more rampant.
The most important challenge is to regain its independence and ensure the people regain faith in the law of the country
regain credibiliy and keep making decitions that they can justify to themselves as being just

Restore credibility of its independence
Bringing back the rule of law to sri lanka and finding a chief justice who is not a political stooge
To make certain that the "CIVIL SERVICE" is de-politicised
control by rajapakse family
To win back its lost reputation and respect for it.
Reconcile itsself to a dodgy CJ. Find some moral leadership. Push back the false CJ's powers. 
To be individually and personally true to your professional code and values. The challenge will be to resist pressures to give verdicts in favour of partisan interests. To work on the evidence presented and act on the merits of each case. Since the Police too are irreparably biased and influenced by the Executive it will require the Judiciary to adopt inquisitorial methods to get at the truth.
restoration of credibility of the court system in sri lanka is going to be very difficult
anyone who has different ideas than Govt of Sri Lanka will be brought before courts, the Juduciary must protect the indipendence of it
The challenge is to maintain their freedom of judgment particularly in relation to cases against the State or its political minions 
Obviously to be just and impartial in their judgements due to political interference.
Exert always the independent judgement irrespective of what the unwanted influnces brought by the head of the judiciary or the politicians. 
It is imperative that legal luminaries practice what they preach instead amassing mass amount s of money through underhand dealings.many of the sharks have escaped and this impeachment should prove adetterent for people engaged in unlawful practics especially in the judiciary and restore the faith they have in the sysytem and the people
To be independent apolitical in giving decisions 
For the Judiciary to be well and truly 'whiter than white' with absolutely no room for any doubt as to their impartiality, morality and integrity in all spheres of their life personal, commercial and professional
To stop all political interference
corruption within the judiciary itself is the most important challenge
The importance and the value of the Judiciary is lost.  People with political power and influence will now use their power to over ride the judiciary and get their things done.  Already this is happening.  People have the feeling now, why should I take upto law when I can get the politician to do what I want and get the judgement in my favour

Judiciary cannot give up their struggle for independence


Not to be politicized; to unite to be independent and just
maintaining its independence of course! But in fact no independence is left, so why even dream about it? 
That honest judges have the courage to act independently / according to law, notwithstanding the consequences, and notwithstanding the fact that other fellow judges may not be inclined to so act, (either out of fear or due to 'corruption' of whatever nature)
The judiciary needs to prove its objectivity and take an impartial stand in matters, especially where there is direct conflict between Parliament and matters of justice. Further, it must support and strengthen public institutions by allowing public/civil servants the descretion that is due to them in matters of administration, and not allow overt politicisation of these instutions... 

Independancy of the Judiciary
How to protect the 'independence of the judiciary', rule of law and justice from the Chief Justice and the judiciary themselves!
the loss of judicial independance and contempt of supreme court. If the chief justice is felt threatened who else can survive dissent against govt?

Upholding rule of law and bulding trust

I was very disappointed at the way the protests died down. 

The judiciary is under total control of the government. Its not good for the independence of the judiciary. It is being a big challenge for the moment.  
TO BE STEADFAST AND CONTINUE IN THE CODE OF ETHICS.
staying impartial and avoid crony judges
Resurrecting the confidence of people in Judiciary