COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s Parliament appointed 11 lawmakers, seven of them in the ruling party’s coalition yesterday to investigate an impeachment motion that accuses the country’s chief justice of misusing power and having unexplained wealth.

Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake denies wrongdoing, and opposition parties and independent analysts say the impeachment attempt is aimed at stifling judiciary independence and concentrating power with Sri Lanka’s president.

Coalition lawmakers submitted the motion two weeks ago, calling for a Parliament Select Committee to investigate 14 charges and remove Bandaranayake. It alleged her actions had “plunged the Supreme Court and the office of chief justice into disrepute.”

Parliamentary Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa announced that the committee — which includes seven government lawmakers and four from opposition parties — would investigate the charges published in Parliament’s official agenda last week. The committee is headed by government minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, who is also a lawyer. Bandaranayake has said she “can easily refute” the allegations. She also has said she will continue to discharge her duties “without fear or favor” and “independently, impartially and fearlessly in accordance with the law.”

The complaint alleges that Bandaranayake did not disclose how she obtained 19 million rupees ($146,000) to pay for a house purchased under power of attorney for another person. It also alleges that she took control of several cases filed against the company that sold the property after removing the judges who originally heard them.

The motion also accuses Bandaranayake of not declaring the contents of 20 bank accounts, including four foreign currency accounts containing the equivalent of 34 million rupees ($260,000), and alleges that she misused her position to harass other judges.

If the committee determines that the complaint has merit, an impeachment motion will be voted on and forwarded to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the speaker’s brother, for further action. With the ruling coalition controlling more than two-thirds of Parliament’s seats, the motion is expected to be carried easily.

The impeachment attempt follows months of conflict between Parliament and the judiciary.

The secretary of the Judicial Services Commission, Manjula Thilakaratne, was assaulted last month after he said that powerful people were trying to interfere with its work and with judges, and that their families were under threat.

Opposition parties accused the government of involvement in the attack, but the government denied responsibility.

Bandaranayake came under strong government criticism after she ruled that a government bill violated the constitution. The bill seeks to give wider powers to minister of economic development Basil Rajapaksa, another brother of the president.

The Center for Policy Alternatives, a local public policy group, expressed concerned about the procedures in Parliament and said the “impeachment proceedings are incompatible with the principles of natural justice.”

The group said in a statement emailed Tuesday that the rules in Parliament “open a wide door for partisan decision making, which fundamentally undermines the rule against bias.”