Sri Lanka's Parliament voted overwhelmingly on Friday to impeach the chief justice in a case widely seen by jurists and rights activists as an attempt by the government to ensure a servile judiciary.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa will now decide whether Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake should be dismissed.
Last month, a parliamentary committee ruled that Bandaranayake had unexplained wealth and had misused her power. She has denied the charges and said she was not given a fair hearing.
An appeals court annulled the guilty verdict and forbade any further action by Parliament after the Supreme Court ruled that the committee had no legal power to investigate the allegations.
Parliament's defiance of the court rulings is seen by lawyers and activists as a breach of the constitution that threatens to plunge the courts into crisis. Critics of the president say he wants to remove the last obstacles to absolute power.
President Rajapaksa, riding a wave of popular support after ending a 25-year civil war in 2009, has pushed through laws ending term limits for the presidency and abolishing independent commissions that select top judiciary, police and public service personnel. He now has the power to appoint many of the country's officials.
"Today will be remembered as a day the (government) crucified the independence of the judiciary," said John Amaratunga, a lawmaker for the main opposition United National Party. "We did not want to protect the chief justice. We only wanted a fair inquiry."
Saliya Peiris, an attorney for Bandaranayake, told The Associated Press that his client would not recognize the impeachment but said her next step would be announced later.
A refusal by Bandaranayake to vacate office would create a crisis that has no constitutional remedy. The Bar Association of Sri Lanka, with 11,000 lawyers, has vowed not to recognize a replacement to Bandaranayake, and the country's Supreme Court judges may not welcome a new appointee.
A number of senior lawyers have already written to senior judges requesting them not to sit with a new chief justice.
