Sri Lanka's government presses ahead with judicial reforms

The government displayed its determination to go ahead with its proposal to enact judicial reforms this week despite protests from opposition political parties as well as the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), gazetting the relevant legislation and inviting public discussion regarding the issue. The Bill for the proposed 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was gazetted by Minister of Justice and National Integration Harshana Nanayakkara last Friday. It proposes to repeal Article 107(05) of the Constitution, raising the retirement ages of judges of both the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal. “The age of retirement of Judges of the Supreme Court shall be sixty-seven years and of Judges of the Court of Appeal shall be sixty-five years”, the proposed amendment reads. However, the proposed amendment also seeks to limit the term of a Chief Justice to a fixed period of six years. [ . . . ] The proposed 22nd Amendment also seeks to repeal Article 137 of the Constitution. This will increase the number of judges in the Court of Appeal. If the constitutional amendment is adopted, this will see the number of judges in the Court of Appeal which is currently nineteen, to twenty-four.
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