MONETABRIEF – Sri Lanka’s government presented two controversial bills to Parliament on Tuesday, signalling its determination to press ahead with legal reforms despite bitter opposition from the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) and rival politicians.
The 22nd Amendment Bill and the Judicature Amendment Bill were listed on the Order Paper as President Anura Kumara Dissanayake declared his intention to carry out the reforms, come what may.
With the two bills listed on the Order Paper, anyone may challenge their constitutionality before the Supreme Court within 14 days. The court may issue its determination no earlier than three days and no later than three weeks after the challenge is filed.
The government hopes the bills can be passed with a minimum of 150 votes in the 225-member House, where the ruling party holds a comfortable 159 seats. The Speaker is also from the ruling National People’s Power (NPP).
The influential BASL has asked the government to put the amendments to the people at a referendum, even if the Supreme Court does not make such a requirement mandatory. The government was also drafting a response to the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Margaret Satterthwaite, who had sought clarification on the proposed legal reforms.
Top administrative sources said the President had decided to engage with the UN expert and seek her assistance with an ambitious rollout of the digitisation of the courts. Supreme Court and Court of Appeal filings have already moved online, with judgments and determinations posted on their websites.
However, lower courts still use typewriters, and there is no online search facility for court records — a serious contributory factor in delays within a criminal justice system burdened by more than 1.1 million cases.
Earlier, the government had worked on a plan B in case of overwhelming opposition to the reforms. The authorities had considered promoting a member of the official bar to replace the retiring Chief Justice, but the proposal did not find much support within the administration.
While most minority Tamil parties support the measures, the main opposition is divided over the move, according to party sources.
Apart from raising the retirement age of Supreme Court judges to 67 and that of Court of Appeal judges to 65, the 22nd Amendment seeks to increase the number of judges on the appellate court from the current 20 to 25.
Appeal courts are to be decentralised for the first time, allowing litigants to avoid travelling long distances to Colombo. The number of High Court judges is also being increased from 110 to 120.
While 33 new magistrates have been recruited, applications have been invited to fill 260 of the 1,007 clerical vacancies in the judiciary. A staggering 21,000 people have applied for the 260 positions, the President told the BASL last week.
The government is also setting up district-level units of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC). A total of 373 investigators have already been recruited and are undergoing training. (Colombo/Aug18/2026)