MONETABRIEF – The constitutional amendment to extend the mandatory retirement age of superior court judges and expand the Court of Appeal does not require approval at a referendum, the Supreme Court has ruled.
The Parliamentary Speaker announced to the House on Tuesday that the Supreme Court had informed him that the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution as well as the Judicature (Amendment) Bill could be passed with a two-thirds majority.
The ruling JVP/NPP government holds 159 seats in the 225-member legislature, giving it a comfortable two-thirds majority to push the amendments through despite opposition from several trade unions and political and professional groups, including the Bar Association.
The Bar Association had asked the government to put the amendments to the people at a referendum, even if the Supreme Court did not make such a requirement mandatory.
As Speaker Jagath Wickramaratne read out the Supreme Court determination regarding the two bills, ruling party MPs thumped tables in approval.
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 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/Sept22/2026)