Colombo, Sep 24 Sri Lanka’s parliament on Thursday commenced a two-day debate on the controversial 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, which seeks to raise the retirement age of judges.
The debate comes despite months-long protests from the opposition parties and the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), which argued that the amendment would undermine judicial independence.
Opening the debate, Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara said the move to extend the retirement age of judges was to make the delivery of justice more efficient.
“We are not bringing this amendment to be authoritarian to control or suppress the independence of the judiciary,” Nanayakkara said.
The main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) staged a protest near Parliament, calling on the government to withdraw the proposed amendment. Several thousand supporters of the SJB attended the protest.
Addressing the protesters, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa said it was an “attempt to lead this country towards a single-party state.”
The amendment was presented to Parliament by Nanayakkara on August 18. It seeks to raise the retirement age of Supreme Court judges from 65 to 67 years and that of Court of Appeal judges from 63 to 65. It also proposes increasing the number of judges in the appellate court from 20 to 25.
It also proposes increasing the retirement age of judges of the High Court, District Courts and Magistrates’ Courts to 62.
The opposition challenged the government to hold a referendum to enact the amendment.
More than 60 petitions were filed in the Supreme Court challenging the amendment, with the petitioners arguing that it infringes on judicial independence and requires approval through a referendum.
The apex court, however, determined that the proposed amendment does not require approval through a public referendum.
The voting on the amendment is expected to take place on Friday evening.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Margaret Satterthwaite, and the Commonwealth Lawyers Association had also expressed concerns over the proposed extension of judges’ retirement age.
According to several opposition figures, the main argument in the petitions is that the 22A infringes Article 3 of the Constitution, which relates to the sovereignty of the people, and therefore requires approval through a nationwide referendum in addition to a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
Opponents of the amendment have dubbed it a “direct assault” on the independence of the judiciary. The government has maintained that extending the retirement age is necessary to address the judicial backlog, which was estimated at more than 1.1 million cases.
The National People’s Power government in Sri Lanka, led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, has a two-thirds majority in the 225-member Parliament, with 159 seats.
(PTI News)
