Colombo, Sep 22 (PTI) Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has determined that the proposed 22nd Amendment to the Constitution does not require approval through a public referendum, Speaker Jagath Wickremaratna announced in Parliament on Tuesday.
The controversial 22nd Amendment (22A) 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.
The 22A also proposes increasing the retirement age of judges of the High Court, District Courts and Magistrates’ Courts to 62.
The amendment was tabled in Parliament in August, triggering the constitutionally allowed 14-day period for challenging its constitutionality.
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 Supreme Court’s determination was issued after hearing the challenges to the constitutionality of the Bill.
“The provisions of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution Bill or any part thereof do not require approval by the people at a referendum by virtue of the provisions of Article 83 of the Constitution,” Wickremaratna quoted the court as saying.
The ruling is a setback for opposition parties and the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), which had argued that the amendment would undermine judicial independence and therefore require a public referendum.
The BASL had urged the government to hold a referendum even if the Supreme Court determined that one was not required.
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 country’s judiciary, arguing that it would give the executive president greater capacity to manipulate the functioning of the judiciary.
The government has maintained that extending the retirement age is necessary to address the country’s 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 CORR FHK FHK
(PTI News)