Sri Lanka Presses Ahead With Judges' Retirement Age Hike

Sri Lanka said Tuesday it would press ahead with plans to raise judges' retirement ages, despite opposition from the country's bar association and concerns over judicial independence.

Government spokesman Nalinda Jayatissa said the cabinet decided on Monday to amend the constitution to raise the mandatory retirement age of Supreme Court judges by two years to 67. Court of Appeal judges would have their retirement age increased from 63 to 65, and lower court judges would also receive a two-year extension beyond their current retirement age of 60.

The proposed changes still require a parliamentary vote. They need a two-thirds majority, which the government of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake currently commands. The process could take about two months.

The government says the reforms are meant to help clear a backlog of 1.1 million pending cases and denies any link to Chief Justice Preethi Padman Surasena, who is due to retire in November. Jayatissa said the plan also included increasing the number of courthouses. He said recruitment had fallen below expectations, with only 35 magistrates recently appointed to fill 50 vacancies.

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka has opposed the reforms, describing them as a covert attempt to extend Surasena's tenure. Critics say Surasena has been friendly to the Dissanayake administration, a claim the government denies.

Saliya Peiris, a former president of the bar association, warned that the move would backfire and damage Dissanayake's legacy. He said in Colombo on Monday that the president would join leaders who had tried to tamper with judicial independence and found that their actions led to their downfall.

Official records show that cases in primary courts often drag on for decades. In 2013, then president Mahinda Rajapaksa impeached chief justice Shirani Bandaranayake and lost an election two years later.