{"id":157563,"date":"2026-07-29T01:56:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T08:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=157563"},"modified":"2026-07-29T01:56:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T08:56:28","slug":"judiciary-aging-and-aging-judiciary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/07\/29\/judiciary-aging-and-aging-judiciary\/","title":{"rendered":"JUDICIARY \u00a0AGING AND AGING JUDICIARY."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sarath Wijesinghe, President\u2019s Counsel, Solicitor in England and Wales, Former Chairman Consumer Affairs Authority, Former Ambassador to U.A.E and Israel President, Ambassadors Forum.<\/u><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

They who see the truth as truth and truth as untruth will see truth because they entertain right thoughts. Dhammapada Stanza 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in a controversy over the aging of judges when the judiciary is aging throughout history. Buddha has stated clearly on judiciary and judgement which points are reiterate in articles published under the topic,  Independence of Judiciary referred in articles of this presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dispute is whether the age limit of judges should be increased by two years by the government with cabinet approval and to be presented to the parliament to decide with the overwhelming majority which they possess. The Bar Association of Sri Lanka which represents all lawyers including judges is not in favour as they are of view that there is no urgent need and the idea behind the proposal is not clear. They feel that there is a different agenda to keep the judges for some years for an unexplained reason. For further clarification we urge readers to see the articles referred to by the writer on the Independence of Judiciary, Laws Delays and Legal Education which is easily available on the internet and accessible within seconds. The last resort for citizens to resolve their disputes, justice reconciliation and safety is a judiciary which is expected to be impartial and independent. Is the judiciary and are judges independent today? It depends on the judgements pronounced, the response on bail and other main issues when those opposite parties to the government are involved, when the executive governance is expected to be independent.  With enormous constitutional powers and a majority of 159 members of the legislature, the present government is more powerful than the regime that existed during th tenure of Hon. J.R. Jayawardene. Referring to the quote at the beginning of this article, it is time for citizens to act upon the contents embodied in the extract from Dhammapada, read and practiced by people in the world, irrespective of any race or religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main question is why a constitutional change to increase judges by the most powerful executive is not clarified or explained yet though it seems the are determined to steam-roll it through the cabinet, then legislature and insert into lawbooks for implementation. Some people connect this to laws delays and independence of the judiciary which we have referred in the articles mentioned below authoured by the writer. Whether the delay is due to laws delay, lawyers delays or judges\u2019 delay is argued in that article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judges\u2019 delays are true but minimum when considering other delays in the system where there is a backlog of hundreds of thousands of cases pending in all courts for which the government and Minister of Justice is responsible. Definitely a litigant will seek quick justice because as per the well-known quote \u2018justice delayed is justice denied\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The writer invites readers to go through the article on these delays because the executive says this process is introduced to avert laws delays which of course is not the solution as seen how other countries facing the same  problem resolved the issue.  For example, Magistrate\u2019s Court procedure is so complexed and congested with citizens seeking justice who have to stay in the court a full day following calling cases and bail application before cases in trial stage are reached. The next trail date reach will reach next year of even the following year. There are cases in Sri Lanka of Civil and Partition nature that drags on for decades, not years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Magistrate\u2019s Court of United Kingdom, where primary criminal cases are heard the judge is assisted by a Solicitor and an Usherer who will consult the lawyers and the litigants with regard to the time taken. Lawyers will also exchange brief information with the solicitor assisting the magistrate for the smooth running of the court procedure with no delay. Sri Lanka follows English Law Procedure but unfortunately not this process to which will resolve our delays and disputes. This small example shows that the real delay is not caused by judges alone and that the extension of retirement age is not a complete solution, but which is a part of the solution with minimum effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is compulsory in the part of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka which comprises of all lawyers including judges to call for a island wide meeting at the Bar Council premises to entertain right thoughts and facts as a mentioned in the quote from Dhammapada which is given prominence at the beginning of this article. It is known that many organizations in Sri Lanka and overseas have expressed their views that this is a pointless exercise but the government is determined go through the process due to reason best known to them. As a result the question whether the judiciary is independent echoes among the citizens continuously. When they hear of judgements and results of bail applications and detention of opponents of the government especially.  Further, the pronouncement of members by the Executive sheds some uncertainty and suspicions on the judiciary are justified whether they act for benefits, privileges promotions of extensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a school of thought regarding the comment made by the Executive that they will give back power only when their duties are completed with no time limit.  This has arisen suspicions of the community. We have had a similar experience during Hon. J. R. Jayawardene\u2019s tenure when the period the parliament was extended with the connivance of the then judiciary. Justice R.S. Wanasungdara who gave a dissenting judgement. It is time that we need such judges of that caliber, who are fearless in their decision making. If the higher judiciary helped the then government with such unlawful activity,  there is no doubt that the present government can \u2018steamroll\u2019 this decision with the assistance of the judiciary, which is an unfortunate fact indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We urge citizens to peruse carefully the articles referred to and share with others, preferably in Sinhala and Tamil, which are the languages of the majority. And lastly, we reiterate the quote from Dhammapada above and urge the public to carefully consider and take appropriate steps for the benefit of your children, the nation and the future generation. We are country, rich in culture and freedom as pronounced in our constitution and UN charter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wish peace and good health to all Sri Lankan citizens and people world over with no confrontations and war among nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1)      Dammapada<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2)      Articles by Sarath Wijesinghe that could be browsed on the topics Independence of the Judiciary\u201d, Laws Delays\u201d and Legal Education\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sarath Wijesinghe, President\u2019s Counsel, Solicitor in England and Wales, Former Chairman Consumer Affairs Authority, Former Ambassador to U.A.E and Israel President, Ambassadors Forum. They who see the truth as truth and truth as untruth will see truth because they entertain right thoughts. Dhammapada Stanza 12. We are in a controversy over the aging of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sarath-wijesinghe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157565,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157563\/revisions\/157565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}