NPP MP Seeks Dismissal Of BASL Office – Bearers Challenge
The increasingly contentious battle over the proposed 22nd Amendment has moved firmly into the Supreme Court, with NPP parliamentarian Lakshman Nipunaarachchi seeking permission to intervene in proceedings and asking that a challenge brought by two Bar Association of Sri Lanka office-bearers be dismissed.
BASL Treasurer T.M.S. Pasindu Silva and Assistant Secretary Lakitha Isiwara Wakishta Arachchi have challenged the constitutionality of the Bill, contending among other matters that the proposed changes affect judicial independence and require approval by the people at a referendum.
Nipunaarachchi disputes those arguments.
His petition maintains that the proposed amendment falls within Parliament’s legislative competence and does not require a referendum under Article 83 of the Constitution.
The Bill proposes increasing the retirement age of Supreme Court judges from 65 to 67 and Court of Appeal judges from 63 to 65, as well as increasing the number of judges of the Court of Appeal.
The controversy has produced an unusual constitutional confrontation. The Government argues that longer judicial tenure and an enlarged appellate judiciary form part of an effort to address delays in the administration of justice. Opponents question whether changing the tenure of serving judges raises deeper issues concerning judicial independence.
Those arguments will now have to be tested where they properly belong – in court.
For all the political noise surrounding 22A, the constitutional determination belongs neither to Government nor Opposition.
It belongs to the Supreme Court.
