Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2017-05-09

Amendment to the Judicature Act (Increase of the number of High Court Judges up to 85)

- Since there is an enormous backlog of cases pending in the courts of justice of the island, appropriate measures have to be adopted expeditiously to eliminate them. As at March 2017, the number of cases pending in the Civil Appellate High Courts was 5749, in the Commercial High Courts, it was 5580 and as at March 2017, the number of cases pending in the High Courts was 16,574, and the number of judges serving in the courts at present to resolve these cases is only 75. As such, the proposal made by Hon. (Dr.) Wijadasa Rajapaksa, the Minister of Justice, to instruct the Legal Draftsman to make amendments to the Judicature Act to enable the increase of the present approved cadre of 75 High Court Judges up to 85, to expedite the cases pending at present, was approved by the Cabinet.