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Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2017-11-07
Establishment of a High Court in terms of Article 105 (1)(c) of the Constitution
- It has been practically difficult to complete the cases expeditiously, pertaining to financial frauds, corruption, defrauding the State of its assets and revenue and similar offences, owing to the backlog of cases in the Courts of Law of the country. As such, it has been identified that the establishment of a High Court dedicated to hear expeditiously, the charges pertaining to offences committed against Public Property, Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, Criminal Breach of Trust, Misappropriation of Public Property and Organized Crimes including Bribery and Corruption and highly complex financial frauds, is suited.

Accordingly, the proposal made by Hon. (Mrs.) Thalatha Atukorala, the Minister of Justice, to instruct the Legal Draftsman to draft legislation necessary to establish a High Court in terms of the provisions of Article 105 (1)(c) of the Constitution, comprising of 3 Benches each with 3 judges named by the Chief Justice and for the Chief Justice to refer the cases relating to the commission of the specified offences, at the request of the Attorney General or on his own motion and to provide for an appeal directly to the Supreme Court against an Order made by such High Court, was approved by the Cabinet.