President failed to appoint High Court judges: Ajith P. Perera

• Necessary legislation enacted by Parliament five months prior
• Additional high courts required, at least three more for Western Province

By SkandhaGunasekara

President Maithripala Sirisena had failed to appoint additional High Court judges despite legislation allowing them to do so being enacted five months prior, State Minister of Power and Renewable Energy, Ajith P.Perera said on Thursday.

Addressing a media briefing at the parliamentary complex yesterday, the Minister said that the legislation to increase the number of High Court Judges from 75 to 110 as a remedy to reduce the large number of pending cases some five months back, the President had not taken the initiative to make the necessary appointments.

“The Government is being accused of failing to punish criminals and delaying court cases. We call on the President to carry out his duties and appoint more judges to the high courts so that we can curb the delays in legal proceedings,” saidMinister Perera.

The Minister pointed out that no one but criminals were benefitting from the delays in the judiciary.

“On average it would take 17 years for a case to be completed in the high courts. The minimum number of years for a case to conclude is 10 while the maximum could be high as 25 years for some cases. Therefore it is clear to anyone that criminals spend a considerable number of years after their crimes in the judicial process without being penalised. We wanted to change this.”

The Minister went on to note that the foremost reason for the delay was a lack of the required number of High Court judges.

“The number one reason is the shortage of High Court judges to hear cases. There are only 75 judges. To rectify this, five months prior we passed legislations to increase that number. However, it is the President who is vested with the duty of appointing judges to high courts. If the President appoints judges the process could be expedited. The second reason is the shortage of lawyers in the Attorney General’s Department to appear for these cases. There are some 17,000 cases but the Department has only 113 counsels. Lawyers were reluctant to join the AG Department as the salaries for counsels were low and they would engage in a private practice and earn more. As a solution we got the AG’s department cadre number increased to 213 as well as increasing the salaries for state counsels. Despite these efforts, four months have passed without the necessary recruitment being carried out by the AG’s Department.”

The Minister said the third reason for the delays in the judicial process was the dearth of high courts in the country.

“We hope the Speaker will sign the Judicature Amendment Bill today or tomorrow. Thereafter the Justice Minister could issue gazettes announcing the setting up of the Special High Court of Trial at Bar. At least three more courts are required for the Western Province it alone. In addition, we need a separate special High Court to hear crimes against children. A minimum of 10 more high courts are needed for the other provinces. Only after setting up of these high courts can the Attorney General appoint judges. So we hope the President, Attorney General and Justice Minister carry out their duties accordingly so that the judicial process can be expedited,” saidMinister Perera.