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| Sunday, 6 March 2005 |
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Vested interests oppose 18th Amendment by A Staff Correspondent The efforts to reduce the burden of the people by introducing 18th Amendment to the Constitution that provides for the establishment of Provincial Courts of Appeal have faced opposition from vested interests. According to Hultsdorp circles, Justice and Judicial Reforms Ministry has submitted amendments to the Constitution to establish 11 Provincial Appeal Courts to find a speedy solution to clear the backlog of about 15,000 civil cases. A legal bigwig said, its aim was to decentralise the Court of Appeal to provinces, so that the cases could be speedily heard. At present the Court of Appeal inquires cases filed in 1997. A Cabinet memorandum submitted on July 27, 2004 dealt with the proposed amendments to the Constitution to reduce delays in the disposal of cases. The memorandum reasoned out that the amendment saying "the litigants from outstations have to travel to Colombo to deposit brief fees to retain a counsel, junior counsel Instructing Attorneys to check up on the appeal and attend Court on days of hearing, and that the level of fees is higher in Colombo than in the outstations. In this context, an Act to amend the Constitution was submitted in the Parliament, by substituting the words, ``not less than six and not more than eleven judges", by the words, ``not less than eleven and not more than twenty one other Judges," to provide the appointment of more Judges. It was also proposed to Provincial Courts of Appeal with sittings in Galle and Matara in the Southern circuit, Kandy and Badulla, Uva in the Central, Kurunegala and Anuradhapura in the North West, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Jaffna in the North and East, Colombo, Ratnapura and Kegalle in the Western circuit. However, some affluent lawyers, who appear for more than ten such cases in Colombo are against this proposal. But, lawyers who practise in outstations supporting the move said this could not only benefit them, but also the litigants. Moreover, the Tamil National Alliance had supported this amendment. |
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