New Code of Conduct for judges

By Uditha Kumarasinghe

Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem told the Parliament yesterday that changes will be introduced to the judicial system shortly which include a new Code of Conduct for judges and the evaluation of the performances of judges.

The Minister speaking during the Committee Stage debate of the Justice Ministry said that the Code of Conduct o for the judges is expected to be gazetted early next year and will be based on the Bangalore Principles and the Latimer House Principles.

He said the Bangalore Principles would establish standards for ethical conduct of judges while the Latimer House Principles would contain harmonious balancing of power and the interaction between legislature, executive and the judiciary in the democratic process.

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has also decided to introduce a new system to evaluate the performance of judges. The issues such as delays in writing judgements will be looked at during the evaluation. In addition, those in the legal fraternity will be allowed to make presentations to the JSC during such a process, he said.

The Minister further said that there will be a complete revamping of the country's professional legal education system so that Sri Lankan lawyers would also able to upgrade their knowledge in keeping with the developments in the rest of the world. The examination curriculum of the Sri Lanka Law College will also be subjected to a complete overhaul.

Minister Hakeem said the Government Analyst's Department will commence to do its own DNA analysis of samples provides by court with effect from January next year. At present these tests are done by private institutions.

The DNA testing will be undertaken at the new premises of the Government Analyst's Department set up at Battaramulla from January nest year.From January Fundamental Rights can also be filed electronically as part of the digitalization process of the court system.

However this will be commenced as a pilot project. Initially it will be confined to FR application filed in the Supreme Court.