The Hon. Harshana Nanayakkara, Attorney-at-Law – Minister of Justice and National Integration
The Minister emphasized that judicial independence is necessary for the rule of law and noted the limited role of the Justice Minister in matters handled by the Judicial Service Commission, including suspensions, inquiries and discipline. He stated his view that the Chief Justice and the judicial system operate independently and without political interference. In response to a question, he provided annual figures for fundamental rights/human rights cases filed, leave refused, and leave granted from 2021 to 2026 to date.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Judicial independence is essential to uphold the rule of law—it protects citizens. Many do not appreciate the Justice Minister’s limits and the independent role of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) concerning suspensions, inquiries, and discipline. I believe the current Chief Justice and the system act independently without political interference.
¶ 02 Answers:
¶ 03 1) FR/HR cases filed: - 2021: 443 - 2022: 399 - 2023: 319 - 2024: 351 - 2025: 301 - 2026 (to date): 25
¶ 04 2) Leave refused (dismissed at threshold): - 2021: 91 - 2022: 85 - 2023: 107 - 2024: 140 - 2025: 59 - 2026 (to date): 0
¶ 05 3) Leave granted: - 2021: 352 - 2022: 314 - 2023: 212 - 2024: 211 - 2025: 242 - 2026 (to date): 25 (all filed so far are pending/with leave as none have been refused yet)
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Friday, 22 May 2026 ·No. 23666 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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Cite as: The Hon. Harshana Nanayakkara, Attorney-at-Law – Minister of Justice and National Integration. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 22 May 2026. No. 23666. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/16993