The Hon. Harshana Nanayakkara, Attorney-at-Law - Minister of Justice and National Integration
The Minister stated that the former judges’ official residence in Panadura has been unused since around 2019 and is now unusable, and that action is under way to use it for establishing the Civil Appeal High Court in Panadura. He said a new official residence for two Magistrates is being constructed on the remaining land, with expenditure so far of Rs. 18,045,206.41, after the project was halted during the economic crisis and later recommenced. He explained that judges’ housing needs are met through government residences, leased private houses or residence allowances, and noted that Panadura judges currently receive allowances while the previous residence land has been transferred to the Urban Development Authority.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 (a) (i) Yes. Since around 2019, as judges have not resided in this official residence and it remained closed for a long time, it has become unusable.
¶ 02 (ii) It has been proposed to use this official residence to establish the Civil Appeal High Court - Panadura, and action is in progress in that regard. In the remaining portion of the land, an official residence serviceable for two Magistrates is being constructed.
¶ 03 (iii) It is the newly constructed official residence serviceable for two judges. (The project was started and later halted with the economic crisis; the contract has been awarded for resumption.)
¶ 04 (iv) The expenditure incurred so far for the construction amounts to Rs. 18,045,206.41.
¶ 05 (b) (i) The needs for official residences for judges are addressed as follows: - Provision of government-owned official residences by the Ministry. - Leasing a private house by the Ministry. - Payment of an official residence allowance in accordance with Ministry of Justice Circular No. 02/2018 dated 2018.01.19.
¶ 06 For judges serving at the Panadura Court Complex, facilities are as follows: - High Court Judge – 01 (official residence allowance obtained) - District Judge – 01 (official residence allowance obtained) - Magistrates – 02 (official residence allowance obtained by one Magistrate)
¶ 07 Currently, an official residence serviceable for two Magistrates is being constructed.
¶ 08 (ii) Not known. The land previously used for a judge’s official residence was proposed to be acquired by the Urban Development Authority for a city development project and was therefore not transferred to this Ministry.
¶ 09 (iii) According to letter No. PN/L/II/56-2 dated 11.08.2025 from the Divisional Secretary - Panadura to the Registrar, Magistrate’s Court - Panadura, the said property has been transferred to the Urban Development Authority; hence this Ministry holds no title to that land.
¶ 10 (c) Does not arise.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Tuesday, 6 January 2026 ·No. 23111 ·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.
- Permalink
/lk/speeches/17687
Cite as: The Hon. Harshana Nanayakkara, Attorney-at-Law - Minister of Justice and National Integration. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 6 January 2026. No. 23111. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/17687