The Hon. Harshana Nanayakkara, Attorney-at-Law
Hon. Harshana Nanayakkara said the Government is establishing a new mechanism to depoliticize Justice of the Peace appointments, following large numbers of appointments made near elections. He stated that existing appointments will not be cancelled wholesale, but a modern database will be created with biennial data updates, certification through Grama Niladhari and Divisional Secretariat channels, and complaint mechanisms via WhatsApp, email and telephone. The system will also allow verification of a JP’s seal and identity.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 A mechanism is being established. As you said, this was politicized; tens of thousands of appointments were issued near elections. We have halted that. We will not make political appointments. We are creating a modern system to update data every two years, including certification via the Grama Niladhari and Divisional Secretariat. We have introduced WhatsApp, email and telephone channels for complaints. We are not immediately cancelling existing appointments en masse because some long-serving JPs, despite lacking initial qualifications, have gained experience. However, we are rapidly building a database so that any JP’s seal and identity can be verified.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Friday, 6 March 2026 ·No. 23376 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Harshana Nanayakkara, Attorney-at-Law. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 6 March 2026. No. 23376. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/5079