The Hon. Harshana Nanayakkara, Attorney-at-Law - Minister of Justice and National Integration

¶ 01 Orders under the Reciprocal Recognition, Registration and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act:

¶ 02 I move that the Orders published in Gazette Extraordinary No. 2429/51 of 28 March 2025 under Sections 2(1) and 1(2) of the Reciprocal Recognition, Registration and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, No. 49 of 2024, and presented on 03.06.2025, be approved. (Cabinet approval granted.)

¶ 03 By way of background: Sri Lanka previously lacked a law on reciprocal recognition, registration and enforcement of foreign judgments. Parliament passed Act No. 49 of 2024 to address this. For the Act to operate, the countries and courts whose judgments are to be recognized must be specified by Gazette. Accordingly, I have published a Gazette listing 53 countries whose legal systems reciprocally recognize our judgments, prepared in consultation with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Employment.

¶ 04 The Act primarily facilitates civil debt/creditor matters and matrimonial (divorce) decrees; it expressly excludes taxes, charges, fines and criminal penalties (Section 3(2)). It eases enforcement, saves costs and avoids relitigation locally where conditions are met.

¶ 05 I also wish to clarify a recent newspaper article that misrepresented the Ministry’s Action Plan deletions (on electoral reform and abolishing presidential pensions/privileges) as a policy reversal. These items were removed from our Plan because they do not fall under our line Ministry; subsequently, Cabinet has approved my proposal to repeal the Presidents’ Entitlements Act and the Parliamentary Pensions Act, and we are proceeding to draft the repeal legislation. I urge traditional media to process RTI-obtained information accurately.

¶ 06 We need a responsible Opposition for meaningful debate; however, often mornings are used for sensational remarks before Members depart. I appreciate those Opposition Members present and contributing.

¶ 07 These Regulations will resolve many practical issues by enabling enforcement of foreign judgments in Sri Lanka.