The Hon. (Dr.) (Ms.) Kaushalya Ariyarathne

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, even if Hon. Mujibur Rahman was given 10 more minutes, I would have had no objection—he needed to vent; we can bear it.

¶ 02 Colombo Municipal Council, long green, has now turned red; Vera Kelly Balthazar has taken oaths as Mayor. I also just heard we won Kolonnawa as well.

¶ 03 I must respond briefly to points raised. A statute and a guideline are different, just like, in international law, a convention is binding while a declaration is not. Similarly, an Act is binding; a guideline clarifies but is not legally binding. The Opposition repeatedly cites an undated guideline. However, on 14 June 2025, the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Government issued a letter clarifying that the guideline compendium sent to Commissioners is merely to facilitate their constitutional functions under the 2012 Act; the Commissioners must perform their statutory duties strictly under that Act. It further states that decisions must be made by the Commissioner in accordance with the law. Therefore, do not threaten public officers. The Commissioner acted within her lawful powers and asserted her independence. Some who wanted a secret ballot earlier objected later because they were not confident even of their own members.

¶ 04 Turning to today’s subject: the Orders under sections 2(1) and 1(2) of the Recognition, Registration and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, No. 49 of 2024. Previously, the Reciprocal Enforcement of Judgments Ordinance allowed enforcement mainly of UK judgments. The landmark case “Liyanage Champika Harendra Silva v. Weerasekera and others” recognized, judicially, acceptance of a foreign divorce decree, but practical enforcement was limited. Now, with these Orders designating 53 countries—including India, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom—there will be real facilitation, especially in civil matters like divorce and monetary decrees, greatly helping our diaspora and reducing duplication in Sri Lankan courts. With over 1.1 million pending cases, every reduction helps. We are also addressing broader systemic issues: staffing, resources, infrastructure, and digitization, as discussed yesterday at the Ministry Advisory Council. These measures, together with today’s Orders, will ease backlogs.

¶ 05 I conclude noting the Opposition has sought a special debate at 3.30 p.m. We welcome constructive engagement and hope they attend this afternoon as well.

¶ 06 Thank you.