The Samagi Jana Balawegaya has submitted a formal proposal to Parliament requesting a special committee to tackle over 1.1 million pending court cases, citing systemic challenges including vacant judicial positions and prison overcrowding.
The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) has formally presented a proposal to Speaker of Parliament Jagath Wickramaratne calling for the establishment of a special Parliamentary Select Committee to address Sri Lanka's significant judicial backlog. According to Ministry of Justice data, approximately 1.1 million cases currently await resolution within the country's court system. The proposal was signed yesterday by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa and members of the SJB parliamentary group, and was officially handed to the Speaker in Parliament on August 4.
The proposal identifies multiple structural obstacles contributing to case delays. These include unfilled positions within the judiciary, insufficient staffing at the Attorney General's Department, and delays in obtaining reports from the Government Analyst's Department and Government Valuation Department. Minister of Justice Harshana Nanayakkara has acknowledged that heavy workloads at the Attorney General's Department further exacerbate the problem.
The case backlog has created secondary crises within the prison system. According to Department of Prisons data, Sri Lankan facilities designed to hold approximately 10,000 inmates currently house over 40,000 individuals. Around 75 percent of this prison population consists of suspects awaiting trial completion. The SJB proposal requests that the Select Committee examine root causes of the backlog, recommend solutions across short, medium, and long-term timeframes, and address prison overcrowding issues. The request formally invokes Standing Orders 100 to 110 to establish the committee.
