Ten new reforms to boost justice administration

By Sandun A Jayasekera   

Ten new law reforms are in the pipeline to be enacted in the next couple of months to strengthen and modernize administration of justice, Justice Minister Ali Sabry said.   
The relevant ad-hoc committees have already been appointed in this respect and after the new law reforms are introduced, law’s delays, shortage of justices, court staff and prison congestion will be addressed, he added.   

Addressing an international seminar under the theme, ‘Justice Strengthened - International Development Partners Dialogue’ held at Hilton Colombo – Minister Sabry said that the Justice Ministry had for the first time appointed a ‘Reforms Unit’ tasked to find solutions to various malaise affecting the judicial system of the country.   

“There is no argument that law’s delays, prison congestion, shortage of judges and court staff are some of the main issues that have stunted the smooth performance of the administration of justice in Sri Lanka. The government expects to find sustainable solution to these shortcomings in the next few years in short, middle and long term strategies. I have no doubt that there will be a paradigm shift in the entire judicial system in the country after these reforms are in place. The objective of this seminar is to obtain your assistance to make this exercise a success,” Minister Sabry stressed.   

The best example to problems that have a direct impact to law’s delays is the Department of Government Analyst. (DGA). Before the new reforms were introduced, the DGA had a backlog of 8,000 specimens sent from various courts and awaiting reports. But we have cleared the entire backlog and right now the DGA takes only a month to submit a report,” he noted.