There is a backlog of appeal cases from 1995, with Sri Lanka having only three courts in its court of appeal to handle all cases that came its way.
At present there is a ten year backlog in the court of appeal which we propose to clear by the transfer of all the appeals filed after first January 2001 for hearing and determination in the provincial high courts, Sri Lanka’s Chief Justice Sarath Silva, told journalists.
This means we would have 14 courts to dispose of final appeals and all other applications which had been directed to run by the courts in the court of appeal.
This would free up courts in the court of appeal to dispose of all pending cases from between 1995 to 2001. All new applications will have to be filed in the provincial courts.
These reforms will go hand in hand with our decentralization of the hearing of appeals which has commenced last week in the provincial high court of Kandy, Silva said.
Sri Lanka has also begun automating its lega