Judicial sources say that the backlog of cases in the judicial system has hampered the administration of justice due to the unfilled eight vacancies of judges in the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal for a long time.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has been heavily criticized by the political and legal community for not filling five vacancies of judges in the Supreme Court and three vacancies in the Court of Appeal for several months.
The Free Bar Association publicly accuses the President of having neglected his constitutional responsibility for a long time.
Opposition MPs allege that some of the vacancies of judges have not been filled for more than six months.
Opposition political parties are continuing to complain to organizations including the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the International Commission of Jurists and the International Monetary Fund in this regard.
Commenting on this, Jana Balawegaya Kurunegala District MP and Attorney-at-Law Dayasiri Jayasekara said that delaying the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal is a violation of the Constitution.
"We have the question of whether these people are going to be appointed with the verdicts of the next cases. Today, Sashi Weerawansa is being put in jail. Those they want from the High Court are being promoted even after being imprisoned. That is the doubt here. Will the case proceedings not be delayed by not appointing judges? If they are brought in, the case proceedings will be expedited. I request you to look into this matter," Jayasekara said.
Commenting on this, Attorney-at-Law Harshana Nanayakkara, Minister of Justice and National Integration, said that the vacancies in the judges will definitely be filled.
He added that he could not say at this time only the time and method for filling them.
Meanwhile, there has been a heated debate in Parliament in recent days regarding the unfilled vacancies of judges in the higher courts.