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Appeal Courts go to provinces
By Chandani Kirinde
Parliament is set to approve an amendment to the Constitution, which will provide for the creation of Provincial Courts of Appeal as well as to increase the number of Appeal Court judges from 11 to 21.

The Bill titled Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution was presented to Parliament in late October but requests for more time from the Opposition to discuss and debate the Bill delayed its enactment until now. The Bill is now set for debate on Thursday.

The Government says the Bill will help a great deal in easing law’s delays.
The amendment will repeal paragraph 1 of Article 146, which states that the Court of Appeal shall ordinarily exercise its jurisdiction in Colombo. Under the amendment, several other circuits have been created for the Court to exercise its jurisdiction.

A new paragraph has also been inserted in the Bill which would enable the Chief Justice, in consultation with the President of the Court of Appeal, to designate the places at which the sittings of each circuit of the Court would be held.

The amendment will also repeal Article 147 of the Constitution so that instead of the Registry of the Court of Appeal exercising its jurisdiction in Colombo, an officer designated as the Registrar of the Court of Appeal shall be in charge subject to the supervision, direction and control of the President of the Court of Appeal.

The Registry of the Court of Appeal exercising its jurisdiction in each of the respective circuits, shall be in the charge of an officer designated as the Deputy Registrar of the Court of Appeal, who shall be subject to the supervision, direction and control of the senior judge presiding at the circuit.

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