President admits anomalies in Judges’ pay – Lalith W

by Chitra Weerarathne

The Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga yesterday voluntarily appeared before the Supreme Court and said that the President conceded that there were certain anomalies in the payments made to judicial officers.

Weeratunga added that the anomalies in the allowances would be rectified forthwith, while the anomalies in the salary structure of judicial officers would be rectified at the budget. These payments would be made from January 1, 2009.

The Secretary to the President said that he appeared before the Court to clarify certain misunderstandings that had taken place between the National Salaries and Cadre Commission and the Judicial Services Commission in respect of the discussion the High Court Judges Association recently had with the President.

The salaries review committee will recommend to the President the reviewed salary structures. The decision of the President will be notified to the petitioner by the Secretary to the President.


In this application to the Court, the High Court Judges, District Judges, and Magistrates had complained that the National Salaries and Cadre Commission had failed to recommend to the Cabinet and increased salary structure for the judges, different from the other public servants. The judges are differently placed in the Constitution of Sri Lanka.

D. S. Wijesinghe PC appeared with Dr. Jayampathy Wickramarathne, Pubudini Wickremaarathne, and Kaushalya Molligoda, instructed by Dhammika Molligoda for the petitioner judges’ association.

The Deputy Solicitor General Indika Demuni de Silva appeared for the State. The bench comprised the Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, Justice N. G. Amaratunga and Justice K. Sripavan. The case is to be called again on June 30, 2008.