At a special general meeting convened by the Judicial Service Association yesterday (11) to discuss the current government’s plan to extend the retirement age of Supreme Court judges, the judges who attended voted against the government’s proposal.
65 judges attended the meeting held at the Kaduwela Magistrate’s Court premises, and all of them voted against the government’s proposal.
However, commentators say that there are serious constitutional and administrative problems behind the convening of this special general meeting of the Judicial Service Association, which represents over 250 members.
According to the association’s constitution, there are two ways to convene a special general meeting.
First, a written request must be made by 1/3 of the total number of members to the Executive Council, and second, the Executive Council itself must approve and convene it.
However, when calling this meeting, the Executive Council had given its approval to only 40 members, and there is a shortage of about 40 more members to legally call the meeting. Due to this, its Chairman, Fort Magistrate Pasan Amarasena, had raised a strong argument that this general meeting could not be called.
However, despite that problem, this special general meeting was held at the Kaduwela Magistrate's Court premises under the chairmanship of the Assistant Secretary of the Judicial Service Association.
Meanwhile, Fort Magistrate Pasan Amarasena, who served as the Chairman of the Judicial Service Association (JSA), has resigned from that position with immediate effect.