Supreme Court of Sri Lanka

Constitution of the court

The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka was created in 1972 after the adoption of a new Constitution. The Supreme Court is the highest and final superior court of record and is empowered to exercise its powers, subject to the provisions of the Constitution. The court rulings take precedence over all lower Courts. The Sri Lanka judicial system is complex blend of both common-law and civil-law. In some cases such as capital punishment, the decision may be passed on to the President of the Republic for clemency petitions. However, when there is 2/3 majority in the parliament in favour of president (as with present), the supreme court and its judges' powers become nullified as they could be fired from their positions according to the Constitution, if the president wants. Therefore, in such situations, Civil law empowerment vanishes.source

Jurisdiction

The Supreme Court has original, appellate and advisory jurisdiction.
Article 118 of the Constitution - the Supreme Court is the highest and final superior court of record and is empowered to exercise the following powers, subject to the provisions of the Constitution:

• Jurisdiction in respect of Constitutional matters (Articles 120 to 125)
• Jurisdiction for the protection of fundamental rights (Article 126)
• Final appellate jurisdiction (Article 127, 128)
• Consultative jurisdiction (Article 129)
• Jurisdiction in petitions relating to election of President; petitions relating to the validity of a referendum; appeals from Orders/judgments of the Court of Appeal in other election petitions – Article 130 (as amended by the 14th Amendment)
• Jurisdiction in respect of any breach of the privileges of Parliament (Article 132);
• Jurisdiction in respect of other matters which Parliament may by law vest or ordain

Appeals from judgments, sentences and orders pronounced at a High Court Trial at Bar lie direct to the Supreme Court.

Landmark Judgments

Judgments of the supreme court can be found at LawNet.


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