Sri Lanka, Sept. 2 -- The Sri Lankan government's defense of its proposed Twenty-Second Amendment-extending retirement ages for sitting superior court judges-fails to answer critical inquiries from the UN Special Rapporteur on Judicial Independence. Rather than providing evidence of prior stakeholder consultation or empirical risk assessments, official replies offer only broad, unsupported assurances. With 95 percent of case backlogs concentrated in lower courts, altering tenure for identifiable serving senior judges lacks compelling justification, seriously compromising public confidence and the perceived impartiality of the judiciary.

The Sri Lankan Government has sent a lengthy reply to the UN Special Rapporteur's letter dated 7th A...