Opposition Leader accuses Govt. of turning judiciary into executive tool

Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa has accused the government of exceeding its electoral mandate by seeking to alter the retirement age of judges, stating that the move amounts to turning the judiciary into an instrument of the executive.

Speaking to the media, he said that the mandate secured by the JVP-led government was to abolish the executive presidential system, not to compromise judicial independence.

Premadasa contended that the government, having been entrusted with a mandate to reform the system of governance and strengthen democracy, was instead pursuing measures that risked entrenching dictatorship, authoritarianism and single-party rule, including a constitutional amendment introduced for this purpose.

He said that the President's mandate extended only to reforming the presidential system through constitutional means, and not to altering judges' retirement age or enabling the executive to exert pressure on the judiciary.

Expanding on the constitutional principles at stake, the Opposition Leader said democracy rested on three pillars, the legislature, the executive and the judiciary, bound together by a system of separation of powers and checks and balances.

He noted that those unfamiliar with this framework consult Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws for clarity.

He also warned that political authorities in many countries had, at various points, attempted to interfere with the judiciary and the legislature, and urged the Government not to overlook recent developments in India in this regard.

Citing the Indian example, the Opposition Leader recalled that when the country's unemployed youth were disparagingly referred to as cockroaches, millions of young people mobilised in major cities and pressured the government into holding a minister accountable for a leaked examination paper scandal, ultimately forcing his resignation.

He added that ongoing reforms within India's education system were themselves a product of sustained youth pressure, and that Indian youth had responded to the insult not with silence but by building a mass movement demanding accountability.