As many as 750,000 cases remain pending in courts across the island, declared Sri Lanka’s Justice Minister Thalatha Atukorale.
She noted that the massive backlog has left many losing faith in Sri Lanka’s judicial system.
“Just as much as we care about the legal profession, we need to take some action to prevent such a large number of cases pending in courts,” she said. “We cannot be happy about getting cases postponed. People undergo numerous problems due to cases getting postponed.”
Her comments come as a group of 40 political prisoners in Magazine prison in Colombo launched a hunger strike calling for their cases to be expedited.
Ten Tamil political prisoners at Anuradhapura prison have been hunger striking for over two weeks and refusing medical treatment since last week, demanding their release.
