Judicature (Amendment) Act 2022

Official English translation. Where it differs from the Sinhala or Tamil text, the Act itself says which text prevails.

Official translationFrom Department of Government Printing, unchanged

s 1Short title

This Act may be cited as the Judicature (Amendment)

Act, No. 4 of 2022.

s 2Replacement of section 5C of Act, No. 2 of 1978

Section 5C of the Judicature Act, No. 2 of 1978 is hereby repealed and the following section is substituted therefor:–

5C. (1) The Judicial Service Commission shall appoint a judicial officer from among the

District Judges and Magistrates, to be called the Recorder Judge, to any High Court exercising criminal jurisdiction, where such

Commission is of the opinion that such appointment is required.

(2)

The Judge of such High Court (in this section referred to as the “Trial Judge”) may delegate to the Recorder Judge appointed to such High Court, the power to preside over pre-trial conferences subject to the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure Act, No. 15

of 1979.

(3)

The Recorder Judge shall attend to and deal with pre-trial conferences delegated to him under subsection (2) as specified in section 195A of the Code of Criminal Procedure Act,

No. 15 of 1979 and post-trial matters delegated to him by the Trial Judge not including sentencing of an accused, that may arise in the course of a criminal proceeding.

“Appointment of the

Recorder

Judge

(4)

The Trial Judge may refer to the

Recorder Judge any matter of a procedural nature arising in the course of the proceedings instituted in that court after the stage referred to in subsection (3).

(5)

The Recorder Judge may, with the concurrence of the Trial Judge, submit for determination by the Trial Judge any matter which may otherwise have been properly dealt with by him.

(6)

The Recorder Judge shall–

(a)

sit separately and exercise all the powers vested in him by subsection (3);

(b)

have the power to do all such acts connected with or incidental or ancillary to the exercise of the powers referred to in subsection (3)

including the maintenance of the

Journals of the Court; and

(c)

exercise the powers in relation to pre-trial conferences as specified in section 195A of the Code of

Criminal Procedure Act, No. 15 of 1979 only in respect of matters where the High Court exercises criminal jurisdiction in terms of section 9 and shall not exercise the powers in respect of matters where the High Court is called upon to exercise appellate, revisionary or writ jurisdiction.”.

s 3Sinhala text to prevail in case of inconsistency

In the event of any inconsistency between the Sinhala and Tamil texts of this Act, the Sinhala text shall prevail.