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# People’s Struggle Alliance Says Sri Lanka’s 22nd Amendment Is Designed to Benefit Individuals
- URL: https://www.jaffnamonitor.com/peoples-struggle-alliance-says-sri-lankas-22nd-amendment-is-designed-to-benefit-individuals/
- Published: 2026-09-05T14:12:27.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-05T14:12:27.000Z
- Author: Our Reporter
- Tags: September 2026, Monitor Memo

**COLOMBO, Sri Lanka —** The People’s Struggle Alliance has accused the government of introducing Sri Lanka’s proposed 22nd Amendment to the Constitution to benefit particular individuals and groups, saying the measure offers no meaningful benefit to the country or its people.

Nuwan Bopage, a lawyer and national executive committee member of the alliance, made the accusation at a news conference at the group’s office in Nugegoda on Friday.

“The 22nd Amendment is being brought for the benefit of individuals and a particular group,” Mr. Bopage said. “It will bring no benefit to the country or its people.”

The proposed amendment would raise the retirement age of Supreme Court judges from 65 to 67 and Court of Appeal judges from 63 to 65.

Mr. Bopage alleged that the measure had been introduced primarily to extend the tenure of judges currently serving on the country’s highest courts. He also accused the government, which has emphasized participatory democracy, of pushing ahead with the amendment without a meaningful public debate.

He said more than 50 petitions had been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the bill and argued that the breadth of the opposition reflected wider concerns about the proposal.

According to Mr. Bopage, political parties, mass movements and university academics were among those who went before the court in opposition to the amendment. He claimed that the government, by contrast, had to rely on people close to it, including Janaka Adhikari and Lakshman Nipuna Arachchi, to intervene in support of the measure.

Mr. Bopage also criticized the composition of the Supreme Court bench hearing the constitutional challenges.

Lawyers opposing the amendment had asked for the petitions to be considered by the full Supreme Court rather than a five-judge bench. That request was rejected.

Mr. Bopage argued that the case should have been considered by all 13 Supreme Court judges or that the proposed constitutional changes should ultimately be put before voters in a referendum. He accused lawyers representing the government and the attorney general of strongly resisting those alternatives.

He also raised questions about potential conflicts of interest, arguing that judges who could personally be affected by the proposed increase in the retirement age should not take part in determining its constitutionality.

Mr. Bopage accused the government of seeking to avoid a referendum because it feared the amendment would be defeated by voters.

Once the Supreme Court’s determination is sent to the speaker of Parliament, he said, the government could use its 159-seat parliamentary majority to push the amendment through the legislature.

The governing National People’s Power coalition won 159 of Parliament’s 225 seats in the 2024 general election, giving it more than the two-thirds majority generally required for constitutional amendments. Whether the proposal would also require approval at a referendum depends on the constitutional provisions involved and the Supreme Court’s determination.

Mr. Bopage also questioned the independence and legal competence of some government lawmakers, accusing them of being willing to vote according to instructions from the political leadership rather than independently scrutinizing the legislation.

“They will close their eyes, raise their hands and pass it,” he said. “This is not democracy of the people.”

He called on Sri Lankans to oppose the amendment publicly, arguing that political power ultimately rests with citizens rather than the institutions of government.

“The people stand above the legislature, the executive and the judiciary,” Mr. Bopage said. He urged the public to “take to the streets” to defeat what he described as an antidemocratic constitutional amendment intended to serve individual interests.