Government attention was focused on raising the retirement age limit of judges to control the heavy backlog of cases existing within the court system and provide prompt relief to the people, Health and Mass Media Minister Nalinda Jayatissa said.

Expressing views to the media, the Minister stated that the government promised through its election manifesto to free people from the distress they faced due to the backlog of cases in courts, and expanding the court system was essential to fulfil that promise.

Explaining the reasonable grounds existing regarding raising the retirement age of judges, the Minister also stated as follows.

"When deciding the retirement age of judges in 1978, the expected life expectancy at birth in this country was around 66-67 years. But today, with the development of health facilities, it went up to 76-78 years.

Also, a certain amount of vacancies exist in the field due to professionals leaving the country in the past period. Considering these factors, the government listened fairly to raising the retirement age of judges."

Pointing out that although the number of Supreme Court and Court of Appeal judges was increased on previous occasions, a relative increase in the retirement age did not take place, the Minister also said that they expected to confirm people's trust in the court system through this step.