Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa told a farmers’ rally in Tissamaharama on Friday (31) that the government’s move to raise the retirement age of superior court judges amounts to an attempt to entrench single-party rule, and urged the public to stop staying silent.

Premadasa said the administration was undermining democracy through the proposed amendment, and questioned whether the hardships facing ordinary people are resolved by extending the tenure of Supreme Court judges. Voters, he said, had brought the government to power after rejecting rival economic prospectuses, and were entitled to something other than this.

The 506-page report

Premadasa said a 506-page study carried out by the Ministry of Justice in 2023 contained no recommendation to raise judicial retirement ages, and called on the government to publish it so the public could judge for itself what judicial reform the report actually proposed.

The claim adds a documentary dimension to a dispute that has run for weeks. The Bar Association of Sri Lanka adopted seven resolutions against the amendment at a Special General Meeting, and the measure went before Cabinet in late July.

Paddy prices and a contested cost figure

Turning to agriculture, Premadasa said state revenue rose 27% in the first six months of 2026 against the same period of 2025, and asked why the additional revenue was not being used to subsidise farm production costs rather than taxing agricultural equipment.

He said ministers had pledged a guaranteed paddy price of Rs. 150 a kilogram, but farmers were receiving Rs. 120 while production costs reached Rs. 137 a kilogram.

That production-cost figure is contested. The Agriculture Ministry’s own Yala season costing, released on July 29 by Minister K.D. Lalkantha, put the cost of producing a kilogram of paddy at between Rs. 76 for Red Nadu and Rs. 119 for Keeri Samba — below the Rs. 137 Premadasa cited. The Rs. 120 figure matches the Paddy Marketing Board’s guaranteed price for Nadu this season; Samba is priced at Rs. 130 and Keeri Samba at Rs. 140.

No other verified newsroom had reported the Tissamaharama rally at the time of writing.

Sources: Hiru News.