Sri Lanka: Bill seeking to scrap pension benefits to MPs gets Supreme Court nod

The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka ruled that the Parliamentary Pensions (Repeal) Bill can be passed in the Parliament with a simple majority, said the apex legislative body’s speaker on Friday (February 6, 2026).

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This comes after the Supreme Court was hearing on five fundamental rights petitions seeking the court’s intervention to declare that the Bill was inconsistent with the Constitution. The court proceedings had been going on since January 22, after the Bill had been submitted in Parliament on January 7.

The main aim of the Bill is to repeal the Parliamentary Pensions Law No. 1 of 1977, which had established a non-contributory lifetime pension to persons who had ceased to be members of Parliament.

According to the determination read out by the Speaker, contrary to the petitioners’ arguments, the court has ruled that the 1977 law was not a derivation from the Constitution. In other words, the framers of the Constitution have never even thought nor had they wanted to confer any such benefit on any such person”.

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The repeal of the 1977 pensions law comes as one of the current National People’s Power (NPP) government’s popular reformist electoral pledges, by terming them as unjustified political perks. Such savings are to be directed to fund other essential public services.

According to the government sources, the Bill would be subject to its second reading soon for a vote and will be adopted with a simple majority in the 225-member Assembly. The ruling NPP has 169 seats more than a two-thirds majority.