It will comprise 3 permanent benches, each consisting of 3 judges appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the country. The court will hear cases related to bribery, malfeasance, misappropriation or embezzlement of public funds, money laundering, financing of terrorism, organized crime, and crimes against state property.

The passage of the law was another anti-corruption move by the incumbent administration led by President Maithripala Sirisena, whose election campaign was based on a campaign promise to ensure a full investigation into corruption and nepotism at the highest echelons of government, including against his predecessor, President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

However, the results of Sirisena's fulfillment of his promises have been criticized by the public, whose dissatisfaction is related, among other things, to the delay in the process of bringing charges against corrupt officials. Thus, during Sirisena's 3 years in power, investigations into more than 50 corruption cases were launched, but only 1 of them reached the court. This is primarily due to the fact that the Sri Lankan courts actually perform investigative functions, assessing the sufficiency of available evidence before a case goes to trial.

According to the authorities, cases in the newly created court will take on average about 6 months to be heard. Either the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (on his own initiative or at the request of the Attorney General) or the Attorney General himself will be able to file a case with the anti-corruption court.

According to the U4 research center, as of 2016, 20 countries (e.g., Thailand and Tanzania) already had separate anti-corruption courts or specialized units of the higher judiciary dealing with corruption cases. In 2017, a similar court was to be established in Ukraine (but the relevant draft law has not yet been adopted), and in 2018, anti-corruption courts appeared in two provinces of Zimbabwe. The establishment of such courts is usually intended to speed up the process of handling corruption cases.