The Mediation Boards Act No. 72 of 1988 provides the legal premise for the Community Mediation Programme in Sri Lanka. This Act legislates the framework for the institutionalization of mediation boards. The Boards come under the supervisory ambit of the Mediation Boards Commission. The Commission retains the power to appoint, supervise and control mediators, but the training of mediators is handled, not by virtue of the Act but through administrative procedures, by the Ministry of Justice.

The jurisdiction of the mediation boards is clearly set out in section 6 of the Mediation Boards Act. It establishes that an application to the Mediation Board for settlement of disputes via mediation can be made by any person as long as such disputes come within the purview of that Mediation Board Area. The Act specifies that it is compulsory for any dispute against property, where the value of the disputed property is less than one million rupees (Rs. 1,000,000) to be referred to mediation. Offences set out in the Second Schedule to the Act must also compulsorily be referred to mediation, and they include a series of offences against the body of a person (hurt, wrongful restraint, use of criminal force), criminal acts against property, defamation, and criminal intimidation. Mediation Boards lack jurisdiction in disputes where one party is the State or a State officer who was acting in his/her official capacity. Schedule 3 of the Act also includes a list of disputes that cannot be mediated, and these include: matrimonial disputes, testamentary actions, and partition actions, breach of parliamentary privilege and fundamental rights actions.

In three (3) decades, Sri Lanka has equipped the nation with 329 Community Mediation Boards, fortified with over 8600 active volunteer Mediators and 325 chairpersons (282 chairmen and 43 chairwomen), dispersed across the country.

The Boards are distributed across all districts in the country, and 260 Mediation Boards provide services in Sinhala, while 63 Mediation Boards provide services in Tamil. This wide distribution of Mediation Boards and availability of services in different languages ensures that the program is accessible and inclusive to all members of the community, regardless of their language or location.