Municipal Council of Colombo v. Piyasena – sllr 1980 volume 2 page 039

In the case between the Municipal Council of Colombo (Plaintiff-Respondent) and Piyasen (Defendant-Appellant), the court addressed the issue of whether Sundays and public holidays (dies non) should be excluded from the statutory 60-day period for filing a petition of appeal under section 755(3) of the Civil Procedure Code. It was determined that such days must be included in calculating the timeframe, thereby holding that the petition of appeal filed after 65 days was untimely. Relief under section 759(2) was also declined due to the absence of sufficient justification for the delay. The principle was reaffirmed that statutory appeal periods must be strictly adhered to when no express provision permits exclusion of certain days. The decision drew on established case law and statutory inter