Ameen and Others v. Malship (Ceylon) Ltd. – sllr 1982 volume 2 page 483

In Ameen and Others v. Malship (Ceylon) Ltd., the court addressed whether an application for leave to appeal or a notice of appeal requires stamping under the Stamp Ordinance and relevant procedural laws. It was determined that such applications do not fall within the express categories of documents subject to stamp duty as enumerated by the statute. The principle reaffirmed is that tax liability under fiscal legislation arises strictly from the explicit language of the statute, and in the absence of statutory imposition, no stamp duty applies. Reliance was placed on prior case law—including Partington v. Attorney-General and Tennant v. Smith—and statutory interpretation, emphasizing that taxation must be imposed only by clear statutory mandate. The appeal was allowed, clarifying that stam