Wijithasiri and Another v. The Republic of Sri Lanka – sllr 1990 volume 1 page 056

In Wijithasiri and Another v. The Republic of Sri Lanka, the court addressed whether adequate judicial directions were provided to the jury regarding the doctrine of common intention in a prosecution for murder and arson. The verdicts were set aside after determining that the trial judge’s directions on common intention were insufficient, specifically failing to instruct the jury to consider the accused individually and to assess the existence and evidence of shared intent. The court reaffirmed the requirement, rooted in legal precedent such as King v. Assappu, that a jury must be properly directed on the legal standards for establishing common intention in criminal liability. As a result, the convictions and sentences were quashed, and a retrial was ordered under the Code of Criminal Proc