Jayasinghe v. The Attorney General and Others – sllr 1994 volume 2 page 074

In Jayasinghe v. The Attorney General and Others, the court addressed whether the protracted and unexplained delay in commencing and concluding disciplinary proceedings against Jayasinghe, a storekeeper interdicted by the Colombo South Co-operative Society, resulted in a denial of equal protection under Article 12(1) of the Constitution. The holding determined that such an inordinate delay, spanning 16 years with substantial administrative lapses, infringed the petitioner’s fundamental rights. The reasoning reaffirmed the legal principle that administrative disciplinary actions, subject to statutory oversight, must be conducted expeditiously to preserve both livelihood and liberty, distinct from criminal or judicial proceedings. Reliance was placed on statutory frameworks including the Co-