Watte Gedera Wijebanda v. Conservator General Of Forests And Others – sllr 2009 volume 1 page 337

Brief
In Watte Gedera Wijebanda v. The Conservator General of Forests and Others, the court examined whether the refusal to grant a mining permit to the petitioner, amidst irregularities in later granting a similar permit to another party, constituted a violation of the petitioner’s fundamental rights to equality under Article 12(1) of the Constitution. The judgment held that arbitrary and non-transparent actions of state officials, together with collusion and procedural lapses in environmental permit issuance, amounted to a breach of the petitioner’s constitutional rights and the public trust doctrine, which requires the state to safeguard natural resources for present and future generations. Reliance was placed on constitutional provisions regarding environmental protection, established