Jayawardane vs Ran Aweera – sllr 2004 volume 3 page 037

In Jayawardane v Ran Aweera, the court addressed the issue of the appropriate statutory basis for applications for child custody during divorce proceedings and the legitimacy of claims regarding the wrongful or illegal custody of a child without a specific court order. It was held that applications for custody may validly be brought under section 621 of the Civil Procedure Code, even if an incorrect reference to statutory provisions is made, as such an error does not operate to divest the court’s inherent jurisdiction. The principle reaffirmed is that the custody of a child by a parent cannot be adjudged wrongful in the absence of an order to that effect. The decision relied on the interpretative scope of section 621 and relevant statutory authority, emphasizing the sufficiency of judicial