Navaratne vs Premaratne and Others – sllr 2004 volume 3 page 403

In the case between Navaratne (petitioner/plaintiff-respondent) and Premaratne with other co-owners (defendant-respondents), the court addressed whether a co-owner may undertake gemming (mining) across the entirety of co-owned land without the express or implied consent of all co-owners, as well as the status of a gemming licence issued for six months and the propriety of an interim injunction restraining such activity until the final resolution of a partition action. The findings established that although co-owners possess the right to use common property for shared benefit, unilateral gemming, which exhausts a limited and valuable resource, cannot be justified without collective agreement. The holding reaffirmed the established principle that acts by a co-owner diminishing a fundamental