Udiri Appuwaduge Mark Hilton Fernando vs Ceylon Electricity Board (Pvt) Limited – CA 223/98 F -2013

In the case between Udiri Appuwaduge Mark Hilton Fernando and Ceylon Electricity Board (Pvt) Limited and others, the court addressed whether the District Judge’s dismissal of the plaintiff’s claim pursuant to Section 49(3) of the Electricity Act should be set aside on appeal. It was determined that repeated notices to the plaintiff-appellant since July 2011 remained unanswered, and the plaintiff failed to diligently prosecute the appeal. Information provided by the electricity supplier and postal records confirmed that the appellant no longer resided at the address linked to the dispute. The decision reaffirmed the principle allowing dismissal of appeals for want of prosecution under rule 34 of the Supreme Court Rules. The holding emphasized that a party’s absence and lack of effort to pro