State v. Agampodi Jayantha Gamini Soyza and Yakdaradura Nimal Prasanna Silva – APN 105/14-2016

In the case between Hon. Attorney General, Attorney General’s Department, Colombo 12 (Prosecution-Petitioner) and Agampodi Jayantha Gamini Soyza and Yakdaradura Nimal Prasanna Silva (Accused Respondents), the court addressed whether it was lawful for the High Court Judge to call prosecution witness no.3 as a “witness of Court” after the State declined to do so, and whether the Judge could amend the indictment on the court’s own initiative to permit a plea of guilty to a lesser offence despite the State Counsel’s objection. The court held that while a judge may exceptionally call a witness as a “witness of Court” if their testimony is significantly divergent and necessary to ascertain the truth, the amendment of an indictment to a lesser offence requires either prosecutorial consent or clea