G.R. Pathmaraj Vs. K. Gunaratnam and others – CALA 29/2006-2006

In the case between G.R. Pathmaraj (intervenient petitioner-executor-petitioner, probate holder and eldest son of the deceased) and K. Gunaratnam (original petitioner, widow) & five others (children and widow of the deceased K. Gunaratnam), the court addressed whether the District Court’s order rejecting the probate holder’s inventory and final account should be set aside, and whether assets outside Sri Lanka could be included in Sri Lankan testamentary proceedings. It was held that Sri Lankan courts lack jurisdiction to administer foreign property in probate matters and that inventories and final accounts must be confined to assets within Sri Lanka, reaffirming the principle that probate jurisdiction is territorially limited. This decision relied on the Civil Procedure Code and prior judi