Asaallage Binura Nisal Senadheera and Others vs. University Grants Commission and Others – CA WRIT APPLICATION NO: 41/2021-2021

In the case between Asaallage Binura Nisal Senadheera and seven other Biology stream students (Petitioners) and the University Grants Commission (UGC) alongside the Commissioner General of Examinations and the Hon. Attorney General (Respondents), the court addressed the legality and reasonableness of the UGC’s adoption of separate cut-off marks and the “composite average method” for university admissions in the wake of a syllabus change. It was held that the use of these methods was lawful, rational, and justified, reaffirming the principle that judicial review of public decision-making is limited to instances of clear unreasonableness or irrationality. Relevant legal doctrines such as Res Judicata and Issue Estoppel were relied upon, establishing that relitigation of the same claims, prev