Lieutenant Colonel M.M.H.B Pilapitiya and others vs. Lieutenant General N.U.M.M.W. Senanayake Commander of Army and others – CA WRIT 0384/2019-2022

In the case of Lieutenant Colonel M.M.H.B Pilapitiya, Lieutenant Colonel N.W. Neville Lakshman, Lieutenant Colonel U.D.A. Dharmasena (Petitioners) versus Lieutenant General N.U.M.M.W. Senanayake (Commander of Army) and others (Respondents), the court addressed whether Petitioners, initially civil servants who later served as Commissioned Officers in the Sri Lanka Army Volunteer Force and National Cadet Corps, are entitled to Army pensions under the Army Pensions and Gratuities Code. The court held that Petitioners are entitled to aggregate prior civil service with military service to meet the 20-year pension-qualifying period, establishing that refusal to compute and award Army pensions constituted a failure of public duty, meriting the writ of Mandamus. The decision reinforced the princip