Warnakulasuriya Arachchige Primsan Sarath Stanley v. The Hon. Attorney General – CA HCC/0317/2017-2022

In the case between Warnakulasuriya Arachchige Primsan Sarath Stanley (Accused-Appellant) and the Hon. Attorney General (Complainant-Respondent), the court addressed the issue of whether the accused-appellant, a notary public, was guilty of cheating and forgery under Sections 400 and 454 of the Penal Code by allegedly forging the complainant’s signature on a property deed and fraudulently inducing him to sever his life interest. It was held that the conviction was unsound due to insufficient evidence proving the necessary mens rea, questions about the legality of reserving a life interest for a non-party, and the trial judge’s misdirection on the standard of proof. The principle reaffirmed was that only a vendor can reserve a life interest, and that the prosecution’s burden to establish cr