John Sebastian Anthony Thawaraja Reagan vs Hon. Attorney General – CA/CPA/0116/2024-2025

In the case between John Sebastian Anthony Thawaraja Reagan (and Ayyaswamy Shanmugam Raja, accused-appellants-petitioners) and the Attorney General’s Department with the Fraud Bureau, Unit 03, Colombo (respondents), the court addressed the issue of whether a revision application could be entertained to set aside an earlier judgment dismissing an appeal as out of time, considering statutory limitations under the Code of Criminal Procedure Act and related legal provisions. It was held that the revision application could not be allowed as the appeal was filed beyond the legally prescribed period, and the statutory timelines governing criminal appeals remained applicable. The principles reaffirmed include the strict application of statutory appeal periods and the court’s revisionary jurisdicti