Arachchige Don Dharmapala Seneviratne vs Sinnaiah Ramakrishnan – CA 315/99-1999

The case between Arachchige Don Dharmapala Seneviratne (plaintiff) and Sinnaiah Ramakrishnan (defendant) addressed the issue of entitlement to possession of land under the Land Development Ordinance (LDO) and the merits of challenges to cancellation of an earlier permit. The court determined that entitlement through an LDO permit and a subsequent Crown lease prevailed over claims of prescriptive title and challenges related to the validity of permit cancellation. It was reaffirmed that questions concerning the legality of LDO permit cancellations must be resolved through judicial review proceedings rather than ordinary civil action, and prescriptive title cannot be asserted against the State. This decision relied on statutory interpretation of the Land Development Ordinance and the Prescri