Padmashantha Wickremasooriya vs Marimutthu Letchimi – CA NO. 1134/98-2013

The case between Padmashantha Wickremasooriya (plaintiff) and Marimutthu Letchimi (defendant) addressed whether the defendant could establish title to land by prescription despite a prior fiscal eviction and the subsequent failure of the plaintiff to file for re-eviction under Section 325 of the Civil Procedure Code. It was held that the defendant’s period of possession was interrupted by lawful eviction, which precluded the accumulation of the prescriptive period under Section 3 of the Prescription Ordinance. The decision reaffirmed that uninterrupted and undisturbed possession is essential for a prescriptive claim, and any legal interruption, such as court-ordered eviction, breaks the continuity required. This principle was drawn from the reasoning in the applicable statutes and prior ju