Jayaweera Mudiyanselage Chandrika Priyadharshani v. Sinniah Selvanayagam – 06/2012-2016

In the case between Jayaweera Mudiyanselage Chandrika Priyadharshani, Competent Authority, Plantation Management Monitoring Division, Ministry of Plantation Industries (Applicant), and Sinniah Selvanayagam (Respondent-Petitioner/Appellant), the issue concerned whether the subject land was State-owned or privately held by the Respondent-Petitioner’s wife and the legality of the Respondent-Petitioner’s possession. The court determined that the Applicant had failed to establish the land as State property and that material discrepancies existed between the land described in the deed and in the notice of ejectment. It was held that the Magistrate’s order for ejectment, made under Section 10 of the State Land Recovery of Possession Act No. 07 of 1979, could not be sustained. This decision reaffi