Yakgahavita Liyanage Wijesiri Vs. The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka – CA 191/2012-2016

In the case between The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and Yakgahavita Liyanage Wijesiri, the court addressed whether the conviction and sentence for murder under section 296 of the Penal Code and for causing hurt under section 315 of the Penal Code, as imposed by the High Court, should be upheld on appeal. The court held that none of the appellant’s grounds for challenging the conviction and sentence had merit, confirming the credibility of the prosecution’s primary eyewitness, rejecting the argument that the incident constituted a sudden fight so as to attract Exception 4 to Section 294 of the Penal Code, and affirming the procedural propriety of conducting the retrial only against the appellant. The principle that appellate intervention is unwarranted in the absence of a mat