Pussellawa Plantations Limited Vs. Hon. Minister of Plantation Industries and Others – CA WRIT/132/2015-2018

The case between Pussellawa Plantations Limited and the Hon. Minister of Plantation Industries (later succeeded by Hon. Gayantha Karunathillake, Minister of Lands and Parliamentary Reforms), the Land Reform Commission, among others, addressed whether the Petitioner could maintain an application for writs of Certiorari, Prohibition, and Mandamus against the Minister, given preliminary objections regarding the proper identification of the Respondent Minister. The holding established that, notwithstanding objections rooted in the non-juristic status of the Minister and procedural defects of the caption, the court possessed the discretion to permit an amendment to accurately name the 1st Respondent under the Court of Appeal (Appellate Procedure) Rules 1990. The principle reaffirmed is that pro