Santhanam Devage Nandasiri Silva Alias Nande Vs. The Hon. Attorney General – CA HCC/53/2021-2021

In the case between Santhanam Devage Nandasiri Silva (Alias Nande) and the Hon. Attorney General, the court addressed the issue of the appropriateness of the sentence imposed for possession and trafficking of 1.33 grams of heroin, with the appeal focusing solely on the severity of the sentence, not the conviction. It was held that the previously imposed ten-year rigorous imprisonment term for the second charge should be reduced to seven years, while the punishment for the first charge remained unchanged, and that both sentences were to run concurrently from the date of the original sentence. This decision reaffirmed the principle of judicial discretion in sentencing with due consideration to the proportionality and totality of punishment for similar offences under the relevant statute, and