Kalawila Pathirage Pradeep Chandana Vs. The Hon. Attorney General – CA HCC-101/2020-2022

In The Honourable Attorney General, representing the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, vs. Kalawila Pathirage Pradeep Chandana, the court addressed the question of whether the conviction for murder, sustained partly on the basis of evidence from a hostile eyewitness and a dying declaration, was legally valid. The appellate review focused on the admissibility and reliability of testimony from a witness designated as hostile, the probative quality of a dying declaration admitted as evidence, and the procedural propriety of the trial process. It was held that portions of the hostile witness’s testimony, where corroborated by other evidence, were rightfully relied upon and that the deceased’s dying declaration was properly admitted and carried sufficient evidentiary weight. The princ