Kotuwe Gedara Dimuthu Sanjeewa vs Mr.S.S.G.Perera et al. – CA WRIT/296/2019-2022

In the case between Kotuwe Gedara Dimuthu Sanjeewa (Petitioner; son of late K.G. Somapala) and Mr. S.S.G. Perera, Mrs. Samarage Sirima Kamalani Perera (children of original tenant Victor Perera), Mr. Sarath Athukorala (Commissioner of National Housing), and Hon. Mahinda Rajapakse (Minister), the court addressed whether the statutory right of a tenant under Section 13 of the Ceiling on Housing Property Law No. 1 of 1973 to purchase a housing property is personal and extinguished upon the tenant’s death before a vesting order is made, and whether a subsequent vesting order and recommended transfer to the tenant’s heirs are lawful. It was held that the Section 13 right is strictly personal and does not survive to the tenant’s heirs if a vesting order had not been made prior to the tenant’s de