Officer-In-Charge, Police Station, Alawwa vs Solanga Arachchige Karunarathne – CA PHC 180/2004-2022

In the case between Officer-In-Charge, Police Station, Alawwa, and Subasingha Arachchige Thilakasiri Subasingha among others, the court addressed the issue of whether the respondent was entitled to a right of way over the appellant’s land pursuant to Section 69(1) of the Primary Courts’ Procedure Act, No. 44 of 1979. The court held that the High Court was correct in granting a provisional right of way “for the time being” to the respondent to maintain public peace, even though prescriptive rights were neither established nor claimed in previous partition proceedings. It was reaffirmed that proceedings under Chapter VII of the Act are preventative and provisional, not for final determination of civil rights. This decision relied on statutory interpretation of Section 69 and relevant case la