Jayasekara Vidanapathirana Piyadasa vs. Hon. Attorney General – CA/HCC/147/19-2024

In the case between Jayasekara Vidanapathirana Piyadasa (also known as Kadira) and others (Accused-Appellants) versus the Hon. Attorney General (Respondent), the court addressed whether a confession presumed genuine under Section 80(3) of the Evidence Ordinance must still be examined for voluntariness pursuant to Section 127(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code and Section 24 of the Evidence Ordinance. The proceedings involved a challenge to a conviction and sentence following a long delay between the commission of the offense and trial, with scrutiny on the confession’s voluntariness and corroborative evidence. It was held that, notwithstanding the presumption of genuineness, the legal requirement to establish voluntariness remained. The court affirmed that the confession, together with supp