Wahalathantrige Don Lakhnath Wijesinghe vs. Sri Lanka Tea Board – CA/WRT/0613/2021-2024

The case between Wahalathantrige Don Lakhnath Wijesinghe (the Petitioner) and the Sri Lanka Tea Board, its Chairman, members, and associated officers addressed the issue of whether the Petitioner had properly exhausted alternative remedies before invoking the Court’s writ jurisdiction regarding disciplinary proceedings. It was held that the Petitioner failed to satisfy the exhaustion requirement, as the appeals were filed before the disciplinary order was issued, and that the Petitioner had not made full disclosure of material facts, thereby misleading the Court. The decision reaffirmed the principle that writ jurisdiction is not available when alternative remedies have not been properly pursued or disclosed, relying on established procedural requirements governing the invocation of extrao