Leon Peris Kumarasinghe v. Samantha Weliveriya – SC SPL. L.A. NO. 37/2012-2013

The case between Leon Peris Kumarasinghe and Samantha Weliveriya, Director General of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, addressed the issue of whether Special Leave to Appeal should be granted against a lower court decision involving an Order of Ejectment and the propriety of awarding punitive costs following multiple, parallel legal actions. The court held that the application for Special Leave to Appeal was to be dismissed and determined that punitive costs were appropriate due to an abuse of the judicial process by initiating concurrent applications that resulted in procedural irregularities and unnecessary expenditure of judicial resources. The principle reaffirmed is that punitive costs may be imposed as both a sanction and a deterrent when there is clear evidence of abuse of co