Epa Arachchige Kumudu Upendra Premachandra vs. Asiabike Industrial Limited – S C APPEAL NO 134/2023-2025

In the case between Epa Arachchige Kumudu Upendra Premachandra (Applicant) and Asiabike Industrial Limited (Respondent), the court addressed the issue of whether the computation of the filing time for appeals under the Industrial Disputes Act should exclude only Sundays and Poya days, as per the prevailing Sinhala text, or also include Public Holidays such as Christmas and Thai Pongal, as indicated by the English and Tamil texts. It was held that the Sinhala text, which allows exclusion of only Sundays and Poya days, governs due to constitutional authority where language discrepancies arise. The court reaffirmed the principle that legislative intent and operative constitutional provisions (specifically Article 23(1)) require deference to the primary Sinhala text in statutory interpretation