Seneviratne v. Abeykoon – sllr 1998 volume 1 page 008

Brief
In Ratnasingham v. Tikiribaba Dassanaike and others, the court considered whether a District Court in Sri Lanka possessed jurisdiction to grant probate of a last will that disposed exclusively of movable property situated outside Sri Lanka. It was determined that the statutory framework—namely, section 21 of the Judicature Act and sections 516 and 518 of the Civil Procedure Code—confined the grant of probate to circumstances where the will affected property within Sri Lanka. The significance of the property’s location was reaffirmed, emphasizing that probate could not be granted in respect of property located solely abroad. The reasoning centered on statutory interpretation and the legislative intent underlying testamentary jurisdiction, underscoring that international elements of do