Samarasekera v. Indrani – sllr 2007 volume 1 page 241

In Samarasekera v. Indrani, the court considered whether the defendant’s mistake in recording the wrong date for the judgment delivery constituted “causes not within his control” under Section 765 of the Civil Procedure Code, and whether such a mistake justified granting leave to appeal out of time. The court held that an error by the party or attorney in noting the date does not meet the statutory threshold, reaffirming the principle that personal or representative oversight does not qualify as a sufficient cause for delay. Reliance was placed on precedents such as Rankira v Silindu and Julius v Hodgson, emphasizing that statutory requirements for leave to appeal cannot be circumvented by inadvertent errors. The application for leave to appeal was dismissed, with no order as to costs.

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