Sumanawathie vs. Attorney General and Others – sllr 2019 volume 1 page 301

In the case between Sumanawathie (Plaintiff/Appellant) and the Attorney General and others (Defendants/Respondents), the court addressed whether long-term occupation of land subject to an eviction order under the State Lands (Recovery of Possession) Act entitled the occupier to prescriptive title through a rei vindicatio action. It was held that possession, even if exceeding 35 years, does not suffice to establish prescriptive title where statutory provisions and evidence demonstrate the land is a state reservation, and uninterrupted, adverse possession could not be proven as required by law. The decision reaffirmed the principle that statutory modifications under sections 12, 13, and 52 of the State Lands Ordinance alter the common law requirements for dispossession and prescriptive claim