Methanga and Another vs. Herath and Others – sllr 2020 volume 2 page 281

In Methanga and Another v. Herath and Others, the court addressed whether refusal to aggregate marks for successive deeds of transfer as proof of residency, in a school admission process governed by Circular 24/2018, violated Article 12(1) of the Constitution. It was determined that denial of additional marks for the period reflected in an earlier deed of ownership, when ownership transferred within the family, was arbitrary and contrary to the intended purpose of the marking scheme. The core principle reaffirmed was that administrative criteria must be applied fairly and in a manner consistent with constitutional guarantees of equality. The decision relied on the plain purpose of the circular and constitutional provisions, emphasizing that interpretation of such circulars should protect s