Court of Appeal of Sri Lanka: In this appeal validity of the order of the Provincial High Court of the Central Province was challenged before a Bench of Janak De Silva and Achala Wengappuli, JJ. by which Court had set aside an order of ejectment issued by Magistrate’s Court.
Application was filed under amended Section 5 of the State Lands (Recovery of Possession) Act, 1979 where appellant had sought an order of ejectment against respondent from the two plots of land. Appellants in their affidavit had averred that respondent failed to give the possession of State lands. Respondent contested the application on the ground that no confirmation of the service of quit notice was attached with the application. Further, no supporting material was present to show that the land in question belongs to the Industrial Development Board. Thus, Magistrate’s Court issued an order of ejectment against respondent finding the land described on the quit notice and application under Section 5 of the Act to be different. Respondent in this appeal submitted that appellants are not the true owners and the land belongs to Mahaweli Authority.
High Court found the observation of Provincial High Court that there was misdescription of the State land to be erroneous as the two lands as mentioned in the quit notice and the eviction application were the same. Therefore, the appeal was allowed and the order of the Provincial High Court was set aside. [Industrial Development Board v. M. Chandrakumar, 2019 SCC OnLine SL CA 1, decided on 25-01-2019]
