Issue on acquisition of land for preservation of water supply

Wednesday, 10 October 2012 01:11 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By S.S. Selvanayagam

The Supreme Court recently held that filing of a re-listing application by a third party and thereby seeking to appeal a matter is a backdoor method and the attempt thereby to re-argue the matter amounts to abuse of court process.

Justice Sathya Hettige delivering a unanimous judgment of a bench that included Justices P.A. Ratnayake and Chandra Ekanayake refused to grant any relief to the petitioner and dismissed the appeal challenging the acquisition of a land by Kurunegala Municipal Council.

The Intervenient Petitioner Tyronne de Alwis cited Kurunegala Municipal Council, Municipal Commissioner E.M.P. Ekanayake, the Minister of Lands, Attorney General and others as Respondents.

Shammil J. Perera with Ranil Prematilake Attorneys-at-Law appeared for the Kurunegala MC and its Commissioner. Manohara de Silva President’s Counsel with H. Munasinghe appeared for the Petitioner. Additional Solicitor General Bimba Tilakaratne with State Counsel Yuresha de Silva appeared for the Attorney General.

Kurunegala Municipal Council and its Commissioner in their Writ application in the Court of Appeal sought a divesting order made by former Land Minister quashed. The Petitioner claimed co- owned rights to the land called ‘Ulpothewatte’ situated within the Kurunegala Municipal limits which had been acquired by the State in 1907.

The Petitioner contended that even though the land was acquired by the State, his predecessors in title continued to be in possession of the said land.

He complained that the Kurunegala Municipal Council by virtue of the said acquisition order attempted to take possession and stated that upon representations being made to the then Minister of Lands an order revoking the said acquisition had been made by the said Minister.

However, the Court of Appeal made an order revoking the said divesting order. The Petitioner had appealed against the order of the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court seeking to re-list the matter for inquiry.