The Supreme Court has ruled that transit passengers are subject to the jurisdiction of Sri Lanka Customs, dismissing a claim by an Indian national for the return of 50 slabs of gold seized at Bandaranaike International Airport in 1991.
The judgment was delivered by Justice Arjuna Obeyesekere, with Chief Justice Preethi Padman Surasena and Justice Mahinda Samayawardhena agreeing, Daily Mirror reported. The Court allowed an appeal by the Attorney General.
What happened in 1991
Angelo Sebastian Pereira, then 37 and based in Dubai, arrived on an Air Lanka flight from Dubai bound for Madras carrying 5,850 grams of gold — more than 700 sovereigns — concealed in the false bottom of a black briefcase. An Assistant Superintendent of Customs stopped him at the entrance to the transit lounge.
The gold was forfeited under the Exchange Control Act, the Import and Export Control Act and the Customs Ordinance. A fine of three times the value was imposed, later mitigated to Rs. 100,000, which Pereira paid.
He argued he was only in transit, that the gold was destined for India, and that he had never “arrived” in Sri Lanka in the legal sense.
How the case moved
The District Court of Colombo dismissed his action in 1999, finding the ownership evidence weak and holding that the gold had been brought in without a Central Bank permit. The Court of Appeal reversed that in 2019, accepting both his ownership and the argument that a transit passenger does not import goods. The Attorney General appealed.
The two findings
On ownership, the Court held Pereira had failed to establish title. He had first told Customs the gold belonged to a man named Mohammed in Dubai and that he was carrying it to Madras for a fee, then later claimed it as his own. The Court treated the later assertion as an afterthought made to satisfy the rule that a claim under the Customs Ordinance must come from the owner. Section 110 of the Evidence Ordinance, which presumes ownership from possession, did not help him — possession without a permit was itself unlawful.
On jurisdiction, the Court held that bringing gold into Sri Lanka is importation under Section 21 of the then Exchange Control Act even where the passenger stays airside and never clears immigration. Section 21(2) expressly deems gold brought into a port or airport to be imported, including where it is intended to leave again without being removed from the aircraft. Gold was a restricted item needing prior Central Bank permission; once brought in against that restriction it became liable to forfeiture under Section 43 of the Customs Ordinance.
The Court said the contrary view — that a transit passenger carrying a restricted or prohibited item falls outside Customs’ reach — is inconsistent with both statutes.
The length of it
The plaint was filed in September 1991. The case ran more than three decades through successive appeals, and the original claimant died during it, with a new plaintiff substituted to continue the claim. The Daily Mirror did not report where the gold has been held since, or what becomes of it now.
