The Court of Appeal has issued a writ of prohibition barring police from arresting former Public Security Minister Tiran Alles and the directors and employees of Ceylon Newspapers (Private) Limited, in a police investigation into cheques allegedly dishonoured to a newsprint supplier.
The order was delivered on Wednesday by a two-judge bench of Justices Sasi Mahendran and Pradeep Hettiarachchi, the Daily Mirror reported.
The reasoning
The court held that the transaction at the centre of the writ application was a commercial transaction, and that there was insufficient evidence to incriminate the petitioner company, its directors or its employees in respect of the alleged offences.
That is the substance of the ruling: a failure to honour cheques issued to a supplier is, on these facts, a matter between contracting parties rather than a criminal one, and the court was not prepared to let an arrest proceed on the material before it.
What the order does not do
The bench attached an express limit. The order should not prevent police from investigating the matter further, and if any new material is discovered in relation to the disputed transaction, police may take whatever further action the law allows.
A writ of prohibition of this kind restrains a specific step — here, arrest — on the strength of the evidence as it currently stands. It does not terminate the investigation or determine the underlying dispute.
Who appeared
The petition was filed by Ceylon Newspapers (Private) Limited, seeking an order preventing police from arresting its chairman, Alles, along with its directors and employees.
Dr. Romesh de Silva, PC appeared for the petitioner. Viran Corea, PC appeared for the fifth respondent.
Alles served as Minister of Public Security in the government of former President Ranil Wickremesinghe — the ministry with responsibility for the police force now restrained from arresting him.
Sourcing note
LankaNewz searched for coverage of this ruling on other verified newsrooms and found none. Searches for “Tiran Alles” and the Court of Appeal return his earlier Reconstruction and Development Agency case from 2017 to 2020, which is a different matter entirely — that one concerned alleged misappropriation of public funds, not a commercial cheque dispute. This report rests on the Daily Mirror alone.
Not reported
The Daily Mirror does not name the newsprint supplier, give the value of the cheques, say when they were issued or dishonoured, or state which police division was conducting the investigation. It does not say who the fifth respondent is, how many directors and employees were covered by the order, or which newspaper titles Ceylon Newspapers publishes.
