A two-judge bench of the Court of Appeal delivered a divided judgment on Tuesday in former MP Hirunika Premachandra’s appeal against her conviction and three-year prison sentence over a 2015 abduction, leaving the matter unresolved.
When the case was called for judgment, Justice P. Kumararatnam announced that the appeal would be referred to the President of the Court of Appeal and taken up on Wednesday, the Daily Mirror reported.
What a split judgment means here
A two-judge bench that cannot agree produces no operative decision. The conviction and sentence are neither affirmed nor set aside, and the referral to the Court of Appeal President is the procedural route to resolving the deadlock — typically by constituting a fuller bench to hear the matter afresh or to break the tie.
Premachandra’s position is unchanged in the meantime. She was granted bail by the Colombo High Court on 22 July 2024, pending determination of this appeal, and that determination has not yet been made.
The case
She was convicted by the Colombo High Court on 18 counts, including conspiring in and aiding an abduction, and threatening, assaulting and intimidating the victim, Amila Priyankara, after he was abducted in Dematagoda in 2015. The sentence was three years, with fines.
Premachandra, a former United National Party and later Samagi Jana Balawegaya parliamentarian for Colombo, is the daughter of the late politician Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra.
Update — 11 November
The referral has been resolved. On Wednesday the appeal was taken up before Court of Appeal President Rohantha Abeysuriya, who appointed a three-judge bench of himself, P. Kumaran Rathnam and Pradeep Hettiarachchi, and fixed the hearing for 21 January. That also identifies the second judge on Tuesday’s deadlocked bench: Hettiarachchi, who had been hearing the appeal alongside Kumararatnam since mid-year. Full report.
Not reported
The filing does not say which way either judge went, or set out the reasoning on either side. It does not say whether her bail continues in the interim — though nothing in the filing suggests it has been disturbed.
Reporting of the split by other outlets matches the Daily Mirror’s account on the referral and the Wednesday date, but none of the verified newsrooms this desk could reach had filed its own report of Tuesday’s proceedings at the time of writing.
