The Court of Appeal has ordered the state to grant suitable alternative land of equal value to Palippody Jeyatheeswaran, a Sri Lankan-Swiss dual citizen, whose plot in Karaiwapattu was taken over in 2005 to build a housing complex for people displaced by the Boxing Day tsunami, The Island reported.
The land, known as “Wembabhumi” and measuring one acre, one rood and 20 perches, was located in the Periyanilawanai Grama Niladhari Division of the Kalmunai Divisional Secretariat area in Batticaloa. The petitioner, who had been granted the land by permit in March 1990, told the court the Kalmunai Divisional Secretariat took it over without consulting him. He moved court under Article 140 of the Constitution.
A bench of Justice Mayadunne Corea and Justice Mahen Gopallawa quashed decisions taken at a July 14, 2021 meeting convened by the Secretary to the Ministry of Home Affairs that had proposed granting only 20 perches to a close relative nominated by the petitioner. The court declared that decision “bad in law” and said the conduct of the first respondent — the Divisional Secretary of Manmunai North, Batticaloa — could not be justified, noting that the official had disregarded a directive from the Provincial Land Commissioner to grant the petitioner one acre.
The petitioner’s father, a Grama Seveka officer, was killed by the LTTE in the East, and the petitioner himself was shot and wounded by the LTTE in Colombo in 2005 before migrating to Switzerland in September that year. He has since acquired dual citizenship.
In the absence of the original permit, the court said it could not determine whether the document was an annual or long-term permit and therefore could not rule on the petitioner’s strict legal entitlement to alternative land. However, the bench noted that all state officers, including the Land Commissioner General, had earlier concluded the petitioner should be given an alternative plot, and all counsel had conceded the point at the hearing.
President’s Counsel Uditha Egalahewa, with Vishwa Vimukthi, appeared for the petitioner. State Counsel Shemanthi Dunuwille represented the respondents.
The case echoes broader unresolved land-rights grievances in the East: Keppapilavu residents in Mullaitivu have spent 17 years protesting military occupation of their 171 acres, and war-era accountability efforts continue as the Chemmani excavation count has risen to 260 sets of human remains.
