K. M. S. DISSANAYAKE, J.

This is an appeal filed before this Court by the Respondent-Petitioner-Appellant (hereinafter called and referred to as ‘the Appellant’) against the order of the learned High Court Judge of the North Western Province holden in Kurunegala dated 04.10.2019 made in revision application bearing No. HCR 12/18.

The facts relevant to the instant appeal as can be gathered from the petition of appeal, may be briefly, set out as follows;

The 2nd Plaintiff-Respondent-Respondent (hereinafter called and referred to as ‘the 2nd Respondent’) had made an application to the Magistrate Court of Kurunegala in case bearing No. 96057 under and in terms of the provisions of Section 5 of the State Lands (Recovery of Possession) Act No. 07 of 1979 (as amended) (hereinafter called and referred to as ‘the Act’) for the eviction of the Appellant from a State Land called ‘Thambilikotuwewatta’ as morefully described in the schedule to the application (hereinafter called and referred to as the ‘State Land’). The Appellant who appeared before the Magistrate Court of Kurunegala in pursuant to the summons issued on her by Court to appear and show cause against the application made to Court by the 2nd Respondent under Section 5 of the Act for her eviction from the State Land, had shown cause on the premise that the original owner of the land from which her eviction was sought in the said application was one Mr. E. A. S. Munasinghe who had by virtue of deed bearing No. 12286, dated 23.09.1935, donated 1½ acres therefrom to Sawandena Government School; that the middle portion of the remainder of the land had by 2 deeds bearing Nos. 1236 and 6775 dated 03.10.2014 and 08.02.2015 respectively, been sold by the said Mr. E. A. S. Munasinghe to the daughter of the caretaker of the land (X6 & X7) and prior to the execution of the said deeds, Mr. E. A. S. Munasinghe had obtained an opinion from the Ayurvedic Department wherein, the Ayurvedic Commissioner had clearly, given his consent to the said transaction; that it had been properly, informed to the Divisional Secretary by letter marked X2; that the land which had been so donated to the Government School had subsequently, been gifted by the said Mr. E. A. S. Munasinghe to Ayurvedic Department by virtue of the deed of gift bearing No.7449, dated 28.01.2009 (X3); that in terms of the said deeds, the land which had been so purchased by the Appellant had been identified as “Divulgahakumbura”, however, the land from which her eviction was sought had been identified as “Thambilikotuwewatta” and not “Divulgahakumbura”, and hence, the Divisional Secretary had failed to identify the subject matter; that furthermore, Mr. A. H. S. Wijesinghe, then, Divisional Secretary of Weerambugedra had issued a letter (X1) stating that the land from which her eviction was sought, had not been acquired by the State and hence, problematic issue had arisen as to the present ownership thereof, but, however, the Divisional Secretary of Weerambugedra had made the said application to the learned Magistrate of Kurunegala for her eviction therefrom without considering the matters stated in the said letter (X1) by the then, Divisional Secretary of Weerambugedra-Mr. A. H. S. Wijesinghe; that in the premise, the Appellant had duly, become the owner of the land occupied by her; that, in the circumstances, the Land from which her eviction had been sought by the 2nd Respondent, had not been correctly, identified by him in his application made to Court under Section 5 of the Act and hence, the Appellant is not liable to be ejected from the land belonging to her. and therefore, it should be dismissed.

However, the learned Additional Magistrate of Kurunegala in his order dated 11.05.2018 had having rejected the showing cause of the Appellant, proceeded to grant the application directing eviction of the Appellant from the State Land by inter-alia, holding that the Appellant too, who had maintained that the 2nd Respondent had not properly,