Mayadunne Corea J

The Petitioner in this Application sought, inter alia, the following reliefs:

“(d) An order in the nature of a writ of certiorari against the order and/or decision and/or notice set out in the document marked P9 dated 8^th November 2019 and/or any other decision of the 1^st Respondent and/or 2^nd Respondent in respect of the same.

(e) An order in the nature of a writ of certiorari against the order and/or decision and/or notice set out in document marked P14 dated 17^th December 2020 of the 1^st Respondent and/or 2^nd Respondent.

(f) An order in the nature of a writ of certiorari against the order and/or decision and/or notice set out in document marked P17 dated 20^th April 2021 and/or any other decision of the 3^rd Respondent in respect of the same.

(g) An order in the nature of a writ of certiorari against the order and/or decision and/or notice set out in document marked P20 dated 8^th November 2021 and/or any decision of the 1^st Respondent in respect of the same.

(h) An order in the nature of a writ of prohibition against the Magistrate’s Court of Badulla preventing the said court from delivering possession of the land described in P6 to the 2^nd Respondent and/or depriving the Petitioner of the possession of the said land.

(i) An order in the nature of a writ of prohibition against the 1^st Respondent preventing the 1^st Respondent from making a declaration in terms of section 5 of the Land Acquisition Act in respect of the land described in P6 and/or any other decision of the 1^st Respondent in respect of the same.”

The facts of the case briefly are as follows. The Petitioner is a public listed company that engages in the cultivation of tea and rubber in several estates, including the Wewasse Estate. The Wewasse Estate had been vested with the Land Reform Commission until 1982 and had thereafter had been vested in the Janatha Estate Development Board (hereinafter referred to as ‘JEDB’) by an order made by the then Minister of Lands. In 1992, the Cabinet of Ministers considering that the functions of the JEDB should be taken over by a company, directed the Registrar of Companies to incorporate the Petitioner company under the Conversion of Public Corporations or Government Owned Business Undertakings into Public Companies Act, No. 23 of 1987. Thereafter, the JEDB leased out the Wewasse Estate to the Petitioner company for 99 years. The term of the lease was subsequently reduced to 53 years.

In 2005, the Minister of Lands acquired 37 acres from another closeby estate, the Glen Alpine Estate managed by the Petitioner for the purposes of establishing the Uva Wellassa University. Thereafter, in 2013, the Minister of Lands published another notice to acquire a further extent of 100 acres from Glen Alpine Estate. The Petitioner opposed this acquisition and instead entered into a compromise with the 2^nd Respondent for the acquisition of 27.92 acres from Glen Alpine Estate. However, the Petitioner states that no development had taken place on the acquired land and that no compensation was received by the Petitioner company for the aforesaid acquisition.

In 2019, the Petitioner received a notice dated 27.08.2019 from the 2^nd Respondent stating that the 1^st Respondent had decided to acquire 44 acres from the Wewasse Estate for the purposes of developing the Uva Wellassa University. Further, on 11.11.2019 the Petitioner received another notice that a further extent of 12 acres would be acquired from the Wewasse Estate for the same purposes. The Petitioner received another letter dated 27.11.2019 communicating the 2^nd Respondent’s decision to rely on a finding of the Survey Department that the land was not owned by any party.

The Respondents, thereafter, issued a notice under section 2 and subsequently under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, No. 9 of 1950 (herein sometimes referred to as ‘Act’) to acquire the aforesaid 12 acres and the Petitioner’s cooperation was requested to release the property. Furthermore, the 1^st Respondent dir