IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA In the matter of an Application for Revision in terms of Article 138 of The Constitution from the Order for Cancellation of Bail delivered by the learned High Court Judge of Kandy as dated 05th October 2023, in High Court of Kandy Case No. HC

141/2020.

Court of Appeal Case No. Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka CPA/132/2023 COMPLAINANT Vs.

High Court Kandy Case No. HC 141/2020 Rajapakse Gedara Ravindu Ratnayake ACCUSED AND NOW H. H. Rupika Sanjeewani Dharmadasa No. 16, Kiwlwkada, Getalawa, Kokawewa.

PETITIONER Vs.

The Attorney General, Attorney General’s Department, Colombo 12.

COMPLAINANT-RESPONDENT Rajapakse Gedara Ravindu Ratnayake (Presently in prison)

ACCUSED-RESPONDENT Before : Sampath B. Abayakoon, J.

: P. Kumararatnam, J.

Counsel : Mohan Weerakoon, P.C. with Sandamal Senal Mathugama for the Petitioner : Janaka Bandara, D.S.G. with Jayalakshi de Silva, S.S.C. for the Respondents Argued on : 15-12-2023 Decided on : 31-01-2024 Sampath B. Abayakoon, J.

This is an application by the petitioner acting on behalf of the accused- respondent, who is the accused in High Court of Kandy Case Number HC/141/2020, invoking the revisionary jurisdiction granted to this Court in terms of Article 138 of The Constitution.

The petitioner is seeking to challenge the order made by the learned High Court Judge of Kandy on 5th October 2023, where the accused-respondent (hereinafter referred to as the accused) was ordered to be remanded pending further trial.

When this matter was supported before this Court for notice, after having considered the relevant facts and circumstances, this Court decided to issue notice to the complainant-respondent, namely the Hon. Attorney General.

At the hearing of this application, this Court heard the submissions of the learned President’s Counsel, as well as that of the learned Deputy Solicitor General (DSG) on behalf of the Hon. Attorney General in order to determine the application before the Court.

At the conclusion of the arguments on this matter, the learned DSG agreed that ordering the release of the accused pending the final determination of the application would be justifiable given the relevant facts, the circumstances and the law. Accordingly, this Court ordered the immediate release of the accused from remand custody on the earlier bail conditions the accused had previously complied.

This is an action where the accused had been indicted before the High Court of Kandy for committing the offence of grave sexual abuse of a minor, which is an offence punishable in terms of section 365B (2) (b) of the Penal Code as amended by Penal Code (Amendment) Act No. 2 of 1995 and 16 of 2006.

The accused has appeared before the High Court on notice on 16-09-2020, and after serving the indictment and other relevant documents on the accused, the learned High Court Judge of Kandy has released the accused on bail.

Thereafter, the trial against the accused has commenced on 21-07-2022 as he has pleaded not guilty to the charge. At the conclusion of the evidence of the victim, namely PW-01 and her mother (PW-02) on 05-10-2023, the prosecuting State Counsel has urged the learned High Court Judge to issue summons on PW-03, 04, 06 and 08.

When the above application was made, the learned High Court Judge has made the impugned order sought to be challenged before this Court on behalf of the accused.

For matters of clarity, I will now reproduce the order in its entirety.

අධිකරණයෙන්: -

යේ අවස්ථායේ යෙෙ නඩු විභාගයේ පැමිණිල්යල් සාක්ෂි අංක 1 සහ කැඳවන ලද පැමිණිල්යල් සාක්ෂි අංක 2 යේ සාක්ෂිෙ ො ඉදිරියේ සේූර්ණයෙන්ෙ විභාග කරන ලද අතර එෙ සාක්ෂිකරුවන්යේ සාක්ෂි යදයදනායේෙ සැලකිල්ලට ගත් විට අපරාධ නඩු විධාන සංග්‍රහ පනයත් 263 (2) පැහැදිලි කිරීේ ෙටයත් කරුණු සලකා බැලීෙට එෙ නඩුකරයේ එකී සංය ෝදනයේ සාක්ෂි ෙගින් පැහැදිලිවෙ කරුණු අනාවරණෙ කරයගන ඇති යහයින් වියේෂයෙන්ෙ පැමිණිල්යල් සාක්ෂි අංක 1 යේ සාක්ෂිෙ පැමිණිල්යල් සාක්ෂි අංක 2 යේ සාක්ෂිෙ ෙගින් තවදුරටත් ෙනාව තහවුරු වීෙ ෙන කරුණු ගත් විට අපරාධ නඩු විධ