Court of Appeal of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka: The Division Bench of P. Kumararatnam and Sampath B Abayakoon, JJ., while hearing an appeal against the order of the High Court dismissed the same holding that the observation of the High court was appropriate.
In the instant case, the victim was the mother-in-law of the appellant in relation. The incident took place on 06-07-2010 when the appellant visited the home of her mother-in-Law and informed her that her wife has run away with some other person. It was noteworthy that after a span of a short while the appellant attacked the victim from the back side behind using an axe and then eventually ran away from the crime scene. After trial, the appellant was found guilty as charged, and the High Court Judge after hearing both the parties on the sentence, imposed a term of four years rigorous imprisonment to the accused and a fine.
In the present appeal, the counsel for appellant contended that the appellant was 60 years old with three children and a farmer by profession and also that he has no previous convictions. The counsel further reiterated the same mitigatory circumstances and pleaded that given the circumstances, Court may consider the suspension of sentence imposed upon him.
The Court opined that the term of imprisonment imposed by the High Court Judge to the appellants was very much adequate given the facts and circumstances of the case and that the High Court has considered the mitigatory circumstances as well as the gravity of the offence. The appeal was dismissed.[Ratnayaka Arachchilage Wijesinghe v. The Attorney General, 2022 SCC OnLine SL CA 11 , decided on 07-03-2022]
Kugarajah for the Accused-Appellant
Maheshika Silva SSC for the Respondent