Supreme Court ruling on a 2024 Prisoners’ Day remission

Details

Court: Supreme Court, three-judge bench (Justice Janak de Silva, with Justices Sobhitha Rajakaruna and Sampath Wijeratne agreeing)
Finding: The clemency that released a man serving 29 months for unpaid maintenance on 12 September 2024 violated the right to equality under Article 12(1), and was declared null and void
Status: Judgment delivered on 23 October 2026, according to Newswire; the Commissioner General of Prisons was directed to take steps to enforce the original sentence
Appears on: Presidents since 2019

Ranil Wickremesinghe / Found to have violated fundamental rights in / Supreme Court ruling on a 2024 Prisoners’ Day remission
- Reports that the Supreme Court held that the actions of the former President, the former Secretary to the Ministry of Justice and the former Commissioner General of Prisons in releasing a man who had served about two months of a 29-month sentence for failing to pay maintenance violated Article 12(1). Ada Derana calls the release a presidential pardon granted for Prisoners’ Day; the man argued it was a reduction of sentence under Article 34(1)(d). The court compared another prisoner jailed for similar arrears whose sentence was reduced by about a week. The article carries no response from Wickremesinghe.26 Oct 2026 · Ada Derana · SC orders enforcement of 29-month sentence after invalidating presidential pardon
- Gives the judgment date as 23 October 2026 and describes the release as a remission under the September 2024 general amnesty. It reports that the court found the man received preferential treatment because his imprisonment was recorded as non-payment of a fine, and that the difference in wording between the two prisoners’ commitment warrants did not justify the unequal treatment.26 Oct 2026 · Newswire · SC rules Ranil violated fundamental rights over amnesty granted to man jailed following marriage dispute