Sri Lankan Cases
A. Anton Balasundaram (On behalf of Devinya Grace Jemima) v. M. Abeygunasekara, Principal, Kandy Girls’ High School and others
Lakshan Dias, Mangala Kumarasinghe,
Nayomi Kahawita, State Counsel
Writs- Mandamus and Certiorari issued.
C.A/Writ/183/2019
The application was filed by the petitioner on behalf of his daughter (who is a minor) seeking a writ of Mandamus. The writ was sought in order to get his daughter admitted to Kandy Girls’ High School to Grade 1 for the year 2019 to learn in Tamil Medium. The petitioner also sought a writ of Certiorari to quash the letter of admission refusal. The petitioner had submitted the application under the ‘close proximity’ category and also on ‘Christianity’ basis. The
Petitioner alleged that his daughter who got only 33.8 marks should be admitted to the said school on the basis of availability of instructions of Christianity, under clause 4.2 of the circular No.24/2018 (issued by the Ministry of Education), despite the marks received based on the category (‘close proximity to school’) under which the application for admission had been made. Further the Petitioner claims that the Kandy Girls’ High School has filled only 13 vacancies whereas another 47 vacancies are available for the admission of children to Grade 1 for the year 2019
FoRB violation – Conscience (i.e. having or adopting a religion of one’s choice); Discrimination
The Respondents have not divided the vacancies proportionately among the religions and categories. The Respondents cannot possibly overlook the provisions of the said circular 24/2018 by simply making a statement to say that the Kandy Girls’ High School does not admit students who belong to other Christian sects other than to the Christian Methodist sect.
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