Diyawadana Nilame of Dalada Maligawa Pradeep Nilanga Dela Bandara was awarded a sum of Rs. 100,000 as legal costs by the Kandy High Court in respect of four cases filed against him by former Embekke Devale Basnayake Nilame Rasika Sudantha Punchi Bandara Senanayake.
This amount as legal costs was awarded to Diyawadana Nilame in line with the judgment delivered by the Supreme Court pursuant to an appeal petition filed by Rasika Sudantha Punchibandara.
Rasika Sudantha Punchibandara Senanayake had instituted proceedings under Section 136(1) (A) in the Magistrate’s Court of Kandy against Diyawadana Nilame of Dalada Maligawa Pradeep Nilanga Dela Bandara for committing an offense under Section 36(3) of the Buddhist Temporalities Ordinance, failure to tender half-yearly accounts of the Temple of Tooth Relic, which amounts to a violation of Section 36(1) (2) of the Act. Pradeep Nilanga Dela Bandara had filed revision applications in the Kandy High Court challenging the legality of these cases filed in the Magistrate Court of Kandy.
The Kandy High Court dismissed these four cases with costs filed against Diyawadana Nilame. Accordingly, Rasika Sudantha Punchi Bandara Senanayake was ordered to pay a cost of Rs. 125,000 each in respect of these applications.
Senanayake subsequently filed an appeal in the Supreme Court. In its judgment, the Supreme Court was of the view that the costs imposed on Senanayake in these matters are excessive.
Accordingly, the cost of Rs. 25,000 imposed on the petitioner Senanayake by the High Court was set aside, and he was ordered to pay a sum of Rs. 25,000 as costs in each of these applications.
