KANDYAN LAW

(1) This Ordinance may be cited as the Kandyan Law Declaration and Amendment Ordinance.

(2) This Ordinance shall apply to persons subject to the Kandyan law.

(a) ” gift” means a voluntary transfer, assignment, grant, conveyance, settlement, or other disposition inter vivos of immovable property, made otherwise than for consideration in money or money’s worth ;

(b) ” donor” means a person who has made a gift;

(c) ” donee ” means a person in whose favour a gift has been made ;

(d) ” the commencement of this Ordinance ” means the 1st day of January, 1939.

(1) Subject to the provisions and exceptions hereinafter contained, a donor may, during his lifetime and without the consent of the donee or of any other person, cancel or revoke in whole or in part any gift, whether made before or after the commencement of this Ordinance, and such gift and any instrument effecting the same shall thereupon become void and of no effect to the extent set forth in the instrument of cancellation or revocation:

Provided that the right, title, or interest of any person in any immovable property shall not, if such right, title, or interest has accrued before the commencement of this Ordinance, be affected or prejudiced by reason of the cancellation or revocation of the gift to any greater extent than it might have been if this Ordinance had not been enacted.

(2) No such cancellation or revocation of a gift effected after the commencement of this Ordinance shall be of force or avail in law unless it shall be effected by an instrument in writing declaring that such gift is cancelled or revoked and signed and executed by the donor or by some person lawfully authorized by him in accordance with the provisions of the Prevention of Frauds Ordinance or of the Deeds and Documents (Execution before Public Officers) Ordinance.

(1) Notwithstanding the provisions of section 4 (1), it shall not be lawful for a donor to cancel or revoke any of the following gifts where any such gift is made after the commencement of this Ordinance :-

(2) Nothing in this section shall affect or be deemed to affect the revocability of any gift made before the commencement of this Ordinance.

(1) Upon the cancellation or revocation of any gift, the donor shall be liable to pay to the donee compensation in such sum as shall represent the cost of any improvements to the property effected by the donee, after deducting the rents and profits received by him, and the expenses incurred in the fulfillment of the conditions, if any, attached to the gift, provided that if the donee has made default in the fulfillment of any such conditions, no compensation shall be payable to him in respect of the improvements or otherwise.

(2) Such compensation shall be payable to any donee otherwise entitled thereto whether or not he would be an heir at law of the donor in the event of such donor dying intestate,

(3) In this section ” donee ” includes any person who has succeeded to the title of the donee under the gift.

(1) No adoption effected after the commencement of this Ordinance shall avail in law to create any right or liability unless it be evidenced by an instrument in writing with the consent of the person adopted expressed in the instrument and signed by both the adopter and the person adopted, in the presence of –

Provided that if the person adopted be a minor, such consent may be given and such instrument signed on his behalf by his parents or, if only one parent is alive, by that parent; but if there is no surviving parent or if either of his parents cannot be found or is incapable of acting in this behalf by reason of unsoundness of mind, ill health, or other incapacity, the District Court having local Jurisdiction over the place where the minor ordinarily resides may, upon petition made to such court by any person interested and after such inquiry as the court may deem necessary, appoint any person or persons to give such consent and to sign such instrument.

For the purposes of the Civil Procedure Code and of the Stamp Ordinance or the Stamp Duty Act, No. 43 of 1982 an application to the District Court under this section shall be deemed to be an action of the value of one hundred rupees.

(2) No stamp duty shall be payable or chargeable in respect of any instrument of adoption executed in accordance with the provisions of subsection (1) or of any application to a court made under that subsection.

(1) On the death of the adopter intestate, a person duly adopted, whether before or after the commencement of this Ordinance, shall have such right of succession to his estate as if he were a legitimate child of the adopter, that is to say, if the adopter leave him surviving no child or descendant of a deceased child, then as an only child, or if the adopter leave a child or children or a descendant of a deceased child, then to the same extent and in like manner as a child, and if married in binna or in diga as the case may be, then as a child so married ; but the person adopted shall, by virtue of the adoption, have no right of succession to any person other than the adopter.

(2) The adopter shall not, by virtue of the adoption, acquire any right to succeed to the estate or any part thereof of the person adopted on his death intestate.

(3) Notwithstanding the adoption, the person adopted shall continue to have such right of succession to his or her own parent or parents, or any other person, as he or she would have had if the adoption had not been effected.

(4) A duly effected adoption shall not be cancelled or revoked, and no cancellation or revocation shall affect any right or liability arising out of the adoption.

(1) A marriage contracted after the commencement of this Ordinance in binna or in diga shall be and until dissolved shall continue to be, for all purposes of the law governing the succession to the estates of deceased persons, a binna or a diga marriage, as the case may be, and shall have full effect as such ; and no change after any such marriage in the residence of either party to that marriage and no conduct after any such marriage of either party to that marriage or of any other person shall convert or be deemed to convert a binna marriage into a diga marriage or a diga marriage into a binna marriage or cause or be deemed to cause a person married in diga. to have the rights of succession of a person married in binna, or a person married in binna to have the rights of succession of a person married in diga.

(2) Where after the commencement of this Ordinance a woman leaves the house of her parents and goes out in diga with a man, but does not contract with that man a marriage which is valid according to law, she shall not by reason only of such departure or going out forfeit or lose or be deemed to have forfeited or to have lost any right of succession to which she is or was otherwise entitled on the death of any person intestate.

(1) The expressions “paraveni property” or ” ancestral property ” or ” inherited property ” and equivalent expressions shall mean immovable property to which a deceased person was entitled –

(2) Where the paraveni property of any person includes a share in any immovable property of which that person is a co-owner, any divided part of or interest in that property which may be assigned or allotted to that person by any deed of partition executed, or by any decree for partition entered by a court, after the commencement of this Ordinance, shall for all purposes be and be regarded as paraveni property of that person.

(3) Except as in this section provided, all property of a deceased person shall be deemed to be acquired property.

(4) The expressions “paternal paraveni” and ” maternal paraveni ” and similar or equivalent expressions shall be deemed to mean paraveni property as herein before described derived from or through the father or from or through the mother, as the case may be.

(1) When a man shall die intestate after the commencement of this Ordinance leaving a spouse him surviving, then –

(2) In this section ” maintenance ” when used with reference to any property, whether paraveni or acquired, means maintenance out of the income of such property.

(1) The diga marriage of a daughter after the death of her father shall not affect or deprive her of any share of his estate to which she shall have become entitled, upon his death, provided that if within a period of one year after the date of such marriage the brothers and binna-married sisters of such daughter or any one or more of them, but if more than one then jointly and not severally, shall tender to her the fair market value of the immovable property constituting the aforesaid share or any part thereof, and shall call upon her to convey the same to him or her or them, such daughter shall so convey and shall be compellable by action so to do.

(2) In this section ” marriage” means a marriage contracted after the commencement of this Ordinance.

(a) such child or children shall have no right of inheritance in respect of the paraveni property of the deceased ;

(b) such child or children shall, subject to the interests of the surviving spouse, if any, be entitled to succeed to the acquired property of the deceased in the event of there being no legitimate child or the descendant of a legitimate child of the deceased ;

(c) any such child shall, subject to the interests of the surviving spouse, if any, be entitled to succeed to the acquired property of the deceased equally with a legitimate child or the legitimate children, as the case may be –

(a) the parents in equal shares, or if one only be alive, then that one shall, if there be surviving any brother or sister of the deceased or the descendant of a brother or sister, be entitled to a life estate in the acquired property of the deceased. The right of a sole surviving parent shall arise and continue whether or not the other parent shall have died before the deceased intestate ;

(b) on the death of the surviving parent, the acquired property shall, subject to the provisions of section 17, devolve upon the brother or sister or brothers and sisters, or the descendant or descendants of any deceased brother or sister by representation ;

(c) if there be no brother or sister or descendant of a deceased brother or sister, the parents in equal shares, or the surviving parent as the case may be, shall become entitled to the property;

(d) the father, or if the father be dead the next heir or heirs on the father’s side, shall inherit the paternal paraveni, and the mother, or if the mother be dead the next heir or heirs on the mother’s side, shall inherit the maternal paraveni. The mother shall not inherit paternal paraveni unless there be surviving no heir on the father’s side, and in like manner the father shall not inherit maternal paraveni unless there be surviving no heir on the mother’s side.

(a) whenever the estate or any part thereof shall devolve upon heirs other than a child or the descendant of a child, and such heirs are in relation to one another brothers or sisters, or brothers and sisters, or the descendants of any deceased brother or sister, such heirs shall inherit inter se the like shares and in like manner as they would have done had they been the children or descendants of the deceased intestate ;

(b) whenever the estate or any share thereof shall devolve upon heirs who in relation to one another are of the half-blood, such heirs inter se shall inherit per capita and the estate shall not descend to them per stripes.

(1) When a woman unmarried, or married in diga, or married in binna on her mother’s property, shall die intestate after the commencement of this Ordinance leaving children or the descendants of a child or children, the estate of the deceased shall devolve in equal shares upon all such children, (the descendant or descendants of any deceased child being entitled to his or their parent’s share by representation) whether male or female, legitimate or illegitimate, married or unmarried, and, if married, whether the marriage be in binna or in diga:

Provided that if the deceased was married in binna as aforesaid, an illegitimate child or children shall not be entitled to succeed to the paraveni property of the deceased;

Provided, further, that the descendant of a deceased child shall be entitled to that child’s share by representation whether or not he or she has been kept apart from the deceased intestate.

(2) When a woman married in binna on her father’s property shall die intestate after the commencement of this Ordinance leaving children or the descendants of a child or children, such child or children, and his or their descendant by representation, shall be entitled to succeed inter se in like manner and to the like shares as they would have become entitled out of the estate of their father :

Provided that if the deceased was married in binna as aforesaid an illegitimate child or children shall not be entitled to succeed to the paraveni property of the deceased.