Land Reform (Amendment)

42LL .Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in section 5 of the Companies (Special Provisions) Law, No. 19 of 1974, or in the preceding provisions of this Law, every estate land owned or possessed by a company (whether such company is a public or a private company) on the date on which this Part of this Law comes into operation, being estate land which was transfered, on or after June 19, 1974, to such company or to a company recognized as an ” existing company ” for the purposes of the Companies (Special Provisions) Law, No. 19 of 1974, or to a company incorporated under the Companies Ordinance, by a company registered or incorporated outside Sri Lanka shall be deemed, for the purposes of this Part of this Law, to be estate land owned or possessed by a public company on the date of coming into operation of this Part of this Law, and accordingly, every such estate land shall vest in the Commission on the date of coming into operation of this Part of this Law.’.

(1) The amendment made in the principal enactment by section 2 of this Act shall be deemed for all purposes to have come into force on the seventeenth day of October, 1975, and accordingly, where at the hearing in any Court or tribunal, of any appeal, action, application or other proceeding (“whether such appeal action application or proceeding was preferred or instituted before or after the date of commencement of this Act), any question arisen as to whether any estate land is vested in the Commission or any other matter arises in relation to estate land, such question or matter shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of the principal enactment as amended by section 2 of this Act.

(2) Where any estate land is vested in the Commission by reason of the operation of section 2 of this Act, and the person who was the owner of that estate land prior to its vesting in the Commission has received or appropriated any moneys which the Commission is entitled, under the provisions of the principal enactment as amended by section 2 of this Act, to receive or appropriate in respect of such estate land, such moneys shall, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the principal enactment as amended by section 2 of this Act, be deducted from the compensation payable in respect of such estate land.

(3) In this section

” the principal enactment” means the Land Reform Law, No. 1 of 1972. as amended by Law No. 39 of 1975; and

” the Commission” means the Land Reform Commission established by the Land Reform Law, No. 1 of 1972.