COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

SRI LANKA 7 MARCH 2012
Court appearance. The Summons/Notice is a standard format and is used across the
whole of Sri Lanka.
―Mr [name omitted] told me [Second Secretary Migration] that summonses are always
served in person by a Fiscal Officer. This person is an employee of the Court and will
visit the defendant‘s last known address or place of work. If they cannot locate the
defendant they will either serve the summons on the head of household, or if there is no
response, they will paste the summons on the front door of the defendant‘s last known
address.
―Mr [name omitted] explained that more than one summons could be served on a
person for the same case. For example, the case may not have proceeded on the first
court date, or the defendant may not have appeared, so a second summons could be
issued for a second court date. If a defendant failed to appear for a Court date, the
police could approach the Magistrate and ask for them to issue an arrest warrant. If
issued, the arrest warrant would be handed to the police. Mr [name omitted] confirmed
that this was similar to UK courts issuing a bench warrant.‖
10.19 The same BHC letter 208 continued:
―In order to clarify the procedures further surrounding the issue of court summons, this
week we approached three separate sources, asked three separate questions and
recorded three separate answers as below:
� ―What is the procedure for issuing a Court summons?
―A Court official in Vavuniya told us that the police officer in charge of the case (OIC)
initiates the summons which is signed by the registrar and then issued by the police to
the subject.
―The Sri Lanka Police – Information Services Room stated that the Judge authorises the
summons that needs to be served and he/she alone can approve this. The summons is
then given to the police to be disseminated.
―A lawyer in Colombo said that the Judge authorises the summons that needs to be
served and he/she alone can approve this. It is then served by a fiscal. If the fiscal is
threatened or harassed the police get involved. Until such time there is no involvement
of the police unless it‘s a criminal case.
� ―Can a Court summons be obtained fraudulently?
―A Court official in Vavuniya said yes, they could be.
―The Sri Lanka Police – Information Services Room also said yes.
―A lawyer in Colombo also said yes, but added that it is a criminal offence and they did
not see why someone would take such a risk.
� ―How many summonses are issued before a warrant for arrest is issued?
208 British High Commission in Colombo, letter dated 12 August 2011
94 The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.