86. The following new sections are hereby inserted immediately after section 554, and shall have effect as section 554A to 554E, of the principal enactment:-
| 554A. When any person shall die without leaving a will and leaving an estate under twenty thousand rupees in value, any heir of the deceased shall be entitled to apply to the District Court of the district within which he resides, or within which the deceased resided at the time of his death, or within which any property of the deceased's estate is situate, for a certificate that he is an heir of the deceased. |
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| 554B. The application shall be made on petition by way of summary procedure setting out the relevant facts of the absence of the will, the death of the deceased, the value of the estate and the heirs of the deceased to the best of the petitioner's knowledge, and the grounds upon which the petitioner claims to be an heir. |
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| 554C. If the court is of opinion that the material allegations of the petition are proved, it shall make an order nisi declaring the petitioner's heirship, which order shall be served on the respondents and upon such other persons as the court shall think fit to direct, and shall come on for final hearing and disposal on a day to be named therein. |
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| 554D. If on the day appointed for final hearing, or on the day to which it may have been adjourned, the respondent or any person upon whom the order nisi has been directed to be served, or any person then appearing to be interested in the administration of the deceased's property, satisfies the court that there are grounds of objection to the application, such as ought to be tried on viva voce evidence, then the court shall frame the issues which appear to arise between the parties, and shall try the same forthwith or on a day to be appointed for the purpose. |
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| 554E. If at the final hearing or on the determination of the issues thus framed, it shall appear to the court that the prima facie proof of the material allegations of the petition has not been rebutted, then the order nisi shall be made absolute, and a certificate of heirship shall issue accordingly to the petitioner. If, on the other hand, it shall then appear to the court that the prima facie proof of any material allegations in the petition has been rebutted and that the petitioner has failed to establish his claim the order nisi shall be discharged, and the petition dismissed: Provided that it shall be open to any of the respondents at such hearing of issues to establish his right to be an heir of the deceased and to have a certificate of heirship issued to him, whether the petition is dismissed or not. ". |
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Sri Lanka Consolidated Acts