THESAWALAMAI LAW
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Recommended Reading
 The laws and the customs of the
Tamils of Jaffna.
Dr.H.W. Tambiah
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THE APPLICABILITY of
THESAWALAMAI LAW
 Section 3 of the Thesawalamai Code
TL applies for ,
 A Malabar personal
 An inhabitance of Jaffna Province
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Who is a Malabar personal ?
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 Chetty V Chetty [ 37 NLR 253 ]
The word Malabar means Tamil and that the
Vanniya Chetties also subjected to the TL.
Tharmalingam Chetty V Arunasalam Chetty
[ 44 NLR 414]
A person whose father had came from
Ramnad, South India long after 1806 subjected
to TL.

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 Savundaranayagam V Savundaranayagam
[20 NLR 274]
Issue : Whether S is subject to TL.
Held : No
S was a Colombo Chetty and settled down in
Jaffna, died in south India. Even though he
had the inhabitance in Jaffna, not in the
category of Malabar.

What does it mean by
inhabitancy ?
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 Tharmalingam Chetty V Arunasalam Chetty
[1944 44 NLR 414]
TL applies to Tamils with a Ceylon domicile
and Jaffna Inhabitancy.

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 Velupillai V Sivakamapillai 13 NLR 74
 Wood Renton C J
Inhabitancy applies to a person acquired a
permanent residence in the nature of a
domicile in Jaffna.
 Middleton J
One who has his permanent home in Jaffna.

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 King V Perumal 14 NLR 496
 Hindu Tamil born in India and settled in the
Central Province is not governed by TL.
 Spencer V Rajaratnam 16 NLR 321
 Jaffna Tamil left Jaffna in young age and
settled and married in Colombo is not
governed by TL.

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 Fernando V Proctor 12 NLR 309
Mrs Proctor, a descendent from Jaffna parents,
settled down in Chilaw , not subject to TL.
 Somasundaram V Charavanamuttu 44 NLR 1
Jaffna Tamil born, educated and settled in
Colombo. His parents in Jaffna and his
marriage was taken place in Jaffna too. But he
is not governed by TL.

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 ****The term INHABITANCY has no fixed
meaning.

The codification of Thesawalamai
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Portuguese Period:
 The governing law of Jaffna was T.
 No attempt for codification of law.
Dutch period
 In 1697 identified the necessity of codifying the T
law because of unclearness of the application.
 Some codifications were considered as T law and
practiced between 1707 to 1806.

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 Proclamation of 1799 – T operation was guaranteed.
 Jaffna Matrimonial Rights and Inheritance Ordinance
No 1 of 1911.
 Jaffna Matrimonial Rights and Inheritantionce
(Amendment) Ordinance No 58 of 1947.
 Thesawalamai Pre emption Ordinance of 1947
 Prescription Ordinance 1871
 Partition Ordinance 1863/ Partition Act 1951
 Pawnbrokers Ordinance 1893
 Frauds Ordinance 1840

Sources of Thesawalamai.
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I. Ordinances / Acts
II. Case Laws.

Special issues
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 Marriage
 Property

Homework
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 Read the following case.
 Sivagnanalingam V Sungaralingam 1988 1 SLR 86