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Note 17 - Thesavalmai Law

The document summarizes Thesawalamai law, the traditional law of Sri Lankan Tamil inhabitants of the Jaffna peninsula. It was codified by the Dutch in 1707 and applies mostly to property, inheritance, and marriage for Tamils in northern Sri Lanka. A key case, Sivagnanalingam v Suntheralingam, expanded the applicability of Thesawalamai law, defining that one must have a permanent home in the northern province to be considered an inhabitant under this law. Thesawalamai law is also considered personal law for Tamil inhabitants of the northern province, applying to their property wherever located in Sri Lanka. Divorce for Tamils falls under the Marriage Registration Ordin

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939 views1 page

Note 17 - Thesavalmai Law

The document summarizes Thesawalamai law, the traditional law of Sri Lankan Tamil inhabitants of the Jaffna peninsula. It was codified by the Dutch in 1707 and applies mostly to property, inheritance, and marriage for Tamils in northern Sri Lanka. A key case, Sivagnanalingam v Suntheralingam, expanded the applicability of Thesawalamai law, defining that one must have a permanent home in the northern province to be considered an inhabitant under this law. Thesawalamai law is also considered personal law for Tamil inhabitants of the northern province, applying to their property wherever located in Sri Lanka. Divorce for Tamils falls under the Marriage Registration Ordin

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thilo12310
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We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

HND in LAW

Unit: Legal Systems


Batch: 16
Semester: 01
Note: 17
THESAVALMAI LAW
Thesavalamai is the traditional law of the Sri Lankan Tamil inhabitants Jaffna peninsula,
codified by the Dutch during their colonial rule in 1707. The Thesawalamai is a collection of
the Customs of the Malabar Inhabitants of the Province of Jaffna and given full force by the
Regulation of 1806. For Thesawalamai to apply to a person it must be established that he
Student Notes
is a Tamil inhabitant of the Northern Province. The Law in its present form applies to most
Tamils in northern Sri Lanka. The law is personal in nature thus it is applicable mostly for
property, inheritance, and marriage

Under this law, not all property could be given away. A person could give away only the
Tediatettam. Joint property or property acquired by either spouse during the period after
married life and or the priests acquiring from such properties. Even of the tediatettam
property, the husband cannot alienate the whole property. The wife is entitled to half of it.
Those properties inherited from the parents cannot be given away according to one's own
wish. There are also cases of old ladies who do not have any children giving their properties
to the temple.

The landmark case Sivagnanalingam v Suntheralingam has given a new dimension to the
thesawalamai law as it redefined its applicability. The judgment expanded the applicability
of thesawalamai by settling the following points "inhabitant of the Province of Jaffna" is a
question of law. Inhabitant means permanent inhabitant - One who has his permanent
home in Jaffna in the nature of a domicile in the Northern Province. There can only be a Sri
Lankan domicile and to that extent the term differs from the expression inhabitancy. Yet
the idea of permanent home underlies both concepts and rules for identifying a person's
domicile can be applied to discover whether a family has a permanent home in the
Northern Province and hence its members are inhabitants in that Province.

The Thesawalamai is the personal law of the Tamil inhabitants of the Northern Province. It
applies to them wherever they are and to their movable and immovable property wherever
situated in Sri Lanka. For the purpose of deciding on the rights of inheritance to the estate
of a deceased husband, the time of his death is the relevant time and not the time of
marriage.

DIVORCE
The Marriage Registration Ordinance and the Civil Procedure Code apply to Tamils in
matters of Divorce.

Samuddrika Hulangamuwa Page 1 of 1

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