Wimal Weerawansa ordered to pay Tilvin Silva Rs. 1 Million

The Supreme Court has upheld the order directing former Minister Wimal Weerawansa to pay Rs. 1 million in compensation to JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva for violating his intellectual property rights.

The order was originally issued by the Colombo Commercial High Court on January 11, 2019, in a case filed by Tilvin Silva over the book “Neththa Wenuwata Eththa”, authored by Weerawansa.

Silva had stated before the Commercial High Court that Weerawansa had included several documents belonging to the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) in the book without permission, thereby violating his intellectual property rights.

After hearing the case, the Colombo Commercial High Court ruled that Silva’s intellectual property rights had been violated and ordered Weerawansa to pay Rs. 1 million in compensation.

Weerawansa later filed a special appeal before the Supreme Court against the High Court ruling.

After considering the appeal, the Supreme Court decided not to interfere with the Commercial High Court order directing Weerawansa to pay compensation.

The Supreme Court bench stated that the Commercial High Court judge had properly considered the law and the facts before delivering the decision.

However, the Supreme Court decided to amend the injunction issued by the Commercial High Court, which had prevented the publication, sale and distribution of the entire book.

Accordingly, the Supreme Court ordered that the injunction should be limited only to the documents belonging to Tilvin Silva that are included in the book.

Supreme Court Justice Shiran Gooneratne delivered the judgment, while Justices Janak de Silva and Sampath Abeykoon agreed with the decision.