COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal on Thursday (23) dismissed, without a full hearing, a petition filed by nine students seeking to postpone the 2026 GCE Advanced Level examination by two months, ruling that there were insufficient grounds for judicial intervention.
The petition was heard before a bench comprising Court of Appeal President Justice Rohantha Abeysooriya and Justice Priyantha Fernando.
The application, filed by nine students scheduled to sit this year’s Advanced Level examination, argued that disruptions caused by Cyclone Dithwa and the fuel crisis had deprived candidates of the minimum number of instructional days required under Education Ministry regulations.
Appearing for the petitioners, Attorney-at-Law Boopathy Kahadduwa submitted that school education had been severely disrupted after the government declared Wednesdays as public holidays during the fuel crisis, while Cyclone Dithwa also affected the academic calendar. He argued that holding the examination in August would place students at a significant disadvantage.
Representing the respondents, Solicitor General Viraj Dayaratne PC told court that about 378,000 candidates had applied for this year’s Advanced Level examination, with only nine seeking its postponement through the petition.
He also noted that school candidates are required to maintain at least 80% attendance, but one of the petitioners had recorded attendance of only 7.2%.
The Solicitor General further argued that postponing the examination would disrupt university admissions and other academic processes, with a delay to one national examination likely to affect the entire examination calendar.
After considering submissions from both sides, the bench held that there were insufficient grounds at the preliminary stage to justify interfering with the scheduled conduct of the examination.
Justice Abeysooriya observed that nearly 378,000 students were due to sit the examination and that no adequate reasons had been presented to warrant judicial intervention.
However, the court also noted the short interval of about three days between the end of the current school term and the commencement of the examination, observing that any unfairness in the conduct of the examination could affect the wider student population.
The President of the Court of Appeal advised the Attorney General that the relevant authorities should consider providing appropriate relief to students during the marking process, if circumstances justified such measures.
He also remarked that delays to public examinations cause significant inconvenience to students and welcomed the return of the examination calendar to its normal schedule, stressing that students are entitled to certainty regarding the dates of the GCE Ordinary Level and Advanced Level examinations.
The court subsequently dismissed the petition without referring it for a hearing.
-ENCL
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