Alphabetical List of Statutes

PREVENTION OF FRAUDS ordinance

Arrangement of Sections

1. Short title.

2. Deeds affecting immovable property to be executed before a notary and witnesses.

3. Certain contracts or agreements for the cultivation of paddy fields and Chenas for any period not exceeding twelve months need not be naturally executed Operation.

4. Every Will shall be in writing and signed by the testator in the presence of two witnesses at one time.

5. Appointments by Will to be executed like other Wills and to be valid although other required solemnities are not observed.

6. No Will to be revoked but by another Will or codicil or by a writing executed like a Will or by destruction.

7. No alteration in a Will shall have any effect unless executed as a Will.

8. No Will revoked to be revived otherwise than by re-execution or a codicil to revive it.

9. Publication not to be requisite.

10. Will not to be void on account of incompetency of attesting witness.

11. Gifts to an attesting witness to be void.

12. Creditor attesting to be admitted a witness.

13. Executor to be admitted a witness.

14. Soldiers and mariners Wills excepted.

15. Deeds executed before other than proper notary prior to passing of Ordinance.

16. Deeds to be executed in triplicate.

17. Ordinance not to affect sales by Government.

18. No promise to be in force unless in writing and signed.

19. Instruments falling under section 18 to be notarially attested if affecting land.

7 of 1840,

16 of 1852,

11 of 1896,

60 of 1947,

30 of 2022.

AN ORDINANCE to provide more effectually for the Prevention of Frauds and Perjuries.

[Date of Commencement: 1st February, 1840]

1. Short title.

This Ordinance may be cited as the Prevention of Frauds Ordinance.

2. Deeds affecting immovable property to be executed before a notary and witnesses.

No sale, purchase, transfer, assignment or mortgage of land or other immovable property and no promise, bargain, contract or agreement for effecting any such object or for establishing any security, interest or incumbrance affecting land or other immovable property (other than a lease at Will or for any period not exceeding one month), nor any contract or agreement for the future sale or purchase of any land or other immovable property and no notice, given under the provisions of the Thesawalamai Pre-emption Ordinance, of an intention or proposal to sell any undivided share or interest in land held in joint or common ownership, shall be in force or avail in law unless—

(a) the relevant deed or instrument shall be in writing, signed by every executant and attested by a notary public before two witnesses present at the same time; and

(b) the left or right thumb impression of every such executant or where both thumbs of such executant are missing, the impression of any other finger or the toe impression as the case may be, is affixed above or besides the signature to the original, duplicate and the protocol of the relevant deed or instrument:

Provided however, in the event the signature or the thumb impression of any such executant cannot be obtained due to any reason, the notary public shall state such reason in the attestation, and such executant shall affix any other finger impression or toe impression, as the case may be.

[S 2 am by s 2 of Act 30 of 2022.]

3. Certain contracts or agreements for the cultivation of paddy fields and Chenas for any period not exceeding twelve months need not be naturally executed Operation.

(1) The provisions of section 2 shall not be taken to apply to any contract or agreement for the cultivation of paddy fields or chena lands for any period not exceeding twelve months, if the consideration for such contract or agreement shall be that the cultivator shall give to the owner of such fields or lands any share or shares of the crop or produce thereof.

(2) Subsection (1) shall come into operation in such places, districts or provinces and at such time or times, respectively, as the Minister shall from time to time, by Order to be published in the Gazette, appoint; and it shall be lawful for the Minister, by Order, to declare that subsection (1) shall cease to have operation in any place, district or province which may become subject thereto, in which case subsection (1) shall accordingly cease to have any operation in such place, district or province.

4. Every Will shall be in writing and signed by the testator in the presence of two witnesses at one time.

(1) No Will, testament or codicil containing any devise of land or other immovable property or any bequest of movable property or for any other purpose whatsoever, shall be valid unless it shall be in writing and executed subject to the provisions specified in subsection (2).

[S 4 renumbered as s 4(1) by s 3(1) and am by s 3(2) of Act 30 of 2022.]

(2) The testator shall—

(a) sign; and

(b) affix his left or right thumb impression,

at the foot or end of the will, testament or codicil referred to in subsection (1), before a notary public and two witnesses who shall be present at the same time:

Provided however, in the event the thumb impression of the testator cannot be obtained due to any reason, he shall affix any other finger impression or the toe impression, as the case may be.

[S 4(2) ins by s 3(3) of Act 30 of 2022.]

5. Appointments by Will to be executed like other Wills and to be valid although other required solemnities are not observed.

No appointment made by Will, testament or codicil in exercise of any power shall be valid unless the same be executed in manner herein before required; and every Will, testament or codicil executed in manner herein before required shall, so far as respects the execution and attestation thereof be a valid execution of a power of appointment by Will, testament or codicil, notwithstanding that it shall have been expressly required that a Will, testament or codicil, made in exercise of such power, should be executed with some additional or other form of execution or solemnity.

6. No Will to be revoked but by another Will or codicil or by a writing executed like a Will or by destruction.

No Will, testament or codicil or any part thereof, shall be revoked otherwise than by the marriage of the testator or testatrix or by another Will, testament or codicil executed in manner herein before required or by some writing declaring an intention to revoke the same and executed in the manner in which a Will, testament or codicil is herein before required to be executed or by the burning, tearing or otherwise destroying the same by the testator or testatrix or by some person in his or her presence and by his or her direction, with the intention of revoking the same.

7. No alteration in a Will shall have any effect unless executed as a Will.

No obliteration, interlineations or other alteration made in any Will, testament or codicil after the execution thereof shall be valid or have any effect, except so far as the words or effect of the Will, testament or codicil before such alteration shall not be apparent, unless such alteration shall be executed in like manner as herein before is required for the execution of the Will, but the Will, testament or codicil, with such alteration as part thereof, shall be deemed to be duly executed if the signature and the left or right thumb impression or any other finger impression or the toe impression as the case may be, of the testator and the subscription of the witnesses be made in the margin or some other part of the Will, testament or codicil opposite or near to such alteration or at the foot or end of or opposite or near to such alteration or at the foot or end of or opposite to a memorandum referring to such alteration and written at the end or some other part of the Will, testament or codicil:

[S 7 am by s 4(1) of Act 30 of 2022.]

Provided however that, in the event the signature or left or right thumb impression or any other finger impression as the case may be, of the testator cannot be obtained due to any reason, the testator shall affix his toe impression and the notary public shall state such reason in his attestation.

[Proviso to s 7 ins by s 4(2) of Act 30 of 2022.]

8. No Will revoked to be revived otherwise than by re-execution or a codicil to revive it.

No Will, testament or codicil or any part thereof, which shall be in any manner revoked shall be revived otherwise than by the re-execution thereof or by a codicil executed in manner herein before required and showing an intention to revive the same; and when any Will, testament or codicil which shall be partly revoked and afterwards wholly revoked shall be revived, such revival shall not extend to so much thereof as shall have been revoked before the revocation of the whole thereof, unless an intention to the contrary be shown.

9. Publication not to be requisite.

Every Will, testament or codicil executed in manner herein before required shall be valid without any other publication thereof:

Provided always that every such Will, testament or codicil shall, after the decease of the testator or testatrix, be duly proved and recorded in the District Court empowered by law to grant probate or administration in such case, according to such general rules of practice as may now or hereafter be made by the Judges of the Supreme Court.

10. Will not to be void on account of incompetency of attesting witness.

If any person who shall attest the execution of any Will, testament or codicil shall at the time of the execution thereof or at any time afterwards, be incompetent to be admitted a witness to prove the execution thereof, such Will, testament or codicil shall not on that account be invalid.

11. Gifts to an attesting witness to be void.

If any person shall attest the execution of any Will, testament or codicil to whom or to whose wife or husband any beneficial devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift, disposition or appointment of or affecting any immovable or movable property (other than and except charges and directions for the payment of any debt or debts) shall be thereby given or made, such devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift, disposition or appointment shall, so far only as concerns such person attesting the execution of such Will, testament or codicil or the wife or husband of such person or any person claiming under such person or wife or husband, be utterly null and void and such person so attesting shall be admitted as witness to prove the execution or to prove the validity or invalidity thereof, notwithstanding such devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift, disposition or appointment mentioned in such Will, testament or codicil.

12. Creditor attesting to be admitted a witness.

In case by any Will, testament or codicil any immovable or movable property shall be charged with any debt or debts and any creditor or the wife or husband of any creditor whose debt is so charged, shall attest the execution of such Will, testament or codicil, such creditor, notwithstanding such charge, shall be admitted a witness to prove the execution of such Will, testament or codicil or to prove the validity or invalidity thereof.

13. Executor to be admitted a witness.

No person shall, on account of his or her being an executor or executrix of a Will, testament or codicil, be incompetent to be admitted a witness to prove the execution of such Will, testament or codicil or a witness to prove the validity or invalidity thereof; nor shall any executor or executrix, by reason of his or her attesting such Will, forfeit the recompense or commission for his or her trouble payable by law, custom or practice.

14. Soldiers and mariners Wills excepted.

Notwithstanding anything in this Ordinance contained, any soldier being in actual military service or any mariner or seaman being at sea, may dispose of his personal estate as he might have done before the making of this Ordinance.

15. Deeds executed before other than proper notary prior to passing of Ordinance.

No writing, deed or instrument for the purposes aforesaid and no Will, testament or codicil which shall have been made prior to the passing of this Ordinance, shall be deemed or taken to be invalid by reason alone of the same not having been executed and acknowledged before or attested by a notary licensed to practice within the district wherein the land or property devised or to be affected by such writing, deed or instrument, Will, testament or codicil, is situated: any provision in Ordinance No. 7 of 18341 to the contrary Notwithstanding:

Provided always that every such writing, deed or instrument, Will, testament or codicil shall have been at the time of the date thereof duly executed, acknowledged before or attested by a notary licensed to practice in some other district.

16. Deeds to be executed in triplicate.

Every deed or other instrument, except any Will, testament or codicil required by this Ordinance to be executed or acknowledged before or to be attested by a notary, shall be executed, acknowledged or attested in triplicate.

[S 16 am by s 5 of Act 30 of 2022.]

17. Ordinance not to affect sales by Government.

None of the foregoing provisions in this Ordinance shall be taken as applying to any grants, sales or other conveyances of land or other immovable property from or to Government or to any mortgage of land or other immovable property made to Government or to any deed or instrument touching land or other immovable property to which Government shall be a party or to any certificates of sales granted by Fiscals of land or other immovable property sold under writs of execution.

18. No promise to be in force unless in writing and signed.

No promise, contract, bargain or agreement, unless it be in writing and signed by the party making the same or by some person thereto lawfully authorised by him or her, shall be of force or avail in law for any of the following purposes—

(a) for charging any person with the debt, default or miscarriage of another;

(b) for pledging movable property, unless the same shall have been actually delivered to the person to whom it is alleged to have been pledged;

(c) for establishing a partnership where the capital exceeds one thousand rupees:

Provided that this shall not be construed to prevent third parties from suing partners or persons acting as such and offering in evidence circumstances to prove a partnership existing between such persons or to exclude parol testimony concerning transactions by or the settlement of any account between partners.

19. Instruments falling under section 18 to be notarially attested if affecting land.

Provided always that nothing in section 18 shall be construed to exempt any deed or instrument in any manner affecting land or other immovable property from being required for that purpose to be executed and attested in manner declared by section 2 of this Ordinance.