Admiralty Jurisdiction
| Coming into Force | 02 March 1892 |
| Act Number | 9 |
This Ordinance may be cited as the Ceylon Courts of Admiralty Ordinance.
It is hereby declared that the Supreme Court of the Island of Ceylon shall be a Colonial Court of Admiralty, and such court shall have jurisdiction, subject to the provisions and limitations contained in the Colonial Courts of Admiralty Act, 1890, *[* Certain provision of this Act are made inapplicable to Ceylon by the Ceylon Independence Act, 1947.- [11 Geo. 6, Ch. 7.]] over the like places, persons, matters, and things as the admiralty jurisdiction of the High Court in England, whether existing by virtue of any Statute or otherwise, and such Colonial Court of Admiralty may exercise such jurisdiction in like manner and to as full an extent as the High Court in England, and shall have the same regard as that court to international law and the comity of nations.
If at any time after the passing of this Ordinance it appears to the Minister of Justice [1] expedient that any District Court should have admiralty jurisdiction, it shall be lawful for the Minister of Justice, [1] by Order [1] to be published in the Gazette, to appoint that court to have admiralty jurisdiction accordingly, and to assign to that court as its district for admiralty purposes any part or parts of any one or more district or districts; and the district so constituted for that court, with the parts of the sea (if any) adjacent to that district to a distance of three miles from the shore thereof, shall be deemed its district for admiralty purposes; and accordingly the Judge and all officers of the court shall have jurisdiction and authority for those purposes throughout that district as if the same was the district of the court for all purposes; and from a time to be specified in each such Order, [1] this Ordinance shall have effect in and throughout the district so constituted; and any such order may be from time to time varied as seems expedient, and a District Court so appointed to have admiralty jurisdiction, and no other District Court, shall for the purposes of this Ordinance be deemed a District Court having admiralty jurisdiction .
4. Any District Court having admiralty jurisdiction shall have jurisdiction, and all powers and authorities relating thereto, to try and determine the following causes: (a) as to any claim for salvage in any cause in which the value of the property saved does not exceed ten thousand rupees, or in which the amount claimed does not exceed three thousand rupees; (b) as to any claim for towage, necessaries, or wages in any cause in which the amount claimed does not exceed one thousand and five hundred rupees; (c) as to any claim for damage to cargo or damage to ships by collision or otherwise, or damage done by any ship, in any cause in which the amount claimed does not exceed three thousand rupees; (d) any cause in respect of any such claim or claims as aforesaid, but in which the value of property saved or the amount claimed is beyond the amount limited as above mentioned, when the parties agree, by a memorandum signed by them or by their attorneys or recognized agents, that any District Court having admiralty jurisdiction and specified in the memorandum shall have jurisdiction.
5. The Colonial Court of Admiralty, on motion by any party to an admiralty cause pending in a District Court, may, if it shall think fit, with previous notice to the other party, transfer the cause to the Colonial Court of Admiralty, and may order security for costs, or impose such other terms as to the court may seem meet.
6. If during the progress of an admiralty...
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