The Supreme Court has nullified the University of Peradeniya administration’s decision to award the “Professor E.O.E. Pereira Gold Medal”, presented annually to the most outstanding engineering student, to A.H.A.D. Abeysekara, an instructor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, for the year 2015.

The ruling was delivered following the hearing of a fundamental rights petition filed by Ayumi Kalpana Manawadu, an engineering graduate of the University of Peradeniya residing in Moratuwa.

The judgment was handed down by Supreme Court Justice Janak de Silva, with Justices Sobhitha Rajakaruna and Mahinda Samayawardhena concurring.

The court further directed the university to establish a transparent and systematic marking procedure for evaluating future recipients of the gold medal to ensure fairness and accountability.

According to the petitioner, she had submitted her application for the award on 9 March 2016. However, the university administration later announced changes to the marking system, prompting her to reapply under the revised process. Despite this, the administration ultimately decided to confer the gold medal on A.H.A.D. Abeysekara, who was serving as an instructor in the university’s Electrical Engineering Department at the time.

In delivering the verdict, the bench observed that no formal, transparent marking process had been in place during the selection of the award recipient. The judges ruled that the petitioner’s fundamental right to equal treatment before the law had been violated as a result of this procedural irregularity.

Accordingly, the Supreme Court declared the university’s decision to award the Professor E.O.E. Pereira Gold Medal to A.H.A.D. Abeysekara null and void.

However, the court stated that since the statutory time limit for awarding the medal had already expired, it would not issue an order directing that the medal be awarded to the petitioner.