Offences Against Public Property (Amendment)



Offences Against Public Property (Amendment)
AN ACT TO AMEND THE OFFENCES AGAINST PUBLIC PROPERTY ACT, NO. 12 OF 1982.

BE it enacted by the Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka as follows:

[17th December
, 1988 ]
Short title.

1. This Act may be cited as the Offences Against Public Property (Amendment) Act, No. 76 of 1988.

Amendment of section 5 of Act No. 12 of 1982.

2. Section. 5 of the Offences Against Public Property Act, No. 12 of 1982 (hereinafter referred to as the ” principal enactment”) is hereby amended, by the insertion immediately after subsection (2) of that section, of the following new subsection:

” (3) Any person who dishonestly receives or retains any stolen property being public property, knowing or having reason to believe the same to be stolen property, shall be guilty of an offence and shall upon conviction be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term not less than one year but not exceeding twenty years and with a fine of one thousand rupees or three times the value of the property in respect of which such offence was committed, whichever amount is higher.”.

Insertion of new section 5A in the principal enactment.

3. The following new section is hereby inserted immediately after section 5 of the principal enactment and shall have effect as section 5A :-

“Property bearing specified letter, mark or inscription to be public property.

5A. Where in any proceedings relating to an offence referred to in this Act, it is proved that the property in respect of which that offence is alleged to have been committed bears any letter, mark or inscription set out in the Schedule hereto, it shall be presumed until the contrary is proved that such property is public property.”.

Amendment of section 12 of the principal enactment.

4. Section 12 of the principal enactment is hereby amended by the insertion immediately after the definition of ” robbery ” of the following definition :

‘”stolen property ‘ has the same meaning as in the Penal Code;’.

Insertion of a Schedule to the principal enactment.

5. The following Schedule is inserted immediately after section 12 of the principal enactment: