Family
Four parallel personal-law regimes determined by community
Sri Lanka applies the general law to most people, but Kandyan law to Sinhalese from the former Kandyan provinces, Thesawalamai to Tamils of the Jaffna region, and Muslim law to Muslims. The Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act has no statutory minimum marriage age and reserves Quazi court office to men, both long-standing reform controversies.
Governing law
- Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act, No. 13 of 1951 — Quazi court jurisdiction; reform under discussion for decades.
- Marriage Registration Ordinance, No. 19 of 1907 — General law of marriage.
In practice
General marriages register under the Marriage Registration Ordinance; Muslim marriages under the MMDA. Quazi courts, not District Courts, hear Muslim marriage and divorce matters. Kandyan law recognises diga and binna marriage forms with different property consequences. Thesawalamai imposes spousal consent requirements on the disposal of certain property. Which regime applies turns on community and, for Thesawalamai, on Jaffna habitual residence — this is a threshold question, not a detail. General-law divorce requires a fault ground: adultery, malicious desertion or incurable impotency.