Marine Pollution Prevention Act 1981 · As enacted · Part II · Prevention of Poollution—-Criminal Liability
5. Sri tere Special defences
Feedback & supportOfficial English translation. Where it differs from the Sinhala or Tamil text, the Act itself says which text prevails.
Where a person charged under section 3 or section 4 is the owner, operator, master or agent a ship or is the
owner
“ owner” means the person registered as the owner or in the absence of registration, the person owning or in possession;
Owner or occupier of an off-shore installation it shall be a defence to prove that the oil or other pollutant in question was discharged or dumped for the purpose of securing the safety of any ship or any off-shore installation or preventing any damage to such ship, off-shore installation or cargo or for saving human life at sea and reasonable care has been taken in minimising the damage caused by such discharge or dumping,
occupier
“occupier” means the person in actual occupation of a place or land or if there is no such person, the owner thereof;
Where a person charged with an offence under section 3 is the owner, operator, master or agent of a ship, it shall be a defence to prove—
master
“master” includes every person, except a pilot, having command of any ship or being in charge of any ship;
that the oil or other pollutant escaped in consequence of damage to the ship and that all reasonable pre-cautions were taken after the discovery of the escape for the purpose of preventing and minimising the escape
;
that the oil or other pollutant escaped by reason of leakage, which was not due to any want of reason-able care and that as soon as practicable after the escape was discovered all reasonable Steps were taken for the purpose of preventing or minimising the escape,
Where a person charged with an offence under section 3 is the owner or person in charge of any apparatus or is the owner or occupier of an off-shore installation, pipe line or place on land, as the case may be, from-which the oil or other pollutant is alleged to: have escaped, it shall
Marine Pollution Prevention be a defence to prove that the escape of the oil or other pollutant was not due to any want of reasonable care, and that as soon as practicable after the escape was discovered, all reasonable steps were taken for stopping or reducing it.
oil
“oil” means oil of any description in any form and includes spirits and other distilates produced from oil of any description and coal, tar, bitumen, bitu-men emulsions, fuel oil, sludge oil refuse and oil mixed with waste; and includes mixtures of oil with waste or with any other substance;
It shall be a defence for the owner or occupier of an off-shore installation, pipe line or place on land to prove that the discharge was caused by the act of a person who was in that place without the permission (express or im-plied) of the owner or occupier.
off-shore installation
“ off-shore installation” includes— (a) any installation or device (whether permanent or temporary) constructed, erected, placed or used in or on or above the sea-bed and sub-soil of Sri Lanka waters, (b) any installation or device (whether permanent or temporary) constructed, erected, placed or used in or above the sea-bed and sub-soil of the continental shelf in connection with the exploitation of the natural resources thereof, {c) anything afloat (other than a ship) if it is anchored or attached to the bed or shore of any Sri Lanka waters or if it is anchored to the bed of the waters over the continental shelf in connection with exploration for and exploitation of the natural resources thereof, (d) any installation or device constructed, erected, placed or used in or above the sea-bed and sub-soil of Sri Lanka waters or of the conti-nental shelf in connection with any scientific research activity, (e) any structure connecting an off-shore installa-tion with any other off-shore installation;
No liability shall arise under section 3 or section 4—
where any oil or other pollutant is discharged or dumped in consequence of the removal of sunk, stranded or abandoned vessels by the Authority in exercise of any power conferred by any written law or acting under the written instructions of the
Minister ;
where substances containing oil or other pollutants are discharged or dumped by the Authority for the purpose of combating specific pollution incidents in order to minimise the damage from pollution.