The ceremonial sitting of the new Chief Justice Mohan Peiris is currently under way at the Supreme Court complex however only state media has been allowed to cover the event
A large number of judges and lawyers including some executive members of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka had gathered to attend the ceremony.
However, President of the Bar Association Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe was not present at the event.
The welcome address was delivered by Chairman of the Bank of Ceylon, President’s Counsel Razik Zarook while Secretary to the President, Lalith Weeratunga, Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Governor of the Central
Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal were among the invitees present at the ceremony.
Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal were among the invitees present at the ceremony.
In the past, Shirani Bandaranayake did not have a ceremonial sitting when she was appointed to the post of Chief Justice due to a protest by lawyers while Justice Mark Fernando was said to have not been present during Sarath N. Silva’s ceremonial sitting.
Former Attorney General Mohan Peiris was sworn in as the 44th Chief Justice of Sri Lanka on January 15. He was sworn in before President Mahinda Rajapaksa at Temple Trees.
Mohan Peiris is a former Attorney General of Sri Lanka. He was educated at St. Joseph’s College, Colombo and Royal College Colombo, where he won colours in cricket. Thereafter he entered the Sri Lanka Law College and was called to the Bar in 1975, starting his legal practice under senior lawyers D. R. P. Gunatilleke and Daya Perera, PC. Thereafter he enrolled as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales in 1978.
In 1981 he joined the Attorney General’s Department as a State Counsel, later becoming a Senior State Counsel serving for over 15 years. During this time he trained at the National Institute of Trial Advocacy at Harvard Law School, the Centre for Police and Criminal Justice Studies at Jesus College, Cambridge and at George Washington University.
He specialized in original and appellate courts in the areas of inter alia, administrative law, commercial law, land law, fundamental rights, industrial law, injunctions and criminal law and as an arbitrator. He was the Chairman of the Board of Examiners for the Intermediate Examination and Examiner of the Sri Lanka Law College, a visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Colombo, Deputy President of the Sri Lanka Bar Association (BASL) and a member of the Sri Lankan Delegation to the Universal Periodic review at the 8th Session of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations.
-Resh3neg Lanka News
