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Ceremonial sitting of the Court of Appeal today

by Kumar Wethasinghe

A ceremonial sitting of the Court of Appeal will be held today in honour of the New President of the Court of Appeal Justice Shirani Tilakawardane and Justice Gamini Abeyratne appointed a Judge of the Court of Appeal.

It has been long customary for the members of the Bar to welcome new Judges upon their assuming high office.

Justice Tilakawardane has created a series of firsts in her legal profession and added another to the series by becoming Sri Lanka's first woman President of the Court of Appeal.

Tilakawardane became the first woman to be enrolled as a State Counsel in 1978. She established her second record by being the Country's first woman High Court Judge in April 1988. Her third achievement was in July 1998 when she was appointed the first woman Justice of the Court of Appeal.

An old girl of Bishop's College, Colombo, Shirani pursued her legal studies at the Sri Lanka Law College and commenced her legal career as an apprentice under Lalith Athulathmudali PC. Before joining the AG's Department she proceeded to United States and served in the Consumer and Narcotic Division of the District Attorney's Office in Fort Colarado.

"When I first applied to be State Counsel, I was rejected because I was a woman". She feels that as long as she does not lose her sense of feminism nothing can be wrong.

Justice Gamini A.L. Abeyratne having taken his oaths in 1971 apprenticed under Neville Samarakoon QC. Later he joined the Attorney General's Department.

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