A. C. (Bunty) de Zoysa the inimitable legal icon
C. V. RAJAPAKSE
Twenty Five years ago - on September 22, 1983, Ainsley Clive de Zoysa,
popularly known as ‘Bunty Zoysa’, Criminal Lawyer, President’s Counsel,
a gentleman, fearless, forthright and brilliant Lawyer died suddenly. He
will be remembered forever and live in the minds of multitude of
friends, relations colleagues and others who knew him, loved him and
respected him for what he had done during his 60 years.
.jpg)
He was the youngest out of six sons of Francis de Zoysa - Kings
Counsel, Member of the State Council for Balapitiya, freedom fighter
during the British Colonial days, and for some time, The President of
the Ceylon National Congress.
He studied at Royal College, Colombo, and also at St. Patrick’s
college, Jaffna, when his elder brother Sidney de Zoysa was the
Superintendent of Police, Jaffna. At Royal he was a mischievous rebel
and had various problems with the authorities.
At the time of leaving the school, then Principal, E. L. Bradby had
written in his certificate “He paid very little attention to a quiet
life in school and was often involved in trouble with the authorities.
But the very qualities of enterprise and initiative which got him into
trouble should stand him in excellent stead if he finds the right job”.
Mr. Zoysa was born in 1923 and took oaths as an Advocate in 1949.
Nearly two years he was practising as a Junior to Dr. Colvin R de Silva
whom he held in the highest esteem on the criminal side and E. G.
Wickramasinghe K. C. on the Civil side.
He had joined the Attorney General’s Department as a Crown Counsel in
1951, on the invitation of Sir Allen Rose, the Attorney General then.
In no time he proved his capabilities and got the opportunity to
oppose well-known veterans in the filed of criminal law, like G. G.
Ponnambalam K. C. George Chitty, Q. C., R. L. Perera, K. C., and Dr.
Colvin R. de Silva, when he led prosecutions on behalf of the State.
As a prosecutor he earned such a great name in no time and the
general feeling around those days was that if Mr. de Zoysa is
prosecuting the defence should retain an eminent lawyer like Ponnambalam,
Colvin or Chitty.
As the then Chief Justice Neville Samarakoon Q. C. said at the
Supreme Court reference, after his demise, “Mr. A. C. de Zoysa - Bunty -
had to shoulder some of the island’s heaviest criminal prosecutions,
soon after he joined the Attorney-General’s Department in 1951. He was
pitted against some of the leading lights.
Bunty De Zoysa
At 5 PM on the 22nd of September a memorial
service was held in the memory of A C De Zoysa President’s
Counsel who passed away exactly twenty five years ago. A casual
visitor to the church that day could be pardoned for assuming
that the requiem was in the memory of a recently departed person
of great eminence.
St Theresa’s Church, one of the largest in
Colombo, even at that difficult hour was filled with friends and
relatives obviously still struggling with the void left by his
death.
If he was told that the service that evening
was in the memory of a person whose death occurred twenty five
long years ago the casual visitor would surely be compelled to
ask “What manner of man was he to be mourned thus?”
To those who had the good fortune to be
associated with him the mere mention of the name “Bunty De Zoysa”
would answer that question.
Much has been said and written about Bunty,
that great legal personality. Pondering these fulsome salutes we
picture in our minds a many faceted man, larger than life.
Fearless, brilliant, eloquent, generous, witty, large hearted
are some of the adjectives commonly used in describing Bunty and
his doings. But words often fall short when describing a complex
human being and more so when our perception is influenced by
strong emotion.
Twenty five years is a long time in human
affairs. That after such a length of time there was a church
full of people thankful for his memory is perhaps the clearest
description of the meaning of Bunty’ s life. All those people
came there not because of some organizational imperative or a
pressing need to gain political mileage, but through a genuine
commitment to pay homage to him. They had all been touched in
some special personal way at some time in their life by Bunty.
It is yet possible that the casual visitor to
the church, so enmeshed in the prosaic struggles of life, will
not quite grasp the meaning of that homage particularly to a
person now dead for twenty five years. To try to explain such
things to use one of Bunty’s inimitable quips will perhaps be
like “Teaching Sanskrit to dead crows.” RP |
He was always immaculately dressed and ever looking younger. He had a
fine taste and elegance in his speech, in manner and also in conduct.
His fine taste and elegance and sense of life combined a zest for
commitment and whatever he did, he cut a special figure.
At a time when Attorney General Department had lost some of its
lustre Mr. Zoysa made an art of criminal prosecutions, in the way he
presented his cases, the felicity of the spoken work and the strategies
he employed in examination in chief, cross, examination, and also in
re-examination without leaving any room for anyone to complain of any
unfairness or ethical shortcomings on his part. He had always been
careful about fairness in all his dealings.
When he was in the Attorney-General’s Department he prosecuted
several landmark criminal cases. C.W.E. Robbery case, Pauline de Croos -
Kirambakanda Case, Kularatne murder case, Attygalle Nurse murder case,
are some of the leading cases. But anyway for him promotions were denied
on merit.
Therefore he along with Mr. H. L. de Silva resigned from the
Department and joined the unofficial Bar in 1970. There again he moved
to the front ranks of the unofficial Bar in no time, as law came to him
like a tradition and his advocacy has been a legacy from his father
Francis de Zoysa K. C.
In his study there was another framed picture which carried the
inscribed legend “Please, I can do only twelve things at a time”.
In a way it was no exaggeration considering the daily demands on him
in various matters not nearly about professional work. Those days No.
54, Cotta road was like the O.P.D. People from all walks of life came
there for help, not only lawyers, friends and known people but even
unknown people who had no connection with him.
He was generous to a fault. By nature he was a giver. Not only to the
people from Ragama or Balapitiya for that matter whoever who came with a
story probably he could see through the veracity of it but he gave
generously and well for the asking for it, even for the people not known
to him.
He had many Juniors. The Juniors and the apprentices he looked after
well and treated them very well. We can say he has been such a senior,
very rarely junior lawyers will come across. He was so pleasant and so
friendly to all.
His chambers was one of the busiest in Sri Lanka, and his juniors
came to bear that special stamp that Mr. Bunty de Zoysa’s. There were a
large number of junior lawyers from various parts of the country, who
did apprenticeship under de Zoysa were Present Attorney General - C. R.
de Silva - President’s Counsel, Justice Sarath de Alrew, Minister
Bogollagama and many others.
He had a natural flair for making friends. It was so evident when he
was persuaded to stand for election as the President of the Bar
Association. He mustered unsolicited support from every conceivable
shade of political colour and all corners of the country.
He has functioned as a Director, of Bank of Ceylon from 1977. There,
being a member of the Board of Directors of Bank of Ceylon, contributed
substantially towards its evolution into development banking which was
so essential for an open economy and a free enterprise system that was
introduced by the new government of 1977.
Like his illustrious father, after about 4 decades Mr. de Zoysa had
to do a very special job before the Special Presidential Commission as
its chief prosecutor leading the State team. His condemnation of
corruption and abuse of power, was loud and clear, the country saw it.
It was a challenging task only a few almost equal to Mr. de Zoysa could
alone have done, but he did it so well.
His sparkling phrases, an unmatched fluency of diction, and a
cavalier Courtroom manner, all embodied to make the opening address
before the Special Presidential Commission the classic social document
that it has been hailed to be. We who watched it being delivered, felt
obviously the courage he had, a commitment to truth, and undoubtedly the
rigid responsibility of a prosecutor ensuring a fail trial.
His good relationship with various groups of people amply
demonstrated in an incident that took place on his last journey at his
funeral procession. There were three little standard-bearers who were in
the forefront of the procession while furling a cross in his hand the
smallest of them asked the big one as to what he was supposed to do with
the cross.
The reply was : “Dont you know it, aren’t you a Christian?”
He replied: “I don’t no”, and said “I am a Buddhist.”
Then both of them together asked the third boy, as to what they
should do,
He also said, “I dont know. Anyway my father is a Communist”. His
fragrant memory will remain forever in the minds of all those who
associated with him.
The writer is a former District Judge |
