Attorney General Palitha Fernando - legal luminary

Chelvatamby Maniccavasagar

The Solicitor General Sarath Palitha Fernando (President's Counsel) was appointed Attorney-General by President Mahinda Rajapaksa recently.

He is an old boy of Royal College, Colombo and had passed the preliminary and final examinations at the Sri Lanka Law College with first class honours.

Attorney General Palitha Fernando

As an old boy of Royal College, Colombo he led both the College English and Sinhala debating teams and also served as student chairman of the College English Literary Association and General Secretary of the Sinhala Literary Association. In the Law College, he was awarded the prize for commercial law for securing the highest marks at the Final Examination and the Hector Jayawardana Gold Medal for being first in the address to the Jury contest in English.

Palitha Fernando becomes the 27th Attorney-General of Sri Lanka. In fact, he has been appointed to the post of Attorney-General following the vacancy created with former Attorney General Ms Eva Wanasundera taking oaths as a Supreme Court Judge.

Inspiring leadership

Palitha Fernando is a graduate of International Commercial Law from the University of Bristol. He joined the Attorney General's Department as a State Counsel in 1980. Thereafter, in 1989, he became a Senior State Counsel. He was appointed as Deputy Solicitor General in 1997 and in the year 2007, he became the additional Solicitor General. He was also in charge of the Crimes Division of the Attorney General's Department from 2007. From 2011, he served as the Solicitor General of the department and then served as the acting Attorney General.

He also holds an LLB Degree from the University of Colombo as an external student and Master of Laws in International Law, University of Colombo and Master of Laws (International Commercial Law) from the University of Bristol, UK.

Further, he was head of the Legal Division of Sri Lanka Navy and Judge Advocate of the Sri Lanka Navy till 2004. He had served as prosecutor and also Judge Advocate at several courts martial of all three services.

In fact, Sri Lanka has produced from time to time outstanding Solicitor Generals and Attorney Generals of the calibre of Charles Lambert Ferdinands (1884-1888), Sir Charles Peter Layard (1888-1892), Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan (KCMG), KC 1892-1906), James Cecil Walter Pereira (KC 1906-1912), James Van Langenberg (KC 1912-1915) and several others like H. H. Basnayake who became the Chief Justice, Victor Tennakoon (QC) who also became the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, R. R. Crossette Tambiah KC, M. Tiruchelvam (QC), Shiva Pasupathy, K. C. Kamalasabayson (PC), C. R. De Silva (PC), W P G Dep (PC), Shanthi Eva Wanasundera (PC) and Palitha Fernando (PC) (October 2011 - June 2012). Further, I could not include several others in this list due to lack of space.

Indeed, Palitha Fernando's academic brilliance, his persuasive eloquence, his missionary spirit, his amazing mastery over the intricacies of law and positions as Solicitor General and Attorney General is rare. In fact, he is a hardworking personality in the Attorney-General's Department and is methodical and meticulous preparation of the work entrusted to him is indeed an exercise in unbounded patience, total dedication, and also maximum assistance to the Bench.

When he walks into the court, he knows his brief like the back of his hand and what he does not know, is not worth knowing. His court craft is admirable and unmatched. Blessed with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of energy, bubbling enthusiasm, inspiring leadership, quickness of thought, unyielding determination, dedication, high degree of discipline and profound commitment he has now achieved to the tremendous position as Attorney General.

Indeed, Palitha Fernando in every sense of the word is a Himalayan personality, lofty, serene and unshakable withstanding storms and blizzards with total and natural equanimity. Further, no field of human endeavour is left untouched by the swaying amplitude of his imagination, words and actions.

Noble ideas

Furthermore, the most notable characteristics of Palitha Fernando as Solicitor General has been the thoroughness and great stability and agility of mind. He is always friendly and fights clean. Judges always feel safe with him since they know that he will never mislead them to score a point. He has a clear legal mind and never strays with irrelevancies. He is a friend, philosopher, and guide to the juniors in the Attorney General's Department. Further, his face is always lit with a smile, deep piety, integrity of character, independence of mind, devotion to duty and courage of conviction which earns the respect of all who come in contact with him. In fact, Palitha Fernando is always of the view that noble means, noble ideas and noble actions will certainly have noble consequences.

Palitha Fernando is a visiting lecturer at the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies, Sri Lanka Law College and several other institutes in law. Furthermore, there can be supreme technical skill, originality, intelligence in a person and yet there can be an absence of genius. In fact, the ordinary man casts a shadow, the man of genius casts light to find genius and happiness.

United is nearly an impossible task. But, in Palitha Fernando, we find a happy blend of both. Indeed, he is a very lovable and much loved person and an extra-ordinary legal luminary of exceptional breadth and depth.

May the Almighty Bless him abundantly with good health, strength, peace and prosperity to enable him to continue with his remarkable work as Attorney General of Sri Lanka.