The Attorney General of Sri Lanka is the Sri Lankan government's chief

legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. ...

adviser, and its primary lawyer in the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. The Attorney General is usually a highly respected Senior Advocate, and is appointed by the ruling government. The current Attorney General is

Sanjay Rajaratnam Sanjay Rajaratnam, PC is a Sri Lankan lawyer. He is the current Attorney General of Sri Lanka. He previously served as the Acting Solicitor General of Sri Lanka from October 2019 up until May 2021. Education Rajaratnam received his primary ...

. The president does not have any power to make orders, mandatory or otherwise, to the attorney general. He heads the Attorney General's Department which is the

public prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal tria ...

. Unlike the Attorney General of the United States, the Attorney General of Sri Lanka does not have any executive authority, and is not a

political appointee According to the United States Office of Government Ethics, a political appointee is "any employee who is appointed by the President, the Vice President, or agency head". As of 2016, there were around 4,000 political appointment positions whic ...

; those functions are performed by the

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

. The Attorney General is assisted by the Solicitor General of Sri Lanka and several Additional Solicitors General.

Appointment

Under section 54 of the

Constitution of Sri Lanka The Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව, Śrī Laṃkā āndukrama vyavasthāva, ta, இலங்கை அரசிய� ...

, the President of Sri Lanka appoints the Attorney General on advice of the government. The general practice is the serving Solicitor General succeeds the outgoing Attorney General. However, there have been instances where exceptions have been made. Under the 17th Amendment and 19th Amendment to the Constitution, the Attorney General along with the Chief Justice, the Judges of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, the Members of the Judicial Service Commission, and four other officials are placed in a constitutionally guaranteed position of security from removal from office.

Powers and duties

The powers and duties of the Attorney General are derived from the ''Administration of Justice Law, No. 44 of 1973'' and the ''Code of Criminal Procedure Act''.

Salary and entitlements

Traditionally the Attorney General is addressed by the honorific ''

The Honourable ''The Honourable'' (British English) or ''The Honorable'' ( American English; see spelling differences) (abbreviation: ''Hon.'', ''Hon'ble'', or variations) is an honorific style that is used as a prefix before the names or titles of certain ...

''. The Attorney General draws a monthly salary and pensionable allowance (as at 2017) of Rs 240,000 and other allowances of 332,800. He/she is entitled to an official vehicle and an official residence or an allowance of Rs 50,000 in place of such. Further a books allowance of Rs 30,000 and ''allowance for not engaging in private practice'' of Rs 150,000 is provided. The position is pensionable and holders are entitled to government duty free permits.

List of attorneys general

Data based on: * Amerasinghe, A. Ranjit B. (1986), ''The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka: the first 185 years'',

Sarvodaya Sarvōdaya ( hi, सर्वोदय '' sarv-'' "all", '' uday'' "rising") is a Sanskrit term which generally means "universal uplift" or "progress of all". The term was used by Mahatma Gandhi as the title of his 1908 translation of John Ruskin ...

References

External links