Chitta Ranjan De Silva, PC (died 7 November 2013) was a

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

n lawyer. He was

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

and

Solicitor General of Sri Lanka The Solicitor General of Sri Lanka is a post subordinate to the Attorney General of Sri Lanka. The Solicitor General of Sri Lanka assists the Attorney General, and is assisted by four Additional Solicitors General. Note that the post was Solicit ...

. He was the Chairman of the

Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC, si, උගත් පාඩම් හා ප්‍රතිසන්ධාන කොමිෂන් සභාව ''Ugath Padam Ha Prathisandhana Komishan Sabhava'', ta, கற்றுக்� ...

. Educated at the

Royal College, Colombo Royal College, Colombo is a Single-sex education, selective entry boys' school located in Cinnamon Gardens, Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Started as a private school by Rev Joseph Marsh in 1835, it was established as the Colombo Academ ...

, where he captained Royal College at Rugby Football in 1968, most notably at the

Bradby Shield Encounter The Bradby Shield Encounter - commonly known as "The Bradby" - is the pinnacle of Sri Lanka's school rugby union season. It is played annually between two of the most prominent boys’ schools in the country and traditional rivals Royal College, C ...

and were adjudged school champions. That year he captained the Ceylon Schools Rugby Football team as well. Thereafter he entered the

Sri Lanka Law College Sri Lanka Law College (abbreviated as SLLC), formerly known as Ceylon Law College, is a law college, and the only legal institution where one can enroll as a attorney-at-law in Sri Lanka. It was established in 1874, under the then Council of Legal ...

and was called to the Bar in 1974, starting his legal practice thereafter. Two years later he joined the Attorney General's Department as a State Counsel in May 1976. In 1984 he was promoted as a Senior State Counsel and was appointed Deputy Solicitor General in October 1992. He took silk as a

President's Counsel President's Counsel (postnominal PC) is an eminent lawyer who is appointed by the President of Sri Lanka to be one of the "President's Counsel learned in the law". The term is also recognized as an honorific which replaced the practice of appoint ...

on February 19, 1997 after being appointed an Additional Solicitor General in December 1996. In October 1999 he was appointed the

, a post he would hold till 2007. For 10 years since 1997 he was the head of the Criminal Division of the Attorney General's Department. In April 2007 he was appointed the

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

. He retired in early 2009. During his career as a

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 trial ...

in the Attorney General's Department he appeared on behalf of the state for some of the most significant criminal cases in the country, involving the assassination of the High Court Judge of Colombo,

Sarath Ambepitiya Sarath Ambepitiya (November 19, 1946 – November 20, 2004) was a Sri Lankan jurist. He was serving as the Judge of the Colombo High Court when he was assassinated. The assassination, orchestrated by a drug lord sentenced by the Judge, gripped t ...

. De Silva has represented the Government of Sri Lanka in a number of International Bilateral Air Traffic Negotiations held in New Delhi, Australia, Greece and Sri Lanka. He has also been a member of Sri Lankan delegations to the

Human Rights Committee The United Nations Human Rights Committee is a treaty body composed of 18 experts, established by a 1966 human rights treaty, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The Committee meets for three four-week sessions per y ...

under the optional protocol to the

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is a multilateral treaty that commits nations to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freed ...

and to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) is a United Nations convention. A third -generation human rights instrument, the Convention commits its members to the elimination of racial discrim ...

. He has served as a lecturer and examiner at the

General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) ( Sinhala: ජෙනරාල් ශ්‍රිමත් ජෝන් කොතලාවල ආරක්ෂක විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය ''General Sir John Kotelawala'' ''Ar ...

and was an examiner at the Sri Lanka Law College. He was also a member of the Law Commission of Sri Lanka and had served as a member of the Board of Management of Child Protection Authority, Drug Control Board and the Post Graduate Institute of Medicine. He died after a long illness on 7 November 2013.

References

External links

C. R. De Silva

{{DEFAULTSORT:De Silva, Chitta Ranjan 2013 deaths Sinhalese lawyers Sri Lankan rugby union players Sri Lankan Buddhists Alumni of Royal College, Colombo President's Counsels (Sri Lanka) Academic staff of the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University D Year of birth missing D