Don John Francis Douglas Liyanage, CCS was a former Sri Lankan civil servant. He was the former Secretary to the Ministry of State in the early 1980s. Having gained his BSc from the

University of Colombo The University of Colombo (informally Colombo University or UoC) is a Public University, public research university located primarily in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is the oldest institution of modern higher education in Sri Lanka. Specialised in t ...

, Liyanage gained admission and was appointed to the

Ceylon Civil Service The Ceylon Civil Service, popularly known by its acronym CCS, was the premier civil service of the Government of Ceylon under British colonial rule and in the immediate post-independence period. Established in 1833, it functioned as part of th ...

by the

Public Service Commission Public Service Commission may refer to: * Public utilities commission ** Alabama Public Service Commission ** Public Service Commission (Indiana) ** Public Service Commission of Utah ** Public Utilities Commission of Ohio ** Public Utilities Com ...

in April 1950. As a cadet he served in the General Treasury,

Nuwara Eliya Nuwara Eliya ( ; ) is a city in the hill country of the Central Province, Sri Lanka. Its name means "city on the plain (table land)" or "city of light". The city is the administrative capital of Nuwara Eliya District, with a picturesque landsc ...

Kachcheri A kachcheri or district secretariat is the principal government department that administrates a district in Sri Lanka. Each of the 25 districts has a kachcheri. The main tasks of the District Secretariat involve coordinating communications and ac ...

, Mannar Kachcheri and was transferred to the Ministry of Home Affairs and Rural Development. Promoted to Officer Class 2, in August 1952, he was appointed Additional Assistant (Hambanthota) to the Government Agent of the Southern Province. In 1963 he was named as the first accused of the attempted coup d'état in 1962 by the state prosecution. It was claimed by the state that he was the mastermind behind the attempted coup d'état. Even though he was convicted along with 11 others accused in 1963, the Privy Council, in its ruling given in December 1965, held the Special Act of 1962 ultra vires of the Ceylon constitution and said that the Act had denied fair trial. According to the Privy Council, the law had been specially enacted to convict the men; under trial they did not have the protections that they would have had under general criminal law. It acquitted all the eleven.

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DON JOHN FRANCIS DOUGLAS LIYANAGE AND OTHERS APPELLANTS AND THE QUEEN RESPONDENT ON APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF CEYLON
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liyanage, Douglas Sinhalese people Sri Lankan civil servants Living people Year of birth missing (living people)

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