Constitutional Council approves Jayantha as new Attorney General

The Constitutional Council has approved the nomination of Senior Additional Solicitor General Jayantha Jayasuriya as the new Attorney General of Sri Lanka. 

Jayasuriya is the second most senior official at the Attorney General’s Department. 

Speaker of Parliament and Chairman of the Constitutional Council Karu Jayasuriya said the Council had ratified the nomination of Jayasuriya PC, and forwarded its approval to the President. 

President Maithripala Sirisena forwarded three nominees to the Constitutional Council, but Speaker Jayasuriya said on 8 Monday that the Council had referred the matter back to the President’s Office, asking for one nominee. 

Under the terms of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution enacted in April 2015, the power to appoint Jayasuriya PC as the country’s new AG rests with President Sirisena following approval of the nominee by the Constitutional Council. 

If appointed, Jayantha Jayasuriya PC will become the 29th Attorney General of Sri Lanka. He studied at Maliyadewa College in Kurunegala and entered Sri Lanka Law College in 1979.  He took oaths as an attorney at law in 1982, joining the Attorney General’s Department only one year later in 1983. He was sworn in as a President’s Counsel before the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka in 2012. 

Jayasuriya, interestingly served for the United Nations as trial lawyer in the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. He was also a Commonwealth Scholar and pursued post-graduate studies at the University of Hong Kong.

His pending appointment is expected to be welcomed by the AG’s Department and the legal fraternity, among whom he has built a reputation as an independent state prosecutor and upstanding official of the department. 

Solicitor General Suhada Gamlath had been appointed Acting AG in January, until a permanent appointment for the post was made.  Both former AG Yuvanjana Wijetillake and SG Gamlath have come in for strong criticism by Government ministers and civil society for allegedly muddling and moving too slowly on corruption investigations against members of the former regime. (DB)