Victor Tennekoon


Victor Tennekoon QC was a Sri Lankan lawyer and jurist. He served as the 35th Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, as well as the 33rd Attorney General and 23rd Solicitor General. From 1979 to 1984 Tennekoon served as Chancellor of the University of Peradeniya.

Early life and education

Tennekoon on 9 September 1914 in Central Province, British Ceylon. He had four brothers; Herbert Tennekoon, former Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka; Reginald Tennekoon, member of parliament for Minipe; George Tennekoon, Professor of Pathology, University of Peradeniya and Kenneth Tennekoon, an engineer who emigrated to the UK in 1956 and one sister Dulcie Wijenaike.
He received his education at St. Anthony's College, Kandy. He gained a Bachelor of Arts from the University of London and subsequently entered the Ceylon Law College. He was called to the Bar on 4 May 1943 as an Advocate.

Legal career

Tennekoon started his legal practice in the Kegalle unofficial bar and was appointed as a Temporary Additional Crown Counsel on 1 October 1946 in the Attorney-General's Department. From 14 March 1949 to 5 March 1951, he was seconded to serve as the Secretary to the Kandyan Peasantry Commission. In September 1949 he was appointed Crown Counsel; in November 1955, he was appointed Acting Senior Crown Counsel and in May 1956 confirmed as Senior Crown Counsel. Between April 1957 and June 1961, he served as Acting Deputy Solicitor General. Although he specialized in civil law, he attended [Columbia University on a senior fellowship in constitutional law from the Asia Foundation between September 1961 to March 1962 and on his return joined the Attorney-General's prosecution team in the 1962 coup d'état attempt. Appointed as Solicitor General of Ceylon in 1964 and played a key role formulating the Sirima–Shastri Pact working as an advisor to the government on aspects of international law relating to the nationality problems of Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka in collaboration with Sir Humphrey Waldock. In 1965 he took silks as an Queen's Counsel. In 1967, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Ceylon as a Puisne Justice. He was the first Kandyan to serve in the Supreme Court bench, serving from 8 February 1967 to 1 July 1970.
In July 1970, he was appointed Attorney General. During his term he created the controversial Criminal Justice Commission to prosecute the large number of suspects of the 1971 JVP insurrection, which was later extended to prosecute exchange control violators. Reaching the public service retirement age of 60, he was appointed as a Judge of the Court of Appeal of Sri Lanka in August 1973 and served till 31 December 1973. On 1 January 1974 he was appointed Chief Justice, succeeding Gardiye Punchihewage Amaraseela Silva and served till his retirement in on 8 September 1977.

Later work

Following his retirement, Tennekoon served in many capacities. He served as the Chairman of the Presidential Commission on Development Councils from 1977 to 1980; Law Commission, the Salaries Review Committee, L. B. Finance Company, the Central Hospitals Ltd, and Deputy Chairman of the Commercial Bank of Ceylon. In 1984 he chaired the Ministry of Justice Law's Delays seminar and the Committee on the Courts of Appeal.
Tennekoon served as Chancellor of the University of Peradeniya from 1979 to 1984, he was conferred the honoary degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa by the university. He was conferred the national honour of the title of Deshamanya in the first ever Independence Day National Honours list in 1986.

Family

Tennekoon was married to Semitha Wijewardena, niece of Don Richard Wijewardena. They had son Asita and two daughters Dayanthi and Priyani.