C. R. De Silva

Who was C. R. De Silva?

Chitta Ranjan De Silva, PC was a Sri Lankan lawyer. He was Attorney General and Solicitor General of Sri Lanka. He was the Chairman of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission

Educated at the prestigious Royal College Colombo, where he Captained Royal College at Rugby Football in 1968, most notably at the Bradby Shield Encounter 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 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 on February 19, 1997 after being appointed as an Additional Solicitor General in December 1996. In October 1999 he was appointed as the Solicitor General of Sri Lanka, 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 as the Attorney General of Sri Lanka. He retired in early 2009. During his career as a public prosecutor 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.