Peter Mohan Maithree Peiris, PC is a Sri Lankan lawyer who served as 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 go ...

from 2008 to 2011 and was the ''

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

Chief Justice of Sri Lanka The Chief Justice of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is the head of the judiciary of Sri Lanka and the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. Established in 1801, the Chief Justice is one of ten Supreme Court justices; the other nine are t ...

from 2013 to 2015 when

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Maithripala Sirisena Maithripala Yapa Sirisena ( si, පල්ලෙවත්‍ත ගමරාළලාගේ මෛත්‍රීපාල යාපා සිරිසේන; ta, பல்லேவத்த கமராளலாகே மைத்திரி� ...

declared his appointment

void ab initio Void may refer to: Science, engineering, and technology * Void (astronomy), the spaces between galaxy filaments that contain no galaxies * Void (composites), a pore that remains unoccupied in a composite material * Void, synonym for vacuum, a s ...

in 2015.

Education

Peiris was educated at

St. Joseph's College, Colombo , motto_translation = In Knowledge and Virtue , location = T. B. Jayah Mawatha, Colombo 10 , country = Sri Lanka , coordinates = , caption = School Facade , pushpin_m ...

and

Royal College, Colombo Royal College, Colombo is a selective entry boys' school located in Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Started as a private school by Rev Joseph Marsh in 1835, it was established as the Colombo Academy by Sir Robert Wilmot-Horton in Janua ...

. He played cricket for both schools. Peiris was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

on 19 June 1975 and became a Solicitor of the

Courts of England and Wales The courts of England and Wales, supported administratively by His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service, are the civil and criminal courts responsible for the administration of justice in England and Wales. The United Kingdom does not have a ...

in 1978.

Legal career

Peiris worked under senior lawyers

Daya Perera Lt. Colonel Daya Perera, PC (died June 16, 2013) was a Sri Lankan diplomat and lawyer, who was the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Canada and Ambassador to the United Nations in New York City. Education Educated at Royal College Colombo, Perer ...

and D. R. P. Gunatilleke after qualifying.

Attorney General's Department

Peiris joined the Attorney General's Department in 1981 as a state counsel, later becoming a senior state counsel. During this time he was trained at the National Institute of Trial Advocacy of the

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

, at the Centre for Police and Criminal Justice Studies of the

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

and at

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

. He left the Attorney General's Department in 1996.

Unofficial Bar

After leaving the Attorney General's Department, he joined the unofficial bar engaging in private practice. He practiced in the original and appellate courts and specialized in areas of administrative law, commercial law, land law, fundamental rights and industrial law.

Attorney General

Peiris was appointed

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 ...

on 18 December 2008 from the unofficial bar. He withdrew murder charges in a case against former deputy minister Chandana Kathriarachchi and served an indictment on unlawful assembly for which the accused pleaded guilty. Furthermore, he withdrew a rape case against Government Party Parliamentarian

Duminda Silva Arumadura Lawrence Romelo Duminda Silva (born 3 December 1974: as Sinhala :දුමින්ද සිල්වා), popularly as Duminda Silva or R. Dumindha Silva, is a Sri Lankan politician and a former Member of Parliament. He is the brothe ...

. Peiris was appointed Senior Legal Officer to the

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

in September 2011. He became chairman of

Seylan Bank Seylan Bank PLC ( si, සෙලාන් බැංකුව, ''Selan Bænkuwa'') is a publicly owned Commercial Bank in Sri Lanka. It has branches both in urban as well as rural areas of Sri Lanka. Seylan bank had 167 banking centres island wide ...

in April 2012. He represented Sri Lanka in The UN Committee Against Torture in 2011 in which he said that the Sri Lankan government has received intelligence information that missing lankaeNews cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda is living in a foreign country. However, he concurred that he lied when he was summoned by a local court.

Chief justice

Peiris was nominated to be Chief Justice by

Mahinda Rajapaksa Mahinda Rajapaksa ( si, මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ, ta, மஹிந்த ராஜபக்ஷ; born Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa; 18 November 1945) is a Sri Lankan politician. He served as the President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to ...

following the controversial

impeachment Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In ...

Shirani Bandaranayake Upatissa Atapattu Bandaranayake Wasala Mudiyanse Ralahamilage Shirani Anshumala Bandaranayake (known as Shirani Bandaranayake; born April 1958) served as the 43rd Chief Justice of Sri Lanka. Although a qualified lawyer, she has never practiced la ...

. The Parliamentary Council gave its approval for Peiris's appointment on 15 January 2013. Peiris was sworn in as chief justice on 15 January 2013. Peiris was officially inaugurated as chief justice at a ceremony in the Supreme Court on 23 January 2013. The media, other than the state-owned media, were banned from the ceremony which was boycotted by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), the largest lawyers association in the country. The ceremony was however attended by other judges including the associate judges of the Supreme Court. Peiris' appointment drew some criticism. Peiris is considered to be an ally of President Rajapaksa and his appointment was seen by critics as further consolidation of power by the president and

his family ''His Family'' is a novel by Ernest Poole published in 1917 about the life of a New York widower and his three daughters in the 1910s. It received the first Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1918. Plot introduction ''His Family'' tells the story of ...

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, commonly known as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the United Nations Human Rights Office, is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nati ...

Navi Pillay Navanethem "Navi" Pillay (born 23 September 1941) is a South African jurist who served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014. A South African of Indian Tamil origin, she was the first non-white woman judge of ...

expressed doubts about Peiris' independence and impartiality, particularly when dealing with allegations of serious human rights violations by the Sri Lankan government. The

International Commission of Jurists The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is an international human rights non-governmental organization. It is a standing group of 60 eminent jurists—including senior judges, attorneys and academics—who work to develop national and inte ...

condemned Peiris' appointment, describing it as a "further assault on the independence of the judiciary". Maithripala Sirisena the President elected on 8 January 2015 refused to take oaths before him on the basis his appointment was illegal and took oaths before Justice Hon. K. Sripavan the most senior Judge of the Supreme Court. According Sirisena Mohan Peiris visited him several times begging not to remove him and promising to deliver judgements according to his wishes. On 28 January 2015, the Government of Sri Lanka acknowledged that the appointment of 44 Mohan Peiris as the Chief Justice was void at its inception as Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake was not impeached lawfully and therefore no vacancy existed for the post of Chief Justice. The paved way for Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake to resume duties as the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka.

Family

Peiris's wife Priyanthi is also an attorney-at-law. Their teenage daughter Talia died in July 2002. Peiris is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

and is a worshipper at All Saints’ Church,

Borella Borella is the largest suburb in Colombo, Sri Lanka represented by divisional code 8. Demographic Borella is a multi-religious and multi-ethnic area. The major ethnic communities in Borella are Sinhalese and Tamils. There are also various other ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peiris, Mohan Alumni of Sri Lanka Law College Alumni of Saint Joseph's College, Colombo Alumni of Royal College, Colombo Attorneys General of Sri Lanka Chief justices of Sri Lanka Sinhalese judges Living people President's Counsels (Sri Lanka) Sinhalese lawyers Sri Lankan Roman Catholics Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Sri Lankan people