Justice S. Thurairaja appointed as Acting Chief Justice
10-Nov-2025.
Supreme Court Justice S. Thurairaja has been appointed Acting Chief Justice. He assumed duties at the Presidential Secretariat in the presence of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
This is the first time an Indian-origin Tamil has been appointed as Acting Chief Justice. The appointment will remain effective until Chief Justice Preethi Padman Surasena returns from overseas. Presidential Secretary Dr. Nandhika Sanath Kumaranayake was also present.
Since the establishment of Sri Lanka’s superior courts in 1802, S. Thurairaja is the only Indian-origin Tamil to have been appointed to both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. He was also recently appointed a member of the Judicial Service Commission.
A President’s Counsel, he enrolled with the Bar in 1988 and joined the Attorney General’s Department in 1989. Before elevation to the judiciary, he served up to the rank of Additional Solicitor General. He handled several high-profile criminal cases involving powerful individuals and led multiple special litigation teams.
He holds an LL.B. from the University of Colombo and an LL.M. from the University of London. He has been enrolled as both barrister and solicitor, and has served as a judge in Fiji. He was the first Indian-origin President’s Counsel appointed by a Sri Lankan President, and later became a Court of Appeal judge.
Elevated to the Supreme Court in 2019, he has delivered more than 300 significant judgments. He has contributed extensively to legal education and scholarship, served on the Council of Legal Education, and taught in postgraduate and doctoral programmes at the University of Colombo.
In 2024, he was invited as a special guest by the Government of India to the Commonwealth Attorneys General and Solicitors General Conference in New Delhi, attended by the President and Prime Minister of India.
He also serves as a patron of the Commonwealth Legal Education Association, which works to elevate the quality of legal education across member nations.
