Suppiah Sharvananda was a Chief Justice of Sri Lanka

Chief Justice of Sri Lanka

The Chief Justice of Sri Lanka is the highest post in the judicial system of Sri Lanka and heads the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. The Chief Justice is appointed by the President, chosen from candidates recommended by the Constitutional Council...

 and the first Governor

Provincial Governors of Sri Lanka

The following is a list of incumbent governors of Sri Lanka. The Governor is the appointed ceremonial head of local government at the provincial level. He/she is appointed by the President and represents the President. The chief executive of the local government is the Chief Minister. There are a...

 of the Western Province

Western Province, Sri Lanka

The Western Province is the most densely populated province of Sri Lanka. It is home to the legislative capital Sri Jayawardenapura as well to Colombo, the nation's administrative and business center.-Districts:Basnahira is divided into 3 districts:...

.

Early life

Sharvanda was born on 22 February 1923 in Kayts

Kayts

Kayts , is one of the important villages in Velanai Island which is a small island off the coast of Jaffna Peninsula in the North of Sri Lanka. There are number of other villages within the Velanai Island such as Allaipiddy, Mankumpan, Velanai, Saravanai, Puliyankoodal, Suruvil, Naranthanai and...

, Jaffna District

Jaffna District

Jaffna district is one of the 25 administrative districts of Sri Lanka. The district is administered by a District Secretariat headed by a District Secretary appointed by the central government of Sri Lanka. The headquarters is located in Jaffna city. Parts of the district were transferred to...

. He attended St. Anthony's English School in Kayts before transferring to Jaffna Hindu College

Jaffna Hindu College

Jaffna Hindu College is a boys public national school in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. It was founded in 1886 by a group of Hindu people who wanted an English language alternative to the Christian missionary schools. JHC is known throughout Sri Lanka as Hindu College.-History:In the late 19th century all the...

 at Grade 6. After completing his secondary education he studied at Colombo Law College, qualifying as a lawyer

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

 in 1946. During his time at the Law College he also obtained a BA

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degree

Academic degree

An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...

 from the University of London

University of London

-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

.

Legal career

As a lawyer Sharvanda worked on civil cases and served under such eminent lawyers as Dr. H. W. Thambiah QC, S. J. V. Chelvanayakam

S. J. V. Chelvanayakam

Samuel James Veluppillai Chelvanayakam was a Sri Lankan Tamil lawyer, politician and Member of Parliament. He was the political leader and father figure of the Sri Lankan Tamil community for more than two decades...

 QC, and H. V. Perera QC. He was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka

Supreme Court of Sri Lanka

The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka is the highest court of the nation of Sri Lanka. The Supreme Court is the highest and final judicial instance of record and is empowered to exercise its powers, subject to the provisions of the Constitution. The Court has ultimate appellate jurisdiction in...

 in 1974. In 1984 he succeeded Neville Samarakoon

Neville Samarakoon

Neville Dunbar Mirahawatte Samarakoon was a Sri Lankan lawyer, who served as Chief Justice of Sri Lanka from 1977 to 1984.he's father was A.C.W Samarakoon and mother was Chandrawathi Mirahawatte kumarihamy...

 as Chief Justice, the first Tamil to hold that position. He made a number of landmark judgments during his Supreme Court tenure, including the 13th Amendment

Constitutional amendment

A constitutional amendment is a formal change to the text of the written constitution of a nation or state.Most constitutions require that amendments cannot be enacted unless they have passed a special procedure that is more stringent than that required of ordinary legislation...

 to the constitution

Constitution of Sri Lanka

The Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka has been the constitution of the island nation of Sri Lanka since its original promulgation by the National State Assembly on 7 September 1978. It is Sri Lanka's second republican constitution, and its third constitution since the...

. He retired from the Supreme Court in 1988.

Later life

After his retirement President Jayewardene

Junius Richard Jayewardene

Junius Richard Jayewardene , famously abbreviated in Sri Lanka as JR, was the first executive President of Sri Lanka, serving from 1978 till 1989. He was a leader of the nationalist movement in Ceylon who served in a variety of cabinet positions in the decades following independence...

 appointed him the first governor of the Western Province in 1988. He held this position until 1994. In 2001 President Kumaratunga

Chandrika Kumaratunga

Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga born June 29, 1945) was the 4th Executive president of Sri Lanka, serving from November 12, 1994 to November 19, 2005. The daughter of two former Prime Ministers, she was also the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party until end of 2005...

appointed him as the Chairman of the Presidential Truth Commission on ethnic violence between the period of 1981 and 1984.