Appreciations

As I saw Rama’s life ebb away on that fateful night of December 6, I realized that my friendship which spanned nearly 50 years was coming to an end.

I have known him when he was a young man. I have known him in the vigour of his manhood. I have known him in his middle age. I have known him when the mellow light of years began to close down on him.

It was at “London House” (hostel for Commonwealth students) that I first met Rama.

London House then was run on the lines of a gentlemen’s club. Though London clubs are reputed to be “havens of disinterested friendliness”, it was at London House that Rama made friendships that lasted to the end of his days. He worked with a steady and proficient ease which did not always bring him the results he expected. The setbacks he faced while reading for the Bar, he met with equanimity.

As a student he did not show any evidence of the great heights he would achieve in his later life.

On his return to Sri Lanka he was enrolled as an advocate at a time when H.V. Perera was at the summit of his illustrious career and men of the highest integrity adorned both the Bench and the Bar.

Rama never claimed to be an erudite lawyer. However in Ranasinghe V. Wijendra, reported in 74 New Law Reports, Justice Weeramantry, after an exhaustive review of the relevant case law, accepted Rama’s submissions. This case still stands as one of the leading authorities on criminal misappropriation.

After a few years practice at the Bar, he joined the Attorney-General’s Department. As a prosecutor he was called upon to prosecute the assassins of Alfred Durayappa, when more senior Crown Counsel refused to do so.

From the Attorney-General’s Department he moved on to the High Court.

When serving as a High Court Judge, President Jayewardene offered him the prestigious post of Secretary, Ministry of Justice. A lesser man would have accepted this offer without any hestitation. Rama, however, politely turned it down.

With the effluxion of time, he was appointed a judge of the Court of Appeal. It was while being sworn in as Judge of the Court of Appeal, that President Jayewardene asked him “What happened to the other Ramanathans”. Wittily he replied, “Ruined by wine, women and song.”

His work in the Supreme Court will long be remembered for the two dissenting judgments he gave in Sirimavo Bandaranaike Vs Times of Ceylon and Tilak Karunaratne’s expulsion case.

These two judgments alone displayed his sound common sense, his understanding of human nature and above all, his sturdy independence. He was made a Bencher of Grays Inn when he was a judge of the Supreme Court.

Happily in retirement he did not disappear from public life. He was appointed Governor of the Western Province, Chancellor of the University of Ruhuna, and finally Chairman of the Human Rights Commission. To crown it all he was conferred a Deshamanya.

Rama married Mano late in life. They were perfectly suited for each other. Their marriage forged a strong and lasting bond of companionship which contributed much to his success and well being.

He was senior member of the Orient Club, a pillar of the Establishment in a bygone age.

Rama loved parties. On the last few social gatherings he gave impromptu speeches. The last was at my birthday party. Little did we then realize that he was in fact bidding farewell to his friends.

He was never flattered by authority and never sought to flatter it. As a man, he combined simplicity with a basic humility. There was a serenity in his spirit which seems to those who knew him like a gift of grace. He has meant much to his friends and they have meant much to him.

In later years he developed that philosophic detachment which preserved his sense of essential values in an increasingly troubled world. He seems to have discovered some hidden secret which has eluded so many others, the secret of finding the time as well as the inclinations to remain a respected citizen of this country and an entertaining companion.

Rama had the disciplined intellectual virtues of heart and mind, the proud shyness and sensitive dignity that comes from exceedingly good breeding.

Rama has now reached the Elysian fields untroubled and unharmed by the ghosts of dissatisfied testators who wait on the banks of the river Styx to deal with judges who have misconstrued their wills.

The following lines from Milton’s Paradise Lost would perhaps serve as a fitting epitaph to his life and work.

“Unmoved
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified
His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal;
Nor number, nor example with him wrought
To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind".