I was privileged to enjoy a close friendship with one of Sri Lanka's most eminent lawyers, the late P. Navaratnarajah, Queen's Counsel, who will go down in the annals of legal history as a counsel par excellence.
In recognition of his outstanding performance at the University College where he read Mathematics and obtained a first Class Honours, he was awarded a scholarship enabling him to proceed to Cambridge University to sit his Mathematical Tripos.
Thereafter, he pursued his legal studies at the Middle Temple where he was called to the Bar in 1934, and in the same year called to the Bar in Ceylon as an advocate of the Supreme Court.
It was in Hulftsdrop that he spent the whole of his professional life, where from a promising junior he blossomed into the eminent Queen's Counsel, despite the fact that when he commenced his career at the Bar, he had none of the hallmarks of the preferred class. He was comfortable, but had no wealth, influence or elite social status.
He was not only brilliant in legal argument, but an indomitable fighter and his particular force was in his reply to his opponents, for which he reserved his most telling points.
To have him as an opponent was an awesome experience. One knew that one had to deal not so much with shrewd tactics or the cross-examining skill, but with one who ruthlessly stripping the case of camouflage would come clearly and crisply to the essential weakness of his opponent's case and the essential strength of his.
He had a legal mind of the highest order and applied it with painstaking thoroughness to every matter which he had to deal with in a clear discernment of legal principles and a fine sense of distinction which govern their applicability, rarely seen in our courts. He made an abiding contribution to the development of the law.
In his relationship with his clients, he had a touching concern for the indigent which followed him to his grave. He despised extortion as a way of life. Indeed, it was said of him that he was one of the front line counsel of his time one could retain with no risk of bankruptcy. He was charitable, but his charity was unknown to others. The poorest of the poor had a place in his heart and home.
To the innumerable juniors who worked in his Chambers, he was kind, sympathetic and generous, particularly to those who had neither influence nor affluence to support themselves during the lean years of their career at the Bar.
As a human being, despite his brilliance and erudition, he was simple with the simplicity of greatness. He shunned public office and neither sought nor cared for public adulation. He was a man of incredible humility-always accessible to the rich and poor alike.
His essential goodness left an abiding impression on all those who were privileged to have known him. He was disappointed and sad when some people who were known to him on assuming high and responsible office lost their bearings. Commenting on such conduct he would remark:-
"Why can't they be nice to people on their way up.
They have the intelligence to realize that they
Are bound to meet them on their way down.
When they are on their way down, it is only the good
Will of the people that they take along with them."
When Mr. Navaratnarajah died, not only did we mourn the loss of a great and brilliant lawyer, but of a great friend.
His passing away left a great void in our lives which was not possible to fill. But our sorrow was tempered with gratitude that the fates allowed us to number such a man as Mr. Navaratnarajah among our friends.
Maureen Seneviratne,
President's Counsel.
|
E-mail