CC to meet tomorrow on Kodagoda’s SC appointment

The Constitutional Council (CC) will meet tomorrow to decide on the appointment of Justice Ysantha Kodagoda, PC to the Supreme Court, Parliamentary sources said yesterday.

Justice Kodagoda served as the President of the Court of Appeal before President Gotabaya Rajapaksa nominated him to the Apex Court to fill the vacancy created by the demise of Justice Prasanna Jayawardana recently.

Justice Kodagoda had a distinguished career at the Attorney General’s Department before he was promoted as a judge of the Court of Appeal in March 2019.

Justice Kodagoda PC was called to the Bar as an Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme in 1988. Before being appointed as the President of the Court of Appeal in March last year, he served as an Additional Solicitor General of the Attorney General's Department.

Having joined the Attorney General's Department in 1989 as a State Counsel, Justice Kodagoda rose to the positions of Senior State Counsel in1999, Deputy Solicitor General in 2005, Senior Deputy Solicitor General in 2014 and as Additional Solicitor General in 2015.

He has over 30 years of experience as a Public Prosecutor and Legal Advisor to the state and his specialization is in the field of criminal justice. In 2015, in recognition of his eminence in the legal profession, he was appointed President's Counsel.

Justice Kodagoda completed his primary and secondary education at Ananda College Colombo and attended Sri Lanka Law College for his law degree.

He obtained Master's Degree in Public International Law with Merit (LL.M.) from the University College London(UCL) and acted as the Director of the Advanced Legal Studies Unit of the Sri Lanka Law College and the Director of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (Sri Lanka) of the Incorporated Council of Legal Education.

He has served many Commissions of Inquiry as the representative of the Attorney General. For over a decade, he has represented Sri Lanka before the UN Human Rights Commission and the UN Human Rights Council. He has also represented Sri Lanka before the UN Security Council's Working Group on Children in Armed Conflict and has served as the Accredited Representative of the Government of Sri Lanka at the UN Committee Against Torture.

Justice Kodgoda was a member of the EU-Sri Lanka Working Group on Trade and Economic Relations Cooperation 2016 and actively participated in Sri Lanka gaining the GSP+ trade concessions.

Justice Kodagoda is the son of late Prof. Nandadasa Kodagoda, one of the most respected and distinguished medical personalities of the country. (Sandun A Jayasekera)