‘A gentleman to his fingertips’, he is, that’s how he used to describe a person who is worthy of such praise and that is what exactly he too was:
‘A gentleman to his fingertips’, Wicks, Wikka, Pol Wikka- as he was fondly called and now fondly remembered, Wijaya Wickramaratne, President’s Counsel, who passed away on the 24th of September 2016, leaving behind a mass of juniors (some are now seniors and some adorning Benches around the country) and a huge vacuum of oratory skill that seem hardly paralleled in the foreseeable future.
Reputed for his riotous disposition but a very faithful fried as his contemporaries of campus era would recall, his entry into politics was only expected of him at the time, a time when only gentlemen decided to dedicate their service to the public!
Still behind active political stage he got on to many platforms of his leftist-faith in support of the giants of Marxism, Leninism, Trotskyism etc and finally at the early years of the 1990s stood for the Kandy District Provincial Elections winning with a record number of votes that exceeded 84000, which was the highest at that election and a public recognition of a faithful friend.
Ignited by the success at the Thismada Murder Case, where he secured an acquittal for his client whereas the other accused persons being condemned despite the legal luminaries of the time representing them, his practice as a criminal advocate flourished and his advocacy was most sought after in criminal advocate flourished and his advocacy was most sought after in criminal cases that left him among the highest ranking criminal lawyers of the country though he always remembered not to lose the common touch that was characteristic of him.
He had the knack for seeing through the minds of the jurymen and creating the ‘Big Picture’ through sheer oratory magnificence that would ultimately result in a verdict in his favour!
Being one of the past presidents of the Kandy Bar Association, KBA, he was instrumental in acquiring new grounds to hold the new Court Complex situated at Gatambe and also an office complex adjoining the new court complex during his tenure circa which had been beneficial to lawyers and litigants alike.
He shall be remembered for all the achievements and the services and the Gentleman he was, who shall be sadly missed by his loving wife Gerty and the niece Jeevani who is an attorney-at-law who has taken the reins of Wijaya Wickramaratne Chambers along with her husband Chaminda Athukorala, formerly of the Attorney-General’s Department.
V. Malik Gunasekera,
Kandy.