Inquiries about a Legacy and learning law for fun

(Excerpted from the autobiography of MDD Peiris, Secretary to the Prime Minister)

It was also during this period that I received a rather curt letter from the Commissioner of Inland Revenue stating that his department had received information that I had come in for a legacy of a house and several acres of land. He directed that this be declared forthwith so that the department could assess the tax and any penalties to be paid. This was a bit too much. I was extremely busy and had no time for tomfoolery. I called the stenographer and dictated the following reply:-

Dear Commissioner of Inland Revenue,

I was delighted to receive your letter dated …. I shall be most grateful if you could please provide me very early, all particulars regarding this legacy, with addresses, etc., so that I may be enabled to enter upon it without any delay. I am anxiously looking forward to this. Please rest assured that I would be prepared to gladly pay any tax you may levy on it and any penalties you may decide on.

Expecting an early reply. Yours faithfully,

M.D.D. Pieris

I am still waiting for a reply.

An Academic Interlude

Around 1974, I had a strange yearning to get involved in some academic work. There were arrangements made by the Ministry of Public Administration to send senior level administrators to good universities like Oxford and Cambridge for one year, in order to do a post-graduate diploma in some such area as Development Economics; Social Administration, etc., or in special instances, even a Masters. I was due to go under these arrangements, but the problem was one of release. As Secretary to the Prime Minister, it was just not possible to get out for such a length of time. I did not wish to embarrass the Prime Minister by even asking.

She had been quite generous in permitting me to visit the UK, Canada, and the USA for a period of about six weeks. But one whole year would have been another matter altogether. I therefore told Mr. DBIPS. Siriwardhana, Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration to give my university placement to someone else. DBI didn’t like it, but realized that my responsibilities did not permit a long stay out. I do not know whether it was this situation which triggered off in me a great desire to engage in some academic studies.

I was always interested in the law. My father had been Secretary to many District Courts in the island, in the course of his career, and he used to refer at home to interesting issues that came up in the courts. He was not a lawyer by training, but was well read, and keenly studied aspects related to his work. Thereby, he had mastered certain areas of civil law, and was considered an authority on the interpretation of certain ordinances such as the Stamp Ordinance.

I vividly recall, how he related with pride occasions when he was called by Judges for advice, including on a few occasions by the Supreme Court. The Judges liked and respected him, and he had taken me to some of their homes, sometimes, when my parents were invited by them for dinner or a reception. He also encouraged me, during the holidays to go and sit in the Courts listening to the arguments of counsel. All this bred in me a certain fascination for the law. My father hoped that I would pursue a legal career and one day become a Judge. My mother on the other hand did not quite like it. She was sensitive to the fact that judges had to mete out punishments to people. She rather preferred that I should be out of all that.

In the end things did not work out the way my father preferred. In school, removed from any legal influence, I became immersed in the Arts and Humanities, a path which I followed unto graduation, being in a rare category of those who had offered both Sinhala literature and English Literature, along with Sri Lankan, European and British history for the final degree examinations. Pursuing these disciplines enabled me to read widely. I became more enamored of wider reading than being confined within the syllabus of my subject areas.

In literature for instance, I went on reading Tolstoy; Dostoevsky; Gogol; Kafka; Sartre; Zola; Steinbeck, etc., which had nothing to do with my syllabus. This was noticed by one or two perceptive members of the library staff. When, about three months before the final examinations, I came up to the counter with some borrowed books, one of them seeing their titles, very kindly said, “Mr. Pieris, there’s not much time left before the exam, should you now not concentrate on that?”

I was touched by his concern, and he was right. My extended reading, not surprisingly did not pay any great dividend at the final examination. But the solid foundations I laid, a foundation on which I kept building and indeed still keep on building, has proved to be of critical importance during the rest of my life. It proved to be a major factor in the Civil Service Examination where the focus was not only on depth, but on breadth and maturity as well.

Now, I had this sudden desire to pursue studies in law. I was quite clear in my mind at the very start, that passing examinations was not important to me. I wanted to pursue the academic discipline. Legal issues frequently came up in an administrative career. That is why we had to pass certain law papers at Efficiency Bar Exams. In a Prime Minister’s office numerous constitutional issues came up, more so when a new constitution was being framed. Issues of International Law came up through the Foreign Ministry. Various aspects of law pertaining to the subjects of other Ministries also came up. It therefore made sense to pursue some legal studies. The problem was time.

I discussed the matter with Mr. Sanmuganathan, who was Chairman of the National Savings Bank at the time. He was a friend of mine, and one who had at one time lectured in the Law Faculty of Peradeniya University. He possessed degrees in law from both Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Sam, as we called him was most enthusiastic. He urged me to start. He got me to register for the External Degree in Law of the University of Colombo. He helped me to find the books for the First examination in Law, which consisted of the four subjects: Roman Law; Criminal Law; Constitutional Law; and Legal History and Legal Systems of Sri Lanka.

But most of all Sam generously offered to tutor me on weekends and public holidays. The problem was that some of those were also, sometimes taken up with official work. Nevertheless, under Sam’s, and by now also another lawyer’s, the Cabinet Secretary Alif’s encouragement, I bought various books such as Lees’ “Roman Law”, Dicey’s “Law and the Constitution” and Professor G.L. Peiris’ books on criminal law, evidence, etc., and got down to read. It is remarkable how much can be achieved when one is fired with interest. With the exception of Lee’s Roman law, I devoured the other books like reading novels. I was not bored at all. On the contrary, I enjoyed the intellectual stimulus, and Sam proved to be an outstanding tutor. He generously gave of his valuable Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Nirmala, his wife was a caring hostess ensuring that no pang of hunger or thirst would be an obstacle to the pursuit of learning. Sam used the Socratic method. I had to come read and prepared. He wouldn’t tell me a thing. He just cross-examined me for three hours. I had to do my own thinking. He would question, and occasionally hint or suggest. That was all. I had to find out for myself. I found this both exhilarating and exhausting. When I was making heavy weather of Roman law, he got me a book by Barry Nicholas of Cambridge University and that made a huge difference. Apart from those tutorials with Sam, I read when I could. I was no longer an undergraduate, and maturity helped. On constitutional issues, I have already had a surfeit of reading and discussions, quite a number of them with distinguished legal minds such as Victor Tennekoon and Rajah Wanasundera, during the course of my official duties.

I did much reading in the car whilst commuting to work, and traveling to meetings. I found that I read rapidly and absorbed quickly. By now the First-in Laws examination was approaching. But I was not too bothered. I felt that I had already achieved to a large extent what I had set out to do. I had received a training not only on important legal subjects, but also acquired some proficiency in legal analysis and thinking. In fact, here my previous training in the techniques of Practical Criticism in literature helped. The approach, to an extent was similar. I now knew much more than what I knew when I started on this venture and felt a certain satisfaction.

It would be nice of course to do well at the examinations, but I strangely did not much care. What I had done, I had done more or less as a hobby. Therefore, when the time came to sit for the examination, I sat, and forgot about it. In any case, there was not much time to dwell on the past. The pace of present work preoccupied me. Some months iater, Alif reminded me about the exam, and said that he would contact his friend Mr. W.A. Jayawardena, the Registrar of the University, as to when the results would be due.

In fact, the results were almost due. When they came, I was astounded. One day Mr. Jayawardena rang me and said “There, Professor Nadarajah, (Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Law) is searching for you. Out of over one thousand internal and external candidates, who sat, you have come first! You have got an “A” in constitutional Law and good “B’s” in the other three subjects. Your “A” in constitutional law is something like 83 marks and a record. ‘There was one other candidate who had received an “A” and three “B’s.” But your aggregate is higher. Heartiest Congratulations!”

This was a pleasant and unexpected surprise. The result perhaps had more to do with the excellence of the teacher than the quality of the candidate. It was certainly heartening. Sam urged that I should now proceed to read for my finals. At the time, this involved sitting for nine papers covering eleven subjects at one sitting. ‘The eleven subjects came from the Subject areas of Succession and Trusts being included as two parts of one paper, and similarly, Administrative Law and Local Government Law. I was so interested that I gradually acquired the relevant books and started my reading. But I soon realized that given the pressures on my time and mental and physical resources, studying so many subjects together was going to be a great strain. It would not have been sensible to attempt it.

I therefore gave up studying for the examination, but went on reading law for the sake of enjoyment, which I still do, particularly subjects such as Jurisprudence. Administrative and Constitutional Law and Commercial Law.

Some years later, sitting on the Board of Directors of the People’s Bank, I was giving my own analysis, during the course of a discussion on an intricate matter of law that had come up. After a while, I observed, Mr. K.N. Choksy the eminent lawyer, who was also a member of the Board, and present, looking hard at me. “How do you know all this,?” he asked when I had finished. “I have a little learning. I know it is a dangerous thing.” I replied.

Early Preparations for the Non Aligned Summit

We were now aware that we had to host the Fifth Conference of Non Aligned Heads of State and Government in 1976. This was going to be an enormous task. Fortunately, we possessed a first rate new International Conference Hall. But an enormous amount of preparation and planning had to be undertaken for the conference. Therefore, in early 1975, the Prime Minister set up what was called “The Non-Aligned Conference Secretariat,” consisting of officials from several sectors. These included, Foreign Affairs; Defence and Police; Transport; Aviation; Health; Water and Sanitation; Electricity; the Hotel Sector; the Colombo Municipality and Home Affairs.

She also constituted a central committee at very senior level with responsibilities for policy decisions and liaising with her. The committee consisted of the relevant Senior Secretaries to Ministries; the Secretary to the Prime Minister the Service Chiefs. the IGP and others. The Prime Minister appointed as Chairman of this committee her brother and Private Secretary, Dr. Mackie Ratwatte. Everyone wondered whether Mackie’s background and experience fitted him to this task. Most were somewhat skeptical. But Mackie surprised us all. He did an excellent job. He handled this difficult task exceptionally well, obtaining the co-operation of all.

He addressed the central issues with great clarity, and took decisions. Everyone worked as a team, and worked hard, and also laughed a lot whilst working. The meetings whilst productive were never boring. The result was a perfect conference, without any major hitch. It was also a great achievement of the public services of Sri Lanka, including the Armed Forces and the Police. But before we reached this happy result, we had loads of work to do and as the date of the conference drew closer the pace and importance of the work increased. I shall refer to the conference itself later.