Sir Desmond de Silva cleared

On 5 August 2015 this newspaper carried an article to the effect that Sir Desmond de Silva, QC, then the Chairman of the legal Advisory Council to the Paranagama Commission, was under investigation by the Bar Standards Board in the UK for acting in that capacity when he was not entitled to do so by reason of a conflict of interest.

The complaint against Sir Desmond was made in the Sri Lanka Parliament by TNA MP Sumanthiran and the official complaint was made to the Bar Standard Board in the UK by an NGO – the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice. Following upon that a Petition signed by a number of those representing civil society was sent to President Sirisena calling upon him to rescind Sir Desmond’s appointment. This newspaper published that Petition.

Sir Desmond informed the Daily FT this week that the Bar Standards Board in the UK dismissed the allegations against him and stated that he had not acted improperly or contrary to his professional rules. The case officer dealing with the matter stated that this was a highly-politicised complaint against a senior member of the Bar.

Asked to comment on the dismissal of the allegation against him, Sir Desmond whose work with the Commission ended in August 2015 said: “The complaint against me was totally baseless and had no foundation in law or fact. It was the product of those whose knowledge of the law is clearly in need of some improvement.”