Shirani Tilakawardene

Justice Shirani Tilakawardene is a sitting judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.

Education

Justice Tilakawardene was educated at Bishop's College, Colombo and went on to study law at the Sri Lanka Law College. Her legal career commenced with apprenticeship under Lalith Athulathmudali PC. This was followed by a tenure in the United States, where she served in the Consumer and Narcotic Division of the District Attorney's Office of Fort Colorado.

Pioneer

Justice Tilakawardene represented an early generation of women lawyers in Sri Lanka and scored many firsts. She became the first woman to be enrolled as a State Counsel in 1978. She further established a record by being the country's first female judge of the High Court in April 1988 and became the first woman Justice of the Court of Appeal of Sri Lanka in July 1998. She went on to become President of the Court of Appeals.

Though married to a Sinhalese, Justice Tilakwardene comes from a Sri Lankan Muslim family (Moor) and is the first Sri Lankan Moor to be nominated to the Court of Appeals.

Judgements

She is a strong proponent of human rights and has spoken out against a variety of discriminations. She has identified herself as feminist on a number of occasions.