Retired High Court judge Manikavasagar Illancheliyan recently said that he had been deprived of an opportunity to serve for four more years for no fault of his.
Illancheliyan presided over many high profile criminal cases including the rape and murder of Sivaloganathan Vithya. He was the target of a failed assassination attempt in July 2017 near the Nallur Kovil in Jaffna where the police officer escorting him was killed.
Addressing a gathering in London, Illancheliyan said that he had been the President of High Court Judges’ Association and topped the Association’s seniority list of 90 high court judges.
Illancheliyan recalled that Anura Kumara Dissanayake was elected the President on 21 September 2025. He as the President of High Court Judges’ Association, wrote to the President asking for an opportunity to meet him. He was kind enough to give us an opportunity and we, ten high court judges, met him at the Presidential Secretariat on 28 November 2024. My colleagues reminded the President that my retirement date was 20 January 2025 and stressed the need to expedite the promotion of High Court Judges as three vacations – court vacation, Christmas vacation and News Year vacation were to fall before my retirement. The President was joyful and he also posed for a photograph with me. On 12 January 2024, four Appeal Court judges were promoted as Supreme Court judges and there were four vacancies for Appeal Court judges and I had only eight days left for my retirement. On 13 January 2025, the President, comrade Anura Dissanayake left the country for China. It was my misfortune. He returned to the country on 18 January 2025. The following day was Sunday and I retired the next day, Monday. If I had been promoted I would have stayed in service for four more years. I wrote four letters to the President telling him I did not willingly go on retirement but I was forced to retire. I did not get any reply from him. The President is a good person. Something went wrong. I’m a retired judge. I do not blame anybody. The injustice can still be rectified but no interest was shown, said retired High Court judge Manikavasagar Illancheliyan speaking before the Tamil Community in London. He nearly moved to tears.