Ranjit Hewagama

Asoka Nihal Ranjit Hewagama (born 22 July 1942) is a Sri Lankan lawyer, who served as the Solomon Islands' legal draftsman for 23 years, the Solicitor-General and the president of the Solomon Islands Bar Association.

Career Hewagama began his career as an assistant legal draftsman in his native Sri Lanka, serving from 1972 to 1975. He then served as assistant parliamentary counsel and then parliamentary counsel in Jamaica from 1975 to 1985. After his first two years, then-Attorney-General Frank Kabui asked him to stay on for another few years, and then extended his contract again, and then hired him in a permanent role. In June 2007, police raided Hewagama's office and removed documents; Hewagama's lawyer stated that the police did not have a warrant for the confiscated items and that they were privileged documents as well. Upon an injunction filed by Hewagama's lawyer, the High Court ordered the documents returned. A hearing the next morning was delayed when no legal representative for the police attended court; a call to the Director of Public Prosecutions Ronald Bei Talasasa revealed that the police were unaware of the proceedings, and he promised to send a representative to the High Court forthwith. However, the hearing was delayed. The official reason given was dissatisfaction with his performance of his duties. At the time, Hewagama indicated that he would file a court challenge to his termination, though by two weeks later he had not done so. Instead, he returned to his native Sri Lanka after that; Frank Kabui was elected to head the Solomon Islands Bar Association in his place. He is now a consultant in intellectual property law at Omar and Associates in Colombo. He has a wife and son. Despite his long years in the Solomon Islands, he never naturalised as a citizen there.

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