KANDY – Seek satisfaction by being courteous and sympathetic to your clients, Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva advised lawyers after opening the first phase of the 120-room office complex for lawyers of Kandy on Tuesday (02).

The retiring Chief Justice said that the highest satisfaction one could achieve was from rendering service to humanity.

"Service to the people should be the priority and as lawyers you must give a hearing to their problems with sensibility and help solve their problems with kindness," the Chief Justice said.

He said that all large, beautiful building complexes for Courts of law and offices for lawyers, were built for the purpose of serving the people.

These very offices for lawyers were meant for the people. If people do not come to the offices, the whole purpose of opening the offices will be lost, the Chief Justice said.

In a lighter vein the Chief Justice said : "These small rooms cannot begiven even on rent!"

"The satisfaction I gained in the 41 years of public service, was by serving the people and not from the pay packet I collected at the end of the month," he said.

"What we take with us ultimately is the sense of contentment derived from service to the people. We cannot take with us even the judgments."

"Therefore, my humble request to the lawyers is to use these beautiful buildings of the Court complex and office complex for the service of the people and be content at the end."

"As for public service, I should say there is a distinctive difference between then and now. In the past, when we as public servants were expected to reply the letters sent to us by members of the public. The letter was concluded by stating "your obedient servant". But now, when it is translated to Sinhala that very section "your obedient servant" has vanished," the Chief Justice added.

He said the public servant who is expected to serve the people is termed the public officer. "But I still stick on to the same principle of serving the people and saying obedient servant of the people. Whether as Chief Justice or as Chief Minister, Mayor, Judge or Lawyer, we must keep in mind that we must render service to our people."

Governor Central Province, Tikiri Kobbekaduwa said that the new office complex was an asset to the Kandy lawyers who underwent difficulties.

He said that the lawyers were fortunate to have the office complex opened by Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva who was about to retire after a distinguished service in the office for a period of over a decade.

Some of the judgments the Chief Justice recorded have already gone into history," Kobbekaduwa said.

Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayake, Kandy Mayor L. B. Aluwihare, Kandy High Court Judge Nissanka Bandula Karunaratne, High Court Judge Nalin Perera, Chief Magistrate Sumudu Premachandra, President, Kandy Bar Association Kithsiri Seneviratne and Vice President Upali Bogahapitiya, also addressed the meeting.