Mr Ariya Sriharan

Highlights:

• Admitted as an Attorney at Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka in 1978
• Enrolled as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England & Wales in 1983
• Accredited Senior Advisor and Supervisor in the Immigration and Asylum category awarded by the Law Society and Legal Services Commission
• Awarded as one of the Super Lawyers in the Immigration Law category in 2013, 2014 and 2015
• Former President of the Middlesex Law Society of England & Wales
• Member of the Executive Committee of the Middlesex Law Society of England & Wales
• Life Member of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka
• Member of the International Bar Association

Since 1987 Ariya Sriharan has had many historic successes in the legal profession. Several of his celebrated cases in the field of Immigration and Administrative Law have become reported cases. Notably among these is “Sivakumaran and Others” in the House of Lords. This case also created precedence in that the UNHCR for the first time intervened as a party to the case and funded their own legal representation. This case is still used as the main guideline on the question of “standard of proof” in Asylum cases. Mr Sriharan was one of the conducting solicitors in this case. Another case known as “Thirukumar and Others” was successful in the Court of Appeal and re-established the principle of “legitimate expectation”. This Judgement made the Home Office Asylum Directorate introduce the Political Asylum Questionnaire for self-completion by the Asylum seeker. Other cases such as “Sureshkumar”, which was reported in the Immigration Law Reports gave guidelines on the question of bail. The latest reported case, which Mr Sriharan had conduct of was – “WN (Gambia)”

Due to the large number of judicial review cases being conducted in the Queens Bench Division, the Law Project became interested in the Firm and in the test cases. Mr Sriharan was invited to attend the Public Law Commission Conference held at Robinson College, Cambridge University in 1993. In a documentary prepared and telecasted by the BBC in 1987 in the series “Heart of the Matter”, Mr Sriharan was interviewed by Ms Helena Kennedy Q.C. along with the former Home Secretary Mr David Waddington, Ms Helen Bamber Managing Director of Medical Foundation and a few other jurists. This was an educational programme on the treatment and representation on Asylum policy in the United Kingdom.

The following are few of his profiles outside the legal career:

• Served as the President of Hartley College Past Pupils Association in the UK.
• Won Gold Medal in the Address to the Jury contest and served in the debating team for three years in Sri Lanka Law College. He is also a naturally talented orator in the languages of English and Tamil.
• Served as the President of registered charity called SCOT in the UK

Mr Sriharan is a strong believer of Legal Aid practice. He is still actively conducting Asylum, Immigration and Human Rights cases in the High Court, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court of England & Wales and in the European Court of Human Rights. Due to his active and thriving legal practice in Immigration and Human Rights Law since 1984, he has won the admiration of many thousands of people from various ethnicities and nationalities such as Tamils, Sinhalese, Afghanis, Nigerians, Nepalese, Chinese, Muslims, Pakistanis and Sikhs. Mr Sriharan further contributes to the provision of legal justice by carrying out pro bono work subject to the means and merits tests.

Over the course of the years, Mr. Sriharan has become specialised in Civil Litigation. He has also had the conduct of seriously contested divorce proceedings, including Financial Proceedings within Family Law. He advises many high profile clients and has represented them successfully.

Mr Sriharan is also the Complaints Handling Officer and Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) of the Firm.

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