C. V. Vigneswaran

Vigneswaran practised of law for more than fifteen years.[3][10][11] He is a President's Counsel.[12][13] He joined the Judicial Service on 7 May 1979.[5][14] He served as a magistrate and District Judge in Batticaloa, Chavakachcheri and Mallakam.[5][14] He became District Judge for Colombo in January 1987.[5][14] He was appointed to the High Court in 1988, serving in Northern Province, Eastern, North Central, Uva and Western provinces.[5] He was appointed to the Court of Appeal in 1995.[5][10]

Vigneswaran was appointed to the Supreme Court in March 2001.[15] He retired in October 2004.[16]

Vigneswaran meets U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power in November 2015

In April 2013 it was reported that Vigneswaran had been chosen by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to be its chief ministerial candidate in the upcoming election to Northern Provincial Council (NPC).[17][18] The reports were denied by the TNA.[7] However, in July 2013, after nominations were called for the provincial council election, the TNA announced that Vigneswaran would be its chief ministerial candidate in the Northern Province.[19][20][21] He contested the provincial council election as one of the TNA's candidates in Jaffna District and was elected to the NPC.[22][23] Vigneswaran received his chief ministerial appointment letter from Governor G. A. Chandrasiri on 1 October 2013.[24][25][26] He took his oath as chief minister and provincial councillor in front of President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Presidential Secretariat on 7 October 2013.[27][28][29]

Vigneswaran's relationship with the TNA leadership deteriorated thereafter.[30][31] In December 2015 he became leader of the newly formed Tamil People's Council (TPC), a forum to highlight issues affecting Sri Lankan Tamils.[32][33] The TPC, which included civil society groups, religious leaders and academics as well as political parties, claimed that it wasn't political or an alternative to the TNA.[34][35] On 24 October 2018, the day after he ceased being chief minister, Vigneswaran announced that he had formed a new political alliance, the Tamil People's Alliance (TPA, Thamizh Makkal Kootani).[36][37]

In February 2020 the TPA joined with three other political parties to form the Tamil People's National Alliance (TPNA, Thamizh Makkal Tesiya Kootani) electoral alliance to contest the parliamentary election.[38][39] Vigneswaran became the alliance's leader.[40][41] He contested the 2020 parliamentary election as one of the TPNA's candidates in Jaffna District and was elected to the Parliament.[42][43][44]