Shelton Ranaraja (Sinhala: ෂෙල්ටන් රණරාජා; 3 November 1926 – 11 August 2011) was a Sri Lankan lawyer, politician and deputy minister.

[7] In December 1964 the SLFP government tried to nationalise Lake House, Ceylon's largest newspaper group which was seen as a supporter of the opposition UNP.

[2][4] In 1973 Ranaraja joined the UNP upon the invitation of new leader J. R. Jayewardene and was appointed party organiser for Senkadagala.

[2] In July 1981 the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) tried to move a motion of no confidence against the UNP government.

[2] The motion against Amirthalingam, which was signed by 36 UNP MPs, was instigated by Neville Fernando though it is believed to have had the support of Jayewardene who was now President.

[2] Speaker Bakeer Markar refused to let Amirthalingam speak at which point the TULF MPs walked out.

[2] When the Black July anti-Tamil riots erupted in July 1983 Ranaraja persuaded the police in Kandy to lock up known troublemakers in order to minimise violence in the city but hard-line nationalist minister Cyril Mathew got them released and the riots soon spread to Kandy.

[2] Following the Welikada prison massacre Sri Lankan security forces tried to dispose of the murdered prisoners' bodies but Ranaraja and permanent Secretary Mervyn Wijesinghe managed to save the bodies so that judicial inquests could be held.

[2][13] Ranaraja resigned from the government in November 1988 over Jayewardene's refusal to dissolve Parliament (it had been more than 11 years since the previous parliamentary election).

[2] After retiring from politics Ranaraja devoted his life to law, social service, cricket and his family.