K S Rajah

Early years, education and career

The eldest of 13 children of a Sri Lankan couple, K. S. Rajah was born in Perai, Province Wellesley (now Seberang Perai), Penang, in what was then the Straits Settlements (now Malaysia) on 3 March 1930. His father was a clerk, and as the family was not well off he often could not afford books and had to borrow them and copy out texts by hand. He was a pupil of the Bukit Mertajam High School. Still a student during the Japanese Occupation, to contribute towards his family's finances he worked as a mess boy at a Japanese officers' mess and later as a translator for the Japanese authorities.

Rajah left school at the age of 16 years. His first job was as a wireless operator on shore for the Penang port authority, using Morse code to communicate with vessels at sea. Coming to Singapore in 1950, he started working as a teacher at Sembawang Primary School, and was sent for further training in the United Kingdom in 1953 on a scholarship from the Ministry of Education. On his return, he lectured at the Teachers' Training College. He became a Singapore citizen in 1958. In 1959 he joined the pioneer batch of law undergraduates at the University of Malaya in Singapore to study law part-time; in December the same year he married his wife Gnanambigai. The university became known as the University of Singapore in 1962, and Rajah graduated from it with a Bachelor of Laws with honours (LL.B. (Hons.)) the following year.

Singapore Legal Service

Rajah joined the Singapore Legal Service in 1963, becoming a deputy public prosecutor and, later, senior state counsel with the Attorney-General's Chambers. He was admitted to the Bar on 18 May 1966. He handled a number of prominent criminal matters, including the Pulau Senang and Sunny Ang murder trials; and the Gold Bars case, in which a Hong Kong seaman was found to have tried to unlawfully import 165 gold bars and 134 gold coins worth S$86,076.70 without a permit. In September 1967 he led the prosecution of 262 members of the Barisan Sosialis political party (dissolved in 1988) for unlawful assembly and disturbing the peace, Singapore's largest criminal trial. He eventually led the Chambers' civil and criminal sections until 2 August 1972, when he was appointed to head the Official Assignee and Public Trustee's Office. He was also the longest-serving Director of the Singapore Legal Aid Bureau. In 1985, he retired from the Legal Service and went into private practice, establishing the firm of B. Rao & K. S. Rajah.

Judicial Commissioner

Between 15 May 1991 and 2 March 1995, Rajah served as a Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Singapore. During his time on the Bench, he decided a number of significant family law cases. In Lim Ying v. Hock Kian Ming Eric, he held that the gender of a transsexual person was to be determined according to biological criteria, which meant that sex reassignment surgery did not alter a person's gender. Thus, a marriage between an individual who had undergone female-to-male sex reassignment surgery and a woman was void, being a marriage between two persons of the same gender. The decision prompted Parliament to amend the Women's Charter to permit transsexual people to marry in the capacity of their new gender. In 1992, Rajah J.C. annulled the marriage of a 21-year-old woman whose family had forced her into an arranged marriage. This was believed to have been the first judicial decision of its kind in Singapore. Two years later, in another landmark case, he applied to a house-husband the principle that a divorced woman who has not contributed financially towards the acquisition of matrimonial assets is nonetheless entitled to a substantial share of them in view of her indirect contributions in the form of paying towards the household expenses or caring for the family.

Return to private practice

Following his retirement as a judge, Rajah joined the law firm Harry Elias & Partners (now known as Harry Elias Partnership LLP) as a consultant. He also became the first President of the Tribunal for the Maintenance of Parents, established in 1996 to entitle parents at least 60 years old and unable to maintain themselves adequately to apply for their children to be ordered to pay maintenance to them. In addition, he served as Chairman of the Law Society of Singapore's Committee on Guidance for the Legal Profession on Anti-Money Laundering. In 1997, Rajah was appointed Senior Counsel in the first group of lawyers to be conferred this status. He was subsequently appointed a member of the Singapore Mediation Centre in 1998, and of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre in 2003. He acted as sole arbitrator and as chairman of arbitral tribunals in domestic and international arbitrations, in particular arbitrations taking place in Bangladesh and India. He was also a referee of the Ministry of Manpower's Industrial Arbitration Court.

Rajah was an active contributor of legal articles to the Malayan Law Journal and the Singapore Law Gazette. An article in the August 2003 issue of the Law Gazette entitled "The Unconstitutional Punishment", which argued that the mandatory death penalty in Singapore was contrary to the Constitution of Singapore, was obliquely criticized by the Chief Justice Yong Pung How. Rajah, appearing before Yong C.J. in an appeal, submitted that a magistrate should have allowed his client to compound her offence of abusing her maid, arguing that "[t]he idea of composition is international". The Chief Justice said that Rajah, a person of "tremendous experience and wide learning", had stated in one of his "wonderful articles" that the death penalty was unconstitutional due to international law. However, he remarked: "I am not concerned with international law. I am a poor humble servant of the law in Singapore. Little island." On 22 March 2005, Rajah delivered a speech on the subject of his article at a LAWASIA conference in the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. Another Law Gazette article published in January 2006 which argued that the Court of Appeal's conviction of two men accused of murder who had been acquitted by the High Court violated the constitutional protection against double jeopardy was said by the Ministry of Law to be "legally flawed".

In his last case in 2008, he represented certain minority owners of flats in the Horizon Towers condominium before the High Court in their bid to block the collective sale of the housing development supported by a majority of flat owners. He argued, among other things, that the right to acquire, hold and dispose of property was enshrined in the Constitution, but failed to convince the judge. Although the minority owners were unsuccessful at trial, the judgment was later reversed by the Court of Appeal.

Active in volunteer work, Rajah was the Chairman of the Sri Aurobindo Society Singapore the Secretary and later the President of the Hindu Centre, and the Vice-President of the Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association. He also served with the Hindu Endowments Board, Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Temple, Mount Alvernia Hospital and Medical Centre and the Society for the Physically Disabled.

Later years

Rajah died in hospital on 17 June 2010 at the age of 80 years, having suffered from angiosarcoma, a rare cancer of the lining of the blood vessels, of the scalp for a year. He was survived by his wife Gnanambigai Rajah; his sons Surenthiraraj (known as Suressh; as of June 2010 he was Head of Aviation and Shipping and a civil and commercial litigation partner at Harry Elias Partnership) and Yogenthiran, and daughters Jothie and Vaani; seven grandchildren; and 11 of his siblings.

Awards and honours

Rajah was conferred the Pingat Bakti Masyarakat (Public Service Medal) at the National Day Awards in August 2002. In October 2008 he received the C.C. Tan Award, which recognizes lawyers who display the highest ideals of the profession, from the Law Society for "his personal integrity, honesty and outstanding contributions to the legal profession".

Articles and book chapters

Books