KS Rajah
IHF-SG Excellence Award For Legal Contribution
Kasinather Saunthararaiah S.C., was born in March 1930 in Penang, Malaysia. The former judicial wizard was a teacher before embarking on part-time law studies and graduated in 1963 with a LB Honours degree. The next 22 years were historic to speak of. With service in the Legal Service, the Attorney-General’s Office and also to heading the Legal Aid Bureau and the Official Assignee’s office, Rajah was a legal maestro without peers. When he retired in 1985, he went into private practice and established his firm of B Rao & K.S. Rajah.
Rajah was born into humble birth. His family was large which was fairly commonplace in the early days. He hardly had money to buy books compelling him to crib out texts by hand. World War I and the Japanese Occupation forced him into greater difficulties and for a while he waited out at the Japanese Officer’s Mess and was a translator for the occupying Japanese troops.
When the war ended and the return of all Japanese forces to their homeland, he began work as a teacher at Sembawang Primary School, following which he began work at the Teachers’ Training College as a lecturer. He obtained his LLB (Hons) in the late 1950s. He joined the government legal service and served well and later was appointed to the Judiciary.
As a Judicial Commissioner, he annulled a marriage between a female-to-male individual who had married a male. His revolutionary move compelled parliament to amend the Women’s Charter in 1996 to permit transsexual people to marry in the capacity of their new gender.
Rajah retired as a judge in 1995 and joined Harry Elias & Partners (now Harry Elias Partnership LP) as a consultant. In 2002, he won a Public Service Medal (PSM).
Rajah died in June 2010 but the footprints he left in the Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association, and the Hindu Endowments Board, endures.