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K. S. Rajah | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Judicial Commissioner | |
| In office 15 May 1991 – 2 March 1995 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Kasinather Saunthararajah 3 March 1930 Perai, Penang, Straits Settlements (now Malaysia) |
| Died | 17 June 2010 (aged 80) Singapore |
| Nationality | Singaporean |
| Alma mater | University of Singapore (LL.B. (Hons.), 1963) |
| Profession | Lawyer |
| Awards | PBM (2002); C.C. Tan Award (2008) |
Kasinather Saunthararajah PBM SC (3 March 1930 – 17 June 2010),[1] known professionally as K. S. Rajah, was a Senior Counsel and Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Singapore. Born in Penang, he came to Singapore in 1950 and worked as a teacher before embarking on part-time law studies at what was later known as the University of Singapore, graduating in 1963 with a Bachelor of Laws with honours (LL.B. (Hons.)). He then spent the next 22 years with the Singapore Legal Service, eventually heading the civil and criminal divisions of the Attorney-General's Chambers and also serving as Director of the Singapore Legal Aid Bureau and head of the Official Assignee and Public Trustee's Office. In 1985 he retired from the Legal Service and went into private practice, establishing the firm of B. Rao & K. S. Rajah.
In 1991, Rajah was appointed a Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Singapore. His time on the Bench was marked by a number of significant family law cases, including one in 1991 in which he held that since the gender of a transsexual person was to be determined according to biological criteria, sex reassignment surgery did not alter a person's gender. Thus, a marriage between an individual who had undergone a female-to-male sex change operation 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 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 LLP) as a consultant. He also became the first President of the Tribunal for the Maintenance of Parents in 1996. The following year, he was appointed Senior Counsel in the first group of lawyers to be conferred this status. A member of the Singapore Mediation Centre and the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, he was active as a mediator and arbitrator. A frequent contributor to the Malayan Law Journal and the Singapore Law Gazette, particularly on criminal law and constitutional matters, a number of his legal articles provoked controversy.
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 and the Society for the Physically Disabled. He was conferred the Pingat Bakti Masyarakat (Public Service Medal) at the National Day Awards in August 2002, and in October 2008 received the C.C. Tan Award, which recognizes lawyers who display the highest ideals of the profession, from the Law Society of Singapore.
- ^ K. S. Rajah's personal name was Saunthararajah; Kasinather was his father's personal name.