Tellipalai Wanarajah Rajaratnam (21 December 1920 – 15 January 1994) was a Sri Lankan lawyer, judge and politician. He was a

Commissioner of Assize The assizes (), or courts of assize, were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes ex ...

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

judge and Member of Parliament.

Early life

Rajaratnam was born on 21 December 1920. He was the son of T. C. Rajaratnam,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

proctor Proctor (a variant of ''wikt:procurator, procurator'') is a person who takes charge of, or acts for, another. The title is used in England and some other English-speaking countries in three principal contexts: # In law, a proctor is a historica ...

for

Jaffna Jaffna (, ; , ) is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka, Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a Jaffna Peninsula, peninsula of the same name. With a population o ...

. He was educated at

Trinity College, Kandy Trinity College, Kandy is a private Anglican boys' school located in Kandy, Sri Lanka. It offers both day and boarding facilities. It was founded in 1872 by British Anglican missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, modelled on Britis ...

. After school he entered university and graduated with an

honours degree Honours degree has various meanings in the context of different degrees and education systems. Most commonly it refers to a variant of the undergraduate bachelor's degree containing a larger volume of material or a higher standard of study, ...

in western classics and law.

Career

Rajaratnam

admitted to the bar An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...

in 1948. He was admitted to

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, commonly known as Lincoln's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for Barrister, barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister ...

in 1951. He practised law in the UK before returning to

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

where he continued to practice law. He worked on the Sathasivam and Bibile MP murder cases. He then joined the judicial service, becoming a

in 1970. He was appointed a

judge in 1972, a position he held for six years.

Later life

In retirement Rajaratnam wrote two books: ''A Manual of Industrial Law'' and ''Plantation Workers' Manual''. He is also published ''The Bhutto Trial'' for which he received the '' Hilal-e-Quaid-i-Azam'' honour from

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. In 1989 he was appointed to

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

as a National List MP for the

Sri Lanka Freedom Party The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP; ; ) is a centre-left political party in Sri Lanka. Founded by S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike in 1951, the party was one of Sri Lanka's two main parties from the 1950s to the 2010s, serving as the main rival of the c ...

, serving from 1989 to 1994. Rajaratnam died on 15 January 1994 at the age of 73.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rajaratnam, Tellipalai Wanarajah 1920 births 1994 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Kandy Members of the 9th Parliament of Sri Lanka People from Jaffna Sri Lanka Freedom Party politicians Sri Lankan Tamil people Sri Lankan lawyers Tamil politicians Sri Lankan Tamil writers Puisne justices of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka Sri Lankan expatriates in the United Kingdom Recipients of Hilal-i-Quaid-i-Azam