He was a well known versatile and skilful advocate

Sivakumaran Rajaratnam, son of D. Rajaratnam, MBE,Crown Proctor Trincomalee who was later elected as the first Chairman of the Urban Council, Trincomalee, passed out as an Advocate of the Supreme Court and took his oaths as an Advocate in September 1955. Siva Rajaratnam enjoyed a lucrative practice in almost all fields of law - civil, criminal, Labour Tribunal and/or Appeals. His versatility as a counsel who appeared in every court in the island most specially Colombo, Hatton, Badulla, Jaffna, Batticaloa and Trincomalee his birth place was well known.

Mr. Rajaratnam was the attesting witness at my marriage and his first cousin Justice C.V. Vigneshwaran (then District Judge of Chavakachcheri) was the attesting witness on behalf of my wife. My wife worked as his junior in cases filed in the High Court of Colombo then functioning at the Queen’s Club.

It is 29 years since he passed away on March 20, 1992 after a brief illness.

He had the command of all three languages and was able to address court and/or the jury in the language court requested him to do. So much so that in Jaffna, if I remember correctly, in the High Court he addressed the jury in Tamil and in the Hatton Magistrate’s Court in a non-summary inquiry he addressed the jury in Sinhala during the period when I was practising there.

My acquaintance with him began in Hatton. It continued even after I switched over to Colombo wherein he encouraged me to do cases with him as an Instructing Attorney which I enjoyed thoroughly. Whenever I went to his chamber for consultation he made it so interesting with the case he handled. Once the consultation was over he entertained junior counsel sometimes along with the clients if the client was well known to him. There were times he took us out for drinks and dinner ending at 1 a.m. with his insistence on ‘one for the road’. The regulars were late Advocate Karalasingham, Indrasigamany, rarely Mandaleswaran too. He was a great entertainer with his juniors.

His batchmates included late George Candappa PC, Justice K. Palakidnar who was the President of the Court of Appeal, late Mully Crossette-Thambiah who were uncrowned kings of Hulftsdorp along with Mr. Rajaratnam.

Siva Rajaratnam was versatile in his cross examination and put forward arguments with common sense so much so that the judges too were not confused with too much of the legal issues raised in cases. Because of his popularity he was unanimously elected as President of the prestigious Colombo Law Society and continued to hold this post for two years. With his commanding practice in civil work he applied for silk when J.R. Jayewardene was the President but was not granted this maybe for reasons known to J.R. Anyhow his dream was fulfilled by his son Sanjay Rajaratnam who got his silk and was appointed to the prestigious position of Attorney General of Sri Lanka.

Mr. Rajaratnam would have been so very happy to see his son’s prowess had he been alive. I am reminded of the saying of that great saint and poet Thiruvalluvar: “It is a joy to every man to find himself eclipsed in intelligence by his children and great is the joy of the mother when the child is born unto her: but greater far is her delight when she hears him called worthy”. Also what is a duty of a son to his father? It is to make the world ask, “For what austerities of his has he been blessed with such a son?”

Siva Rajaratnam named his two sons following Indira Gandhi as Sanjay and Rajiv.

May he rest in peace with the blessings of the Almighty. In the words of the poet Laurence Binyon:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

K. Ganeshayogan