Kaleeswaram Raj
Kaleeswaram Raj is an Indian lawyer practising in the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Kerala. He has successfully argued for decriminalisation of the offence of adultery in India. Legal career Raj practises in the fields of civil, criminal and constitutional law. There are about five hundred reported judgments on which he is counsel of record. Before the Supreme Court of India, in Joseph Shine v Union of India, he appeared as the lead counsel for the petitioner. In that case, the top court of India struck down Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalised adultery, as unconstitutional. He also appeared before the Supreme Court of India in the Government advertisements case (2015), Kerala Liquor Policy case and National Highway liquor ban case (2017). He was appointed as Amicus curiae in various cases. He appeared for the victims of the endosulfan tragedy in the Kasargod district in Kerala. In that case the Supreme Court of India directed the Kerala Government to pay compensation to the child victims. He has also argued in the Maratha reservation case in which the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court set aside the reservation as excessive, illegal and unconstitutional. Raj