M Ravi

Ravi defended the accused in high-profile death-penalty cases such as Public Prosecutor v Shanmugam s/o Murugesu (2004), Public Prosecutor v Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi and Another (2006) and Yong Vui Kong v Public Prosecutor (2009-2015), the latter of which raised other legal issues concerning human rights, including the constitutionality of judicial caning, as well as the reviewability of the clemency process and the exercise of prosecutorial discretion.[5][6] As a lawyer, he is known for his discursive courtroom style.[7] He has also argued other landmark human rights cases such as Shadrake v Attorney-General (2011) on freedom of expression and contempt of court, Tan Eng Hong v Attorney-General (2012) on gay rights and decriminalisation of homosexuality, and Vellama d/o Marie Muthu v. Attorney-General (2013) on voting rights, amongst others. In 2015, he defended Roy Ngerng in a defamation lawsuit initiated by Lee Hsien Loong, the Prime Minister of Singapore.

Ravi acted for John Tan, Vice-President of the Singapore Democratic Party, in an application for a declaration that his contempt of court conviction did not disqualify him from standing for elections. He is also acting for 8 bus drivers from SBS Transit against the public transport operator over breach of employment terms relating to wages. He is also defending Daniel de Costa, who is accused of defaming members of the Cabinet of Singapore in an article published on The Online Citizen. Significantly, Ravi is now instructed by at least 12 inmates on death row whose clemency petitions had been rejected, among them Norasharee Gous and Gobi Avedian, who were the second and third cases which the Court of Appeal had agreed to reopen and review in Singapore's legal history.

In 2015, Ravi led the Reform Party (RP) team in Ang Mo Kio Group Representation Constituency (GRC) in the 2015 General Election.[8] His team lost to the People's Action Party, garnering only 21.4% of votes.[9]

In 2015, the Law Society issued a direction to Ravi to temporarily cease his legal practice. In response, Ravi and three companions appeared at the Law Society's premises, where he made inappropriate statements and acted in an unruly manner, which were recorded in a video clip that was later published on social media.[10] The direction was based on the Law Society's concerns that the state of Ravi's mental condition impaired his fitness to practise law.[11] The Court of Appeal then affirmed that decision and ordered Ravi be prohibited from applying for a practising certificate for a period of two years and to continue to seek medical help.[10]

In 2018, Ravi was sentenced to an 18-month mandatory treatment order after assaulting Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss, a fellow lawyer and opposition politician.[12] Ravi, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2006, had to undergo treatment to address his mental condition, in lieu of jail time.[13][12]

Ravi argued that prosecutors were "overzealous" in their prosecution of former death-row inmate Gobi Avedian, a drug runner who had his death penalty conviction overturned, replaced with a 15 year jail sentence and 10 strokes of the cane. And that there was a "miscarriage of justice". Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) has responded by saying that Mr Ravi was "categorically false" in his statement and that he should apologise.[14] Ravi said that he would start proceedings against both the Attorney-General Lucien Wong as well as Mr Hri Kumar and other members of the prosecution.[14]