M Ravi

On 14 May 2021, the Court of Appeal ordered Ravi to pay S$5,000 to the prosecution after they found that he had acted improperly in making an "unmeritorious" bid to reopen the case of convicted drug trafficker Syed Suhail Syed Zin, whom Ravi had represented pro bono. The court said that Ravi had brought an application without any real basis, misrepresented certain facts in his affidavit, and made baseless allegations against Syed Suhail's former lawyer without giving him a chance to respond. In response, the International Bar Association and International Committee of Jurists later condemned the courts' decision as a "troubling instance where the courts appear to have adopted an overly expansive and impermissible interpretation of what constitutes 'lack of merit'".

In October 2020, Ravi alleged that there was a "miscarriage of justice" and that prosecutors had been "overzealous" in their prosecution of Gobi Avedian. A month later, he filed a civil suit on Gobi's behalf against a number of prosecutors, alleging that they had abused their powers and acted in bad faith. The Attorney-General's Chambers disputed Ravi's claims and filed a disciplinary complaint to the Law Society of Singapore for possible professional misconduct. The International Committee of Jurists and Amnesty International have described the Singapore government's actions against Ravi as an example of "harassment of human rights defenders". After the Law Society found no misconduct, the Attorney-General's Chambers appealed the decision to the High Court, which affirmed the Society's decision and dismissed the appeal.

On 16 December 2020, Ravi was charged with criminal defamation after he published a post on his Facebook page alleging that Law Minister K. Shanmugam "controls" the Chief Justice of Singapore. On 3 March 2021, the Attorney-General's Chambers issued a warning to Ravi in lieu of continuing the criminal proceedings, after he deleted the post, apologised, and undertook not to repeat the allegations.

In 2019, Ravi criticised prosecutors and judges in Singapore for a lack of impartiality. He later apologised and withdrew the statements. The disciplinary tribunal of the Law Society later found that Ravi should be fined at least S$10,000, finding him guilty of two charges of misconduct under the Legal Profession Act.

Since 2019, Ravi has been the founding director of M Ravi Law, a firm with offices across Southeast Asia.

In 2019, Ravi began representing Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, a Malaysian citizen sentenced to death for smuggling drugs into Singapore. On appeal, Ravi argued that Nagaenthran was intellectually disabled, an argument that was dismissed. The case drew the attention of international activists, including Richard Branson, who criticised the court's decision and Singapore's use of the death penalty. Branson's activism led Law Minister K Shanmugam to publicly challenge Branson to a live debate on the death penalty, which Branson declined. In Branson's response, he described Ravi as "courageous".

Ravi is an activist for death penalty abolishment and LGBT rights. After an appeal to quash the death penalty of Yong Vui Kong was dismissed by the court of appeal, Ravi lobbied politicians in Malaysia, where Yong is a citizen, and launched an activist movement in Singapore to appeal to the President of Singapore for clemency. Although a petition garnered over 100,000 signatures, the movement did not succeed in obtaining a clemency appeal. When Kho Jabing, a convicted murderer, was sentenced to death in 2016, Ravi applied for a motion to stall the execution in the capacity of a "concerned citizen", despite not representing Kho in court.

Ravi is an activist for death penalty abolition and LGBT rights. He ran for election during the 2015 general election as a member of the Reform Party in contesting Ang Mo Kio GRC but lost to the governing People's Action Party. For his advocacy and pro-bono work, Ravi has been recognised by international activists and NGOs including Richard Branson, Amnesty International, the International Bar Association, and Human Rights Watch. He currently runs a private practice, M Ravi Law.

He stood for election during the 2015 general election, joining a six-member Reform Party team in contesting Ang Mo Kio GRC, but lost to the governing People's Action Party after garnering just 21.36% of the vote.

In 2014, he was awarded the Asia Pink Award, an LGBT rights advocacy prize by Element Magazine, for his pro-bono work in challenging the legality of Section 377A.

In 2014, Ravi wrote an autobiography, Kampong Boy, which was shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize.

In 2011, Ravi launched a constitutional challenge in the High Court of Singapore after his client, Tan Eng Hong, was arrested and charged under section 377A of the penal code, which criminalises gay sex. Tan was charged under s 377A in 2010, despite the Singapore government stating in parliament that they would no longer prosecute citizens under the act. The lawsuit was described by The Guardian as a "milestone in the struggle against Section 377A", despite the Court of Appeal ruling that 377A was not unconstitutional.

He has also argued other landmark human rights cases such as Shadrake v Attorney-General (2011) on freedom of expression and contempt of court 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 Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. He also defended Daniel de Costa, who was accused of defaming members of the Singapore cabinet in an article published on The Online Citizen blog. Ravi also acted for John Tan, vice president of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party, in an application for a declaration that his contempt of court conviction did not disqualify him from standing for elections.

From 2009 to 2015, Ravi represented Yong Vui Kong, a then 19-year old Malaysian citizen who was sentenced to death for drug smuggling. The landmark case raised 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. After six years of hearings, the Singapore government changed the death penalty laws in Singapore. In a final hearing before the Singapore High Court, Ravi successfully appealed for Yong to have his death sentence commuted to a lower sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.

In 2008, he represented opposition party politician Chee Soon Juan and his sister in a defamation lawsuit waged by prime minister Lee Hsien Loong and his father, former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew. Reuters and the New York Times, in their reporting of the suit, noted that the waging of lawsuits by Singaporean political leaders have been criticised by some as attempts to "cripple opposition politicians".

Ravi was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2006, a condition his mother had. In 2015, the Law Society of Singapore ordered Ravi to stop practicing law owing to his mental health issues. In response, Ravi and three companions appeared at the Law Society's premises. The Court of Appeal affirmed the Society's decision and prohibited him from practising law for two years. During proceedings, Human Rights Watch recommended the Law Society to ask "the government to promptly extend M. Ravi’s certificate to practice law... [to] ensure that it was acting in line with the Disability Rights Convention." In 2017, Ravi was ordered to undergo mandatory treatment after he, as a result of an episode, attacked fellow lawyer and opposition party politician Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss.

In 2004, Ravi took the case of Public Prosecutor v Shanmugam s/o Murugesu, representing a Singaporean taxi driver who was sentenced to death for smuggling cannabis. After an unsuccessful appeal, Ravi led a public campaign to petition the president of Singapore to pardon Shanmugam, organising events protesting against the death penalty and Shanmugam's execution. The president ultimately did not issue a pardon, and Shanmugam was subsequently hanged. That same year, Ravi represented a number of political protestors in the leading constitutional lawsuit, Chee Siok Chin v Minister for Home Affairs. In 2006, Ravi defended Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, a Nigerian who was sentenced to death for smuggling drugs into Singapore.

After returning to Singapore, Ravi qualified at the Singapore bar in 1996 and began to practice Singapore law. Initially having a general practice, Ravi was approached by former leader of the opposition J. B. Jeyaretnam in 2003 to defend Vignes Mourthi, an inmate on death row for smuggling heroin into Singapore. The case was Ravi's first capital punishment case and marked a transition into specialising in such cases after six years of practice.

Ravi was born on 9 April 1969, the sixth of seven children, to parents of Tamil descent. His father was a construction worker and one-time thief, while his mother was a housewife. In his memoirs, he describes his father as "too fond of the bottle, and... beatings he rendered to his wife and children". After attending Deyi Secondary School and Anderson Junior College, he graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelors of Arts degree in political science and sociology. He subsequently read a second bachelor's degree in law from Cardiff University.