[image: Newly appointed city judge, Chennai-born Raja Rajeswari, rises to
take her place for a Judicial Swearing-In Ceremony at New York City Hall in
New York on Monday.]
Reuters
Newly appointed city judge, Chennai-born Raja Rajeswari, rises to take her
place for a Judicial Swearing-In Ceremony at New York City Hall in New York
on Monday.
Published in [image: Return to frontpage]dated 28.04.2015
Chennai-born Raja Rajeswari has been sworn-in as a criminal court judge in
New York by Mayor Bill de Blasio, becoming the first India-born woman to be
appointed a judge in New York City.
Ms. Rajeswari, 43, who had migrated to the U.S. from Chennai as a teenager,
previously worked with the Richmond County District Attorney’s Office for
her entire career in several bureaus including Criminal Court, Narcotics,
Supreme Court, and the Sex Crimes Special Victims Bureau, where she last
served as Deputy Chief.
Ms. Rajeswari took the oath of office at a ceremony in New York City on
Monday along with 27 other judges appointed earlier this month to the
Family Court, Criminal Court, and Civil Court, which are part of the New
York State Unified Court System.
The mayor appoints judges to 10-year terms in the New York City Criminal
Court and the Family Court within the city.
“To ensure New Yorkers have access to a fair, equitable justice system, we
need judges who are qualified, honest and reflective of the people of this
city,” Mr. de Blasio said.
“With their wealth of legal experience, these appointees represent all five
boroughs and all walks of life. From the first female South Asian-American
judge in New York City to a former NYPD First Deputy Commissioner, these
talented leaders truly reflect the diverse range of communities that make
up our great city,” he said.
The mayor said Ms. Rajeswari has an “extraordinary, extraordinary empathy
for others”.
He lauded her ability to speak in Indian, Middle Eastern and Southeast
Asian languages, saying she put her history as an immigrant and ability to
speak all these languages to work, “helping to reach immigrants” in the
Staten Island communities where she served as an Assistant District
Attorney.
“And she saw as her mission to give them confidence in the justice
process,” Mr. de Blasio said.
Ms. Rajeswari came to the U.S. when she was 16.
“It’s like a dream. It’s way beyond what I imagined,” she had told
silive.com, a Staten Island news website.
“For someone like me, an immigrant who comes from India, I’m beyond
grateful,” she had said. “I told the mayor this is not only my American
Dream, but it shows another girl from a far away country that this is
possible.”
Ms. Rajeswari hoped to use her new position to improve the judicial system
by encouraging interpreters to have more access to aid immigrants, the news
site had said.
Ms. Rajeswari had told *Desi Talk* newspaper that she had observed gender
inequality even before coming to the US when some of her “brilliant”
girlfriends in India were married off at the age of 14 and 15. “That has
always stayed with me.”
As a prosecuting attorney in New York, she has come across numerous cases
of spousal and child abuse with in the South Asian community in New York,
Ms Rajeswari had said. “Many of the domestic violence victims have been
South Asians, Sri Lankans.”
Ms. Rajeswari has served in the district attorney’s office for the past 16
years and has been the deputy chief of the Special Victims Unit for more
than four years.
She has worked on cases involving women and children and said they are the
ones that touched her the most.
Ms. Rajeswari said that she hopes to use her new position to improve the
judicial system by encouraging interpreters to have more access to aid
immigrants.
“I’m honoured to sit on a city bench and make Staten Island proud,” she
said.
Currently, there are two male judges of Indian descent in civil court
settings — Jaya Madhavan on the New York City Housing Court in Bronx
County, and Anil C. Singh of New York County Supreme Court, 1st District,
according to ethnic *New India Times*.
Besides her legal acumen Ms Rajeswari is an accomplished Bharat Natyam and
Kucchipudi dancer who continues to perform at Indian events and temples
with her troupe from the Padmalaya Dance Academy, named after her mother,
Padma Ramanathan.
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