[1] Selvadurai was born in the Straits Settlements (present-day Singapore) on 9 June 1933 to Ceylon Tamils.

Before joining politics, he was a member of the governing board of NTUC's Research Unit and a referee of the Industrial Arbitration Court.

[3] Selvadurai made his political debut at the 1967 by-elections, where he contested for Member of Parliament (MP) representing Bukit Panjang Single Member Constituency (SMC), being elected unopposed.

[7] In the 1972 general election, Selvadurai contested for MP of Kuo Chuan Constituency instead of Bukit Panjang SMC as then-new candidate Lee Yiok Seng was believed by the PAP to "muster support of the Chinese and Malays" due to his multilingualism.

He had previously served at Rodyk & Davidson as a partner and later consultant for over 40 years.