Ram Jethmalani: The Lawyer Who Seemed to Dream in Laws
Ram Jethmalani, one of India's most celebrated and controversial lawyers. (Image Jethmalani's X profile)
By NIRENDRA DEV
Born on September 14, 1923, Ram Jethmalani died on September 8, 2019. He earned his law degree at 17 in Karachi and went on to become one of India’s most celebrated and controversial lawyers.
New Delhi, September 14, 2026 — None could perhaps dispute that Ram Jethmalani was a man of letters, arguments and an extraordinary legal mind. His admirers often said he could almost dream about law and the legal battles that fascinated him.
Brilliant, flamboyant and fiercely independent, Jethmalani had a distinctive way of handling friends and foes. He could antagonise political colleagues, prime ministers and even members of his own legal fraternity with equal ease.
In 2000, his criticism of lawyers’ strikes contributed to his expulsion from the Bar Association. But controversy, far from unsettling him, appeared to energise him.
“I thrive in controversy….because I believe in truth and I do what I believe,” Jethmalani once said.
He was opposed in principle to confessional statements made in judicial or police custody. During my early years in Delhi journalism, in 1998-99, he told me: “I sympathise with those behind bars and hands tied up on a chair. Put me into that, and I will confess anything.”
He also had a sharp memory and a ready sense of humour. He once joked: “Like some of you; I am also a seminar expert. I can talk on anything; and you people can also write on anything … whether we read something on that earlier or not.”
His legal career covered an extraordinary range of cases. From defending the killers of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi early in his career to representing stockbroker Harshad Mehta and opposing the death penalty for Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, Jethmalani repeatedly found himself at the centre of contentious national debates.
The Harshad Mehta case brought another sensational episode when Jethmalani alleged that ₹1 crore in cash had been paid as a bribe to then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao.
Jethmalani’s political career was equally eventful. He was closely associated with L.K. Advani and later maintained a relationship with Narendra Modi. Yet his tenure as Law Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government ended after differences with Attorney General Soli Sorabjee, amid tensions between the executive and judiciary.
Jaswant Singh reportedly conveyed to him over the phone that he had been given the “unpleasant task” of asking for his resignation. Jethmalani completed the sentence himself, saying he would fax his resignation from Pune because he was driving to the airport.
His clashes with political leaders were not limited to the BJP. In December 1989, he protested outside Chandrasekhar’s residence, urging the Janata Dal leader to support V.P. Singh as Prime Minister. Supporters of Chandrasekhar roughed him up. Chandrasekhar reportedly responded: “Tell Mr Jethmalani, I am not an orphan. There are people who will stand for me.”
Years later, Jethmalani explained his action to me simply: he had met V.P. Singh days earlier and felt compelled to act as his lawyer after Singh jokingly asked, “Aap kya karenge, vakil sahab?”
Jethmalani’s political ambitions were equally unconventional. In 1987, aged 64, he contested the Presidential election, prompting Communist leader Jyoti Basu to quip: “It is not the time to run for President, it is time to run for life.”
Born in Karachi, Jethmalani obtained his law degree at just 17 and became the youngest lawyer in Sind in pre-Partition India. Since rules required lawyers to be at least 21 to practise, he persuaded the Chief Justice of Sind to issue a special order permitting him to practise.
After Partition, he moved to Bombay, now Mumbai, in 1948. The rest, as they say, became legal history.
Jethmalani also famously clashed with Arun Jaitley, including during the defamation case involving Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi High Court. Their bitter courtroom exchanges became another chapter in the lawyer’s long association with controversy.
He was a six-time Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha for five terms) and served in the Lok Sabha, including on a BJP ticket from Bombay. After differences with Vajpayee, he left the BJP and later contested against Vajpayee from Lucknow in 2004.
Controversies aside, Ram Jethmalani’s legal talent, vitality and fearlessness were difficult to ignore. From criminal and constitutional law to politics and public life, he remained a larger-than-life figure who seemed to thrive wherever law, power and controversy collided.
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