Ram Jethmalani's admirers say he would even dream about 'laws' ::::: He attained Law degree at the age of 17 in Karachi

Born - 14 September 1923, Ram Jethmalani expired on 8th September 2019 

None can perhaps dispute that Ram Jethmalani was a man of letters.

His admirers say he would even dream about 'law' and various aspects of legal wars - some very famous and some not so famous.

Jethmalani - a brilliant legal brain who knew the art of brash handling of friends and foes. 

The  late Jethmalani also had his unique manner of antagonising political compatriots, sometime even the prime minister in office and his own legal fraternity with his 'brash handling'.

In 2000, his remarks on lawyers' strike even led to his expulsion from the Bar Association.

A brief reference to the variety of cases he represented would sum up the story of the man and his love for controversies.

"I thrive in controversy....because I believe in truth and I do what I believe," the illustrious lawyer had once said.

In principle, he was against 'confessional statement' made in judicial and police custody. 

"I sympathise with those behind bars and hands tied up on a chair. Put me into that, and I will confess anything", he had told me during my ealy days in Delhi journalism -- 1998-99.  

He had good memory and even joke - "Like some of you; I am also Seminar expert. I can talk on anything; and you people can also write on anything ... whether we read something on that earlier or not". 

From opposing the death sentence of Afzal Guru, the Kashmiri terrorist kingpin, to representing clients like Harshad Mehta and Ketan Parekh, he has defended them all with the same excitement, enjoyment and enthusiasm.

It was stock broker Harshad Meta and his counsel Jethmalani - who made the sensational allegation that a sum of Rs 1 crore in cash was given as a bribe to the then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao.

Earlier in his career, Jethmalani shot into limelight with the tag of controversy when he defended the killers of Indira Gandhi.

In politics, he remained close to L K Advani and also to incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

But the BJP circle would remember him to be one Minister in the Vajpayee government - who was for sure --- never in the inner circle of the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee himself.

In fact, Vajpayee had 'desired' his resignation as Law Minister when Jethmalani clashed with the BJP veteran's confidant Soli Sorabjee, the then Attorney General.

There are reports when Jaswant Singh conveyed to Jethmalani over phone that "I have been given the unpleasant task" --- the late leader (Jethmalani) completed the sentence: 

"I shall fax the resignation letter from Pune, tell Prime Minister I can't send it now as I am driving to the airport".

Sacked as the Union Law minister to avert an impending executive-judiciary confrontation, a furious Ram Jethmalani later blamed his dismissal on Attorney General Soli Sorabjee.

A man full of vitality and flamboyance, he also had bitter differences with incumbent PM Narendra Modi's confidant Arun Jaitley.

On December 1989, Jethmalani protested in front of senior Janata Dal leader Chandrasekar's house only to be roughed up by Chandrasekhar's supporters as Jethmalani wanted the socialist veteran to accept V P Singh as the Prime Minister of the National Front Govt.

1989 - When he was manhandled 

The late Chandrasekhar, who had coincidentally succeeded V P Singh, had angrily said - "Tell Mr Jethamalani, I am not an orphan. There are people who will stand for me". 

Many years later I asked Jethmalani - how could he take such a decision. His response was : "I had met V P Singh a few days back. I told him, no one can stop you from becoming Prime Minister of the National Front. He joked ... "aap kya karenge waqil sahab". I had to do something as his lawyer". 

Ram was all grinning after he made the statement.

In 1987, at the age of 64, Ram Jethmalani filed his nomination papers for Presidential elections provoking Marxist doyen Jyoti Basu to remark: 

"It is not the time to run for President, it is time to run for life".

He is survived by his son, noted lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani, and a US-based daughter. His other daughter Rani Jethmalani also died on December 31, 2011.

Ram Jethmalani had fought criminal, civil and many Constitutional matters in various courts.

A man who kept wooing headlines and controversies, Jethmalani had earned the reputation of being a 'smuggler's lawyer' after he defended Haji Mastan in a smuggling case.

He was member of the Lok Sabha in the sixth and seventh Lok Sabha on BJP ticket from Bombay but after he developed differences with Vajpayee in 2000, he quit BJP and also contested against Vajpayee himself in 2004 from Lucknow.

Notwithstanding the controversies, there can be hardly any dispute that his virtues and talent were unique.

Someone who had attained the law degree at the age of 17 in Karachi and being the 'youngest lawyer' in Sind province in pre-partition India, he had to persuade the then Chief Justice of Sind to pass a special order to relax the rules which had then mandated that 

... a lawyer had to be 21 years to start practice.

After partition, he moved to Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1948 and started practicing and the rest of it - as they say is history. 

The verbal exchange between Jethmalani and Aru Jaitley started when the former asked a question alleging that his article on irregularities in Delhi Cricket Association could not get published in a weekly magazine at the instance of the Finance Minister (Jaitley). This was in May 2017.  

Jaitley lost his cool over Ram Jethmalani, who called him a "crook", in the Delhi High Court during the cross-examination in a defamation case against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.  

Arun Jaitley, who appeared before Joint Registrar Deepali Sharma, lost his cool and asked Jethmalani whether an objectionable word was used as per instructions from Kejriwal.

"If this is so, I would aggravate the charges against the defendant (Kejriwal)," Jaitley said, adding that there was a limit to personal malice.

The counsel representing the Finance Minister vehemently opposed the choice of words by Jethmalani saying he must stop insulting the minister.   

In book, 'Big Egos, Small Men', Jethmalani crudely said of Soli Sorabjee that he had been too cautious during the Emergency, that he had been handpicked by Jayalalitha for the post of attorney general during Vajpayee Govt with a view to getting her cases transferred.  

Sorabjee's tenure as the Attorney General in the BJP-led government, was perhaps one of the most difficult and contentious phases of his career.

ends