Colleagues And Protégés Remember Ram Jethmalani
Senior lawyers who have witnessed Ram Jethmalani’s many years in court, remember the eminent jurist and former union minister.
Eminent jurist and former Union minister Ram Jethmalani died on Sunday at the age of 97. Jethmalani was the Union Law Minister during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government. He also served as the Supreme Court Bar Association president in 2010. Senior lawyers who have witnessed Jethmalani’s many interventions in court, spoke to BloombergQuint.
Jethmalani Made Democracy Thrive In India
- Mohan Parasaran, Former Solicitor General
I have had the good fortune of knowing him for close to three decades.
My first experience with him was when he appeared in a criminal case in Madras High Court, related to an important DMK functionary, who was accused of murder. In that matter I was virtually a junior at the bar.
Thereafter, we have had many occasions to appear against each other in the Supreme Court.
The last of the matters was pertaining to a PIL where he wanted black money from foreign countries to be brought back. And I was the Solicitor General, so I was defending the government. There are treaties between countries, and you can’ty bypass those treaties.
Still, Jethmalani’s concern was that his prayers were not considered, even as per the change of government, and people with black money were still flourishing.
Of course, now things have changed and Switzerland has agreed to provide names to India.
He was one of the finest and most feared lawyers India has ever produced.
He was never afraid of anybody , and he was always forthright and frank. If he had some views about somebody, he would not hesitate to speak it out.
Even at the age of 92-93 he appeared in very important matters in the Supreme Court.
Everyone knows how he fought against the Emergency. How he was traditionally anti-Congress, and his heated exchanges, and a number of questions that he put to Rajiv Gandhi at the time of the Bofors scandal.
These things actually made democracy thrive in India. Ram Jethmalani is mainly responsible for governments of the day trembling before a person.
He was always helpful to the poor and needy. I know of matters where he has appeared free of cost. Even though people used to say he charges heavily, at the same time, he has also appeared for the downtrodden, without charging a penny.
A Participant In 75 Years Of India’s History
- Sanjay Hegde, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court
Ram Jethmalani had an extraordinarily long life as a lawyer. He became a lawyer when he was 17 years old.
Pre-independence, he started off in Sindh. He has even watched Jinnah appear and argue in court rooms at that time. After partition, he re-established himself in Bombay, which is a ‘notoriously tough bar to crack’. He made a mark for himself, appearing for the Nanavati trial, which gripped the country.
Later, he appeared on the criminal side, and consequently became the target of unwelcome attention from the administration during the Emergency. He went into self-exile, came back and had a ‘superb’ political career, including two Lok Sabha direct elections from Bombay, followed by a long stint in the Rajya Sabha.
He was there in almost every controversial case from the Bofors scam, to the Indira Gandhi assassination. In the Indira Gandhi assassination case, not only did he defend Kehar and Balbir Singh, but also got an acquittal for Balbir Singh, and employed Kehar Singh’s son as his personal clerk.
Ram Jethmalani’s presence invariably dominated the court, whichever courtroom he appeared in.
His technique was not necessarily to awe the judge, but to persuade. His style was almost hypnotic, and came from a careful, quiet reading of the brief and original documents.
As a lawyer, he was largely a loner. He preferred to do things himself, and he came out with unexpected facets of the case, from his own careful study of the brief.
On a personal level, he was always helpful to younger lawyers, and very good company over a drink or a meal. He said that he followed King Solomon’s advice that if you want to stay young, you have to stay with the young. Therefore, he had his own group of people who he would play badminton with, well in his 90s.
For all his appearance of ‘wild partying’, he probably was one of the most disciplned people. It was said that he could drink till late in the night, but still get up for his early morning badminton.
Tremendous Powers Of Concentration
- Arvind Datar, Senior Advocate
If I had to rate people on sheer brilliance and advocacy, he will easily be in the top three. The late G Ramaswamy, who was the former Attorney General, used to tell his juniors that the two finest arguments that he heard in his life were Jethmalani’s arguments in the Antulay case and the Kehar Singh case, the latter involving the assassination of Indira Gandhi. I’ve heard him in court too and he could be extremely effective.
The other thing which I thought was important for students and the younger generation, was his tremendous power of concentration. He would work 8-9 hours at a stretch. He would make extremely detailed notes. In fact, I was told that in one of the matters involving Swiss bank accounts in the Bombay High Court, he had compartmentalised his notes. Every topic had separate detailed notes.
He was a great constitutional lawyer as well, not only a criminal lawyer. He was a great champion of reservation, which I was opposed to.
He always had a new angle to a case. In Madras, there was the Ram Prasad Rao Commission, where I watched him cross-examine a number of witnesses. It was an absolute treat to watch him.
I had the fortune of inviting him for a memorial lecture and we kept in touch after that. He advice to me was to eat less and never miss exercise. 8:00-9:00 am was badminton time for him, no matter what happened.
I remember attending a party where he was coming from Pune, and he said he missed playing badminton that day, but exercised on the treadmill for 45 minutes instead. He said now that he was old, he played doubles. He was 90 at that time. He was very inspiring.
Besides this I was told he was also an outstanding teacher. I always wanted to go to Symbiosis, but could never make it. Apart from the law, his knowledge about Islam was profound. He could also recite verses from the Celestial Song - a translation of the Bhagwad Gita.
His presentation was a piece of art.
In the NJAC case, he started by saying that if one or two members fall into river Yamuna, it will be pollution, if all fall it will be a solution.
We can learn a lot from him. He was very thorough and prepared for cases extremely well.
A Man Of Deep Learning
- Abhinav Chandrachud, Advocate, Bombay High Court
Ram Jethmalani was one of the greatest members of the legal profession.
I personally saw him appearing in Raja Ram Pal’s case while I was interning with the Chief Justice of India, YK Sabharwal at that time. Ram Jethmalani had argued for many hours before the bench of five judges of the Supreme Court, in the case of Raja Ram Pal vs Speaker, Lok Sabha. A sting operation had been carried out called operation Duryodhan, where some members of Parliament were offered money to ask questions in the House. What had happened was that Parliament had expelled those members, and they had challenged the expulsion.
The question was whether Parliament had the authority to expel the members, and Ram Jethmalani had addressed the court for many hours on this issue. What struck me was that he was a man of deep learning.
I remember watching an interview where Ram Jethmalani was asked about defending Manu Sharma. He was asked questions like how he could defend a man who everyone knew was guilty. He answered by asking the interviewer how she knew that his client was guilty. He said you can’t leave the criminal justice system to the media.
He loved life, but looked after himself very well. “Malt is better than Milton”, he would say.