Legal career Ram Jethmalani started his career as a lawyer and Professor in Sindh before partition. He started his own law firm in Karachi with his friend
A.K. Brohi who was senior to him by seven years. Jethmalani later came to be noted for his appearance in the
Nanavati case in 1959 with
Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud, who was later to become the
Chief Justice of India. His defence of a string of smugglers in the late 1960s established his image as a "smuggler's lawyer", to which he mentioned that he was only doing his duty as a lawyer. In 1954, he became a part-time Professor at the
Government Law College, Mumbai for both graduate and post graduate studies. He also taught
comparative law at the
Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. In 2010, he was also elected as the president of the
Supreme Court Bar Association. During his career he was involved in a number of high-profile defence cases as lawyer – people involved in market scams (
Harshad Mehta and
Ketan Parekh), and a host of gangsters and smugglers including the British citizen Daisy Angus who was acquitted of hashish smuggling after serving five years in jail. He also defended
L. K. Advani in the
Hawala scam. He was in the news for taking up the defence of
Manu Sharma, prime accused in the
Jessica Lall murder case; however, he failed to get Manu Sharma acquitted. He was to be defending
Lalit Modi, former
Indian Premier League chairman and commissioner. Some of the cases Jethmalani appeared in include — the defence of
Indira Gandhi's alleged assassins, challenging the medical evidence deposed of
Tirath Das Dogra, a forensic expert of
AIIMS, on record; defending
Harshad Mehta in a stock market scam and the Narasimha Rao bribery case; defending
Ketan Parekh in a stock market scam; appearing in a case involving Mumbai
mafia gang leader,
Haji Mastan; appearing for Sanjay Chandra's bail in the
2G spectrum case; appearing for Kulbhushan Parashar's bail in the
navy war room leak case; defending
Kanimozhi in the 2G spectrum case; appearing in
Yeddyurappa's case on an illegal mining scam; defending
A. G. Perarivalan, T Suthendraraja alias Santhan, and Sriharan alias Murugan, all convicted in the
Rajiv Gandhi assassination case; defending
Shiv Sena in
Krishna Desai's murder; defending
Asaram Bapu in the
Jodhpur sexual assault case; defending
Lalu Prasad Yadav in the supreme court and appearing for his bail in the fodder scam case, on 13 December 2013; appearing for
AIADMK leader
Jayalalithaa, convicted in a disproportionate assets case by the
Karnataka High Court; and, appearing for
AAP president
Arvind Kejriwal, in a defamation case filed by
Arun Jaitley, among others. On 9 September 2017, he announced his retirement from the legal profession.
Political career Jethmalani's experience during the partition as a refugee led him to advocate for better relations between India and Pakistan, which he sought throughout his political career. He contested as an independent candidate from
Ulhasnagar supported both by the
Shiv Sena and
Bharatiya Jan Sangh but he lost the elections. Jethmalani exiled himself in Canada carrying on his campaign against the emergency. He returned to India ten months later after the emergency was lifted. While in Canada, his candidature for the Parliament was filed from the
Bombay North-West constituency. He won the election and retained the seat in
1980 general elections, but lost to
Sunil Dutt in 1985. In the
1977 general elections after the emergency, he won against then serving Union law minister
H. R. Gokhale from Bombay in the Lok Sabha elections, and hence started his political career as a parliamentarian. He became a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1988 and the
Union minister of law, justice and company affairs in 1996, in the cabinet of
Atal Bihari Vajpayee. During the second tenure of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in 1998, he was given the portfolio of Union minister of urban affairs and employment. But on 13 October 1999 he was again sworn in as the Union minister for law, justice and company affairs. He was asked to resign by the prime minister following differences with then chief justice of India
Adarsh Sein Anand and
Attorney General of India Soli Sorabjee. He was inducted into the cabinet on home Minister
Lal Krishna Advani's insistence. He had also announced his candidature for
President of India stating: "I owe it to the nation to offer my services". He launched his own political fronts, the Bharat Mukti Morcha, as a "mass movement" in 1987. In 1995, he launched his own political party called the Pavitra Hindustan Kazhagam, with the motto to achieve "transparency in functioning of Indian democracy". Jethmalani was noted for speaking his mind; at a reception hosted by the Pakistan High Commission for the Pakistan Foreign Minister
Hina Rabbani Khar who was on a visit to India on 28 July 2011, Jethmalani in the presence of the Chinese ambassador called China an enemy of both India and Pakistan and warned the Indians and Pakistanis to beware of the Chinese. In December 2009, the
Committee on Judicial Accountability stated that it considered that recommendations for judicial appointments should only be made after a public debate, including review by members of the bar of the affected high courts. This statement was made in relation to controversy about the appointments of justices
C. K. Prasad and
P. D. Dinakaran. The statement was signed by Jethmalani,
Shanti Bhushan,
Fali Sam Nariman,
Anil B. Divan,
Kamini Jaiswal and
Prashant Bhushan. In 2012, Jethmalani wrote to then Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) President
Nitin Gadkari, accusing opposition BJP leaders of being "silent against the huge corruption" within the ruling UPA-II government, and stated that BJP "is sick". Jethmalani's letter became public on the internet. The same year, in November, Jethmalani stated "When there are serious allegations against Gadkari, he should have stayed away, if only to raise his stature in the public eye". In October 2013, defamation charges were framed against BJP seeking as "null and void and damages" for making a statement that he was not a fit person to be member of the party. In 2017, he wrote an open letter to Justice
C. S. Karnan, of the
Calcutta High Court, who was embroiled in controversy: Karnan retired shortly thereafter. Jethmalani died in 2019. Many former colleagues wrote remembrances of him. ==Elections contested==