Kapil Sibal (born 8 August 1948) is an Indian lawyer and politician. Sibal has represented several high-profile cases in the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

and is widely regarded as one of the famous lawyers of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. He is a Member of Parliament, in Rajya Sabha. A

University of Delhi Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE ...

and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

graduate, Sibal has practiced law in

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for ...

and held several important posts relating to law and administration including Additional Solicitor General, and President of Supreme Court Bar Association. Sibal first entered

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

in 1998 to represent

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

. Before that, he had unsuccessfully contested for the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...

against

Sushma Swaraj Sushma Swaraj () (''née'' Sharma; 14 February 1952 – 6 August 2019) was an Indian lawyer, politician, and diplomat who served as the Minister of External Affairs of India in the first Narendra Modi government from 2014 to 2019. She is only ...

. He later contested from

Chandni Chowk The Chandni Chowk, also known as Moonlight Square is one of the oldest and busiest markets in Old Delhi, India. It is located close to the Old Delhi Railway Station. The Red Fort monument is located at the eastern end of Chandni Chowk. It was b ...

and won in 2004 and 2009. As a senior

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

member then, Sibal served under

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...

as a minister holding various portfolios over the years. As minister, he headed delegations of India in high-profile international forums. His actions in official capacity were controversial multiple times including when he undertook to regulate internet content. Sibal often was portrayed as an intellectual face of the Congress who batted for the party on television and in regular

columns A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression membe ...

. In the

, he usually represented the

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

. He left the

in 2022 to file his nomination for the

independently but backed by

Samajwadi Party The Samajwadi Party ( SP; translation: ''Socialist Party'', founded 4 October 1992) is a socialist political party in India, headquartered in New Delhi but mainly based in Uttar Pradesh, with significant presence in other states as well. With a ...

Early life and education

Sibal was born on 8 August 1948 in Jalandhar in Punjab. His family migrated to India during the partition in 1947. Kapil Sibal moved to Delhi in 1964. After his schooling from St John's High School, he joined

St. Stephen's College, Delhi St. Stephen's College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi, widely regarded as one of the oldest and most prestigious colleges for arts and sciences in India. It was established in 1881 by the Cambridge Mission to Delhi. The college ...

for his B.A. He earned his LL.B. degree from the prestigious Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, and later an M.A. in history from

. He joined the bar association in 1972. In the year 1973, he qualified for Indian Administrative Services and was offered an appointment. But he declined the offer and decided to set up his own law practice. Afterwards, he attended the

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each c ...

where he enrolled for an LL.M. which he completed in 1977. He was designated as senior lawyer in 1983. In 1989, he was appointed the

Additional Solicitor General of India Additional Solicitor General of India abbreviated as Addl. SGI is a law officer of India who assists the Solicitor-General and the Attorney-General. Addl. SGI is governed by ''Law Officers (Conditions of Service) Rules, 1987''. List of incumben ...

. In 1994, he appeared in the Parliament as a lawyer and successfully defended

V. Ramaswami Veeraswami Ramaswami was a judge of the Supreme Court of India and the first judge against whom removal proceedings were initiated in independent India. Another judge to face removal proceedings is Soumitra Sen of Calcutta High Court, procee ...

during impeachment proceedings. The impeachment motion was placed in the assembly for debate and voting on 10 May 1993. Of 401 members present in the assembly that day, there were 196 votes for impeachment and no votes against and 205 abstentions by ruling Congress and its allies. He had served as the President of the Supreme Court Bar association on three occasions, i.e. 1995–1996, 1997–1998 and 2001–2002.

Career

Kapil Sibal joined the

Bar association A bar association is a professional association of lawyers as generally organized in countries following the Anglo-American types of jurisprudence. The word bar is derived from the old English/European custom of using a physical railing to se ...

in 1972. He decided to set up his own law practice.Minister for Earth Sciences, Govt. of India: Shri Kapil Sibal
Ministry of Earth Sciences website. He was designated as a Senior Lawyer in 1983. He was the Additional Solicitor General of India between 1989 and 1990, as well.

Political career

Over the years, he has held several important positions in the

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

and the Society, such as: Additional Solicitor General of India (December 1989 – 1990); Member, Board of Management, Indira Gandhi National Open University (1993); President, Supreme Court Bar Association (1995–96, 1997–98 and 2001–2002); Member,

(July 1998); Member, Executive Council, Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies (July, 2001); Member, Business Advisory Committee (August, 2001); Member, Committee on Home Affairs (January, 2002); Co-chairman, Indo-US Parliamentary Forum (2002); Member, Board of

International AIDS Vaccine Initiative The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) is a global not-for-profit, public-private partnership working to accelerate the development of vaccines to prevent HIV infection and AIDS. IAVI researches and develops vaccine candidates, conducts ...

(2002); Member, Programme Board of the

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was ...

's Indian AIDS initiative (2003); Member, Working Group on Arbitrary Detention set up by the Human Rights Commission,

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...

Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha

Shri Kapil Sibal takes over the charge of Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science & Technology in New Delhi May 24, 2004

In the 2004 general elections, Sibal became an MP by winning the

constituency against TV actor

Smriti Irani Smriti Zubin Irani (''née'' Malhotra; born 23 March 1976) is an Indian politician and a former television actress and producer. She is a Minister in Union Cabinet of India since May 2019 currently administrating the Ministries of Women and ...

of the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...

(BJP) in the National Capital Territory representing the Congress Party and was inducted into the Cabinet under Prime Minister

as Union Minister for Science, Technology and Earth Sciences. He won the constituency of

for the second time for the

in the

elections of 2009. During his tenure as Telecom Minister his comment about the loss in the

2G spectrum case The 2G spectrum case was a political controversy in which politicians and private officials of the United Progressive Alliance coalition government India were involved in selling or allotting 122 2G spectrum licenses on conditions that prov ...

being only notional and causing "zero loss" created a public outcry and he had to clarify it later. Kapil Sibal was indicted by CAG for favoring M/S Phoenix Rose LLC by overlooking rules and regulations and handpicking that company for creating a database for over 500,000 working professionals of People of Indian Origin settled in the US. CAG's report said that the project's cost was $ but three years after the initiation, the company has dumped the networking site, completing just over 16% of the targeted work. Also during his time in that office, his move to regulate internet content was criticized across many social networking sites like

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and Google+. He represented India in the Annual Meetings of the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

in 2005 and 2009 held at

Davos , neighboring_municipalities= Arosa, Bergün/Bravuogn, Klosters-Serneus, Langwies, S-chanf, Susch , twintowns = } Davos (, ; or ; rm, ; archaic it, Tavate) is an Alps, Alpine resort town and a Municipalities of Switzerland, muni ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. He led the Indian delegation to the

Annapolis Conference The Annapolis Conference was a Middle East peace conference held on 27 November 2007, at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, United States. The conference aimed to revive the Israeli–Palestinian peace process and implemen ...

, USA, held to gather International support for establishment of a Palestinian state and the realization of Israeli–Palestinian peace during November 2007. He led the Indian delegation to the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established an international environmental treaty to combat "dangerous human interference with the climate system", in part by stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in ...

(UNFCCC) at

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and ...

in December 2007. Sibal approved the creation of an Indian Institute of Technology Muddenahalli as part of the 11th 5-year plan. He is also the person who introduced the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system in India for Class IX and Class X and he has also started the changes in the

IIT JEE The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are central government owned public technical institutes located across India. They are under the ownership of the Ministry of Education of the Government of India. They are governed by the Instit ...

pattern. He has laid the foundation stone for IIT Patna. After the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time ( UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern ...

, Sibal announced that a fresh onslaught of deadly tsunami were likely along the India southern coast and Andaman and

Nicobar Islands The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean. They are located in Southeast Asia, northwest of Aceh on Sumatra, and separated from Thailand to the east by the Andaman Sea. Located southeast of the Indian ...

, even though was no sign of turbulence in the region. The announcement was a false alarm and the Home Affairs minister withdrew their announcement.Tran, Tina. (30 December 2004)

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...

False tsunami alarm sparks panic in Indian Ocean region.
Three days after the announcement,

president

Sonia Gandhi Sonia Gandhi (''née'' Maino; born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician. She is the longest serving president of the Indian National Congress, a social democratic political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independen ...

called Science & Technology minister Kapil Sibal to express her concern about Sibal's 30 December public warning being " hogwash".

Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha

;Parliamentary Committee assignments * 13 Sept. 2021 onwards: Member

Committee on External Affairs The Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs is a department related standing committee (DRSC) of selected members of parliament, constituted by the Parliament of India, for the purpose of legislative oversight of the foreign poli ...

Independent candidate

On 25 May 2022, he filed his nomination for

elections as an independent candidate with support of

chief

Akhilesh Yadav Akhilesh is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Akhilesh Das (1961–2017), educationist, professor, Indian politician and philanthropist * Akhilesh K. Gaharwar (born 1982), Indian academic and Professor at Texas A&M University *Ak ...

had accompanied him while he filed his nominations. Subsequently, he broke to the media that he had resigned from the

on 16 May.

Other works

In 2011 Sibal has also announced a touchscreen tablet computer to be co-developed with private partnership. It was to be available to students for . Satish Jha, chairman of OLPC India, the leading competitor to this venture, questioned his claim that a $35 laptop could be created in a year. Five state Chief Ministers endorsed the OLPC initiative and the Chief Minister of Rajasthan himself inaugurated the project on the day Sibal showcased his future laptop. The event was attended by two members of the Union Cabinet. This also lead to an open letter by Nicholas Negroponte offering him complete access to MIT and OLPC technologies to help realise India's dream to create a laptop of its own. The computer was eventually released online as the UbiSlate7C1 tablet PC at and the Ubislate7C+ tablet PC at As of February 2012, Datawind had over 1,400,000 pre-orders, but had only shipped 10,000 units - 0.7% of orders. As of November 2012, many customers who put in orders still had not received their computers and were offered refunds.

Publications

An anthology of Kapil Sibal's poems titled ''I Witness: Partial Observation'' was published by Roli Books,

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Hous ...

, in August 2008. Kapil Sibal has penned down the lyrics of the songs "Tere bina" and "Mast hawa" for 2016 Hindi film ''

Shorgul ''Shorgul'' () is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language political thriller film, set against the backdrop of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots; it is directed by Pranav Kumar Singh (P. Singh) The film is produced by 24 FPS film Pvt Ltd. The film stars Jimmy ...

''.

Personal life

Kapil Sibal's father was

Hira Lall Sibal Hira Lal Sibal was an Indian lawyer, jurist and two-time Advocate General of Punjab and Haryana, known for his legal defence of cases against the noted Urdu writers, Ismat Chugtai and Saadat Hasan Manto in 1945. He practised at Punjab and Hary ...

, a renowned advocate, his family migrated to India during the partition in 1947. In 1994, H.L. Sibal was named a "Living Legend of the Law" by the International Bar Association and in 2006, the Government of India honoured him with the 'Padma Bhushan' award for his distinguished services in the field of Public Affairs. He married

Nina Sibal Nina Sibal (1948 – 2000) was an Indian diplomat and writer, known for her prize-winning novel ''Yatra'' and other English-language fiction as well as for her work in the Indian Foreign Service. Biography She was born in PuneShyamala A. Nar ...

in 1973, who died of

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or ...

in 2000. Amit and Akhil, Sibal's two sons from his first marriage, are both lawyers. In 2005, Sibal married Promila Sibal.http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune-times/No-politricks-for-Kapil-Sibal/articleshow/44009939.cms> His brother is Kanwal Sibal, a retired top diplomat of the Indian Foreign Service, and a former foreign secretary of India.

References

External links

In Conversation: Kapil Sibal, HRD Minister

Business Standard ''Business Standard'' is an Indian English-language daily edition newspaper published by Business Standard Private Limited, also available in Hindi. Founded in 1975, the newspaper covers the Indian economy, infrastructure, international busin ...

Profile at Ministry of Science and Technology, Official websiteThe Argumentative Indian: The precarious ambition of Kapil Sibal
, - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Sibal, Kapil 1948 births India MPs 2004–2009 India MPs 2009–2014 St. Stephen's College, Delhi alumni Faculty of Law, University of Delhi alumni Harvard Law School alumni Harvard University alumni 20th-century Indian lawyers Living people Indian Senior Counsel Lok Sabha members from Delhi People from Jalandhar Punjabi people Indian National Congress politicians Rajya Sabha members from Bihar Senior Advocates in India United Progressive Alliance candidates in the 2014 Indian general election Education Ministers of India Law Ministers of India Members of the Cabinet of India Rajya Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh Supreme Court of India lawyers