Mahesh Jethmalani (born 9 August 1956) is an Indian lawyer and a politician. He is currently a nominated Member of Parliament in the

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

. He was also a member of the

National Executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party The organisation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is based upon the Constitution of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The organisation of the BJP is strictly hierarchical, with the president being the highest authority in the party. The party is co ...

up to 2012.

Early life and education

Jethmalani was born in 1956. His father was a popular advocate turned Union Minister

Ram Jethmalani Ram Boolchand Jethmalani (14 September 1923 – 8 September 2019) was an Indian lawyer and politician. He served as India's Union Minister of Law and Justice, as chairman of the Indian Bar Council, and as the president of the Supreme Court B ...

. He did his schooling at

St. Paul's School, Darjeeling St. Paul's School is a private boarding school for boys in the town of Darjeeling, West Bengal, India. It is known as "Eton of the East" because it is thought to follow the similar cultural and traditional values of Eton College. St. Paul's is ...

. He has done his BA from the

St. Xavier's College, Mumbai St. Xavier's College is a private, Catholic Church, Catholic, institution of higher education run by the Bombay Province of the Society of Jesus in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by the Jesuits on 2 January 1869. The college is ...

, and a tripos in PPE (Politics, Philosophy & Economics) at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. He studied law in London and qualified as a barrister in 1980.

Career in law

Jethmalani studied law in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

under the patronage of the UK Bar. He qualified as a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

in 1980. Jethmalani enrolled at the

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar ** Chocolate bar * Protein bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a laye ...

Bombay High Court The High Court of Bombay is the High courts of India, high court of the States and union territories of India, states of Maharashtra and Goa in India, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is seated primarily ...

on 12 February 1981. He has handled several critical criminal and civil cases like the trial of former Chief Minister of Maharashtra,

A. R. Antulay Abdul Rahman Antulay (9 February 1929 – 2 December 2014) was an Indian politician. Antulay was a union minister for Minority Affairs and a Member of Parliament in the 14th Lok Sabha of India. Earlier he had been the Chief Minister of the st ...

. He also appealed before the Court for the two accused in

Assassination of Indira Gandhi Prime Minister of India, Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated at 9:30 AM on 31 October 1984 at her 7 RCR, residence in Safdarjung Road, New Delhi. She was killed by her bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh (assassin), Be ...

. He represented Birla family in the Priyamvada Birla case and has also appeared for Anil Ambani in the Reliance Case.Jethmalani represented Chief Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

in the Gujarat Riot Cases in

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India is the supreme judiciary of India, judicial authority and the supreme court, highest court of the Republic of India. It is the final Appellate court, court of appeal for all civil and criminal cases in India. It also ...

. As well as Gujarat Home Minister,

Amit Shah Amitbhai Anilchandra Shah (born 22 October 1964) is an Indian politician who is currently serving as the 32nd Ministry of Home Affairs (India), Minister of Home Affairs since May 2019 and the 1st Ministry of Co-operation, Minister of Co-operat ...

in the Sohrabuddin Murder Case in the

Gujarat High Court The Gujarat High Court is the High Court of the state of Gujarat. It was established on 1 May 1960 under the ''Bombay Re-organisation Act, 1960'' after the state of Gujarat split from Bombay State. The seat of the court is Ahmedabad. Establ ...

and the

. He also appeared for the bail plea of

Sanjay Dutt Sanjay Balraj Dutt (born 29 July 1959) is an Indian actor, playback singer and film producer who works in Hindi cinema in addition to a few Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Punjabi films. Dutt has won several accolades and acted in over 160 films. ...

. Jethmalani had also appeared for

Harshad Mehta Harshad Shantilal Mehta (29 July 1954 – 31 December 2001) was an Indian stockbroker, businessman, and convicted fraudster. Mehta's involvement in the 1992 Indian securities scam (about ) led him to gain infamy for market manipulation. Of t ...

in several cases. He also represents former Police Commissioner of Mumbai,

Param Bir Singh Param Bir Singh is a former Indian police officer of the 1988 Indian Police Service (IPS) batch. He served as the Police Commissioner of Mumbai and the Director General (DG) of the Maharashtra Home Guard. Following the filing of extortion cas ...

against the

Maha Vikas Aghadi The Maha Vikas Aghadi (; abbreviated as MVA), is a state-level political alliance of Centrism, centre to Centre-left politics, centre-left political parties in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is one of the two major political alliances in M ...

government.

Political life

He unsuccessfully contested the

2009 Indian general elections General elections were held in India in five phases between 16 April 2009 and 13 May 2009 to elect the members of the fifteenth Lok Sabha. With a registered electorate of 716 million and a turnout of 417 million voters, it was the la ...

from the

Mumbai North Central (Lok Sabha constituency) Mumbai North Central is a Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituency of Maharashtra state in western India. Assembly segments Presently, after the implementation of the delimitation of the parliamentary constituencies in 2008, Mumbai North Central ...

as a

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. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

candidate. Jethmalani quit the BJP National Executive in 2012 after differences with BJP President

Nitin Gadkari Nitin Jairam Gadkari (; born 27 May 1957) is an Indian politician who serves as the 40th Minister of Road Transport & Highways in the Government of India since 2014. He is also the longest serving Minister for Road Transport & Highways, current ...

. In 2021, he was nominated as a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha by the

President of India The president of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, and the commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the Indian Armed ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jethmalani, Mahesh Living people Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Maharashtra Indian lawyers Alumni of the University of Oxford St. Xavier's College, Mumbai alumni Indian Senior Counsel 1956 births