Ram Jethmalani was born in the town of Shikarpur, Sind in undivided India. He qualified to be a lawyer even before turning eighteen, and had to get a special dispensation to practice law before the required age of twenty-one. In a few years, his abilities were recognized and soon he was perceived as one of the leading lawyers of the time, both civil and criminal, rising up to become Chairman of the Bar Council of India.
During this time, his public criticism of the Emergency earned the wrath of Mrs Gandhi and he was forced to leave the country to avoid arrest. He secured political asylum in the United States where he taught law for a living.
He returned to India and contested the Lok Sabha elections of 1977. Since then, he has remained, for most of the time, a Member of Parliament. He has also been responsible for many landmark judgements, most importantly, in the Hindutva and the Mandal cases, and more recently the infamous Black Money Case.
