Top 10 Lawyers in India who have turned Politicians
There are a several names that had studied law and came into politics, but this isn’t new for any democracy around the world. India before Independence had Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallahbhai Patel who were lawyers and helped India to achieve Independence and shaped the political scenario.
Here is a list of 10 such lawyer politicians in India.
- Subramanium Swamy
Subramanium Swamy is the son of a bureaucrat, Sitaraman Subramanian, and homemaker, Padmavath. He has completed his doctorate degree in Economics from Harvard University and still teaches every summer session at Harvard. He entered politics in 1970 and stirred the national politics by challenging Indira Gandhi’s Soviet influenced socialist planning. He has fought more than 80 cases till now. He has petitioned to strike down anti-defamation laws, National Herald case and Nataraja temple case.
- Sushma Swaraj
She was Born at Ambala Cantt, Haryana on 14 February 1952. Her parents were Hardev Sharma & Shrimati Laxmi Devi. Her father was a prominent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh member. She completed studies from Punjab University. She is one of the most famous female lawyers and a well known politician.Swaraj is currently serving as the Minister of External Affairs of India. She has been the Chief Minister of Delhi for a short period of time in 1998. She is the first women chief minister of Delhi and the youngest cabinet minister at age of 25 years.
- Salman Khurshid
He is a senior advocate, eminent author and a law teacher. Salman Khurshid belongs to Indian National Congress. He entered politics in 1981 as an Officer on Special Duty in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) under the prime ministership of Indira Gandhi. In 2011, he was made Cabinet Minister for Law and Justice, and Minority Affairs in the Government of India. He fought the infamous 5 day Triple talaq hearing case.
- Arun Jaitley
A senior advocate of Delhi High Court who is presently the Finance Minister and Minister of Corporate Affairs of NDA led BJP government. He graduated in Commerce from Shri Ram College of Commerce, New Delhi in 1973 and Law degree from the University of Delhi, in 1977. He was an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) student leader in his University.
He has always emerged as a strategic planner of the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), helping his party member Narendra Modi wins the assembly election in 2002. He was re-elected to the Upper House in April 2012 for his third term.
5. K Parasaran
He was born on October 9, 1927 and was Advocate-General of Tamil Nadu and then, Attorney General of India at time of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. He is the grand old man of India court loyalty and is known for strong stand against corruption. He is the leading legal consultant of the UPA government. He expertise in Constitutional Law and can be called ‘Man for all seasons’.
- Palaniappan Chidambaram
Chidambaram is a corporate lawyer who started his career with practice at the Madras High Court. By 1984 he was a senior advocate. His offices were in Chennai and Delhi. Eventually he became a practicing lawyer in the Supreme Court and other High Courts in India. P. Chidambaram is a highly qualified person. He is a member of one of the largest and oldest national party of India, the Indian National Congress.
7. Abhishek Manu Singhvi
Singhvi was born in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Parents are Kamla and Laxmi Mall Singhvi. He obtained B.A.(Hons.), M.A., Ph.D., from at St. Stephen’s College, Trinity College, Cambridge and Harvard University. He has been the youngest Attorney General, just at the age of 37 years. He is a member of INC. He charges around 4.5 lakh per appearance. He has fought Indian Flag Case for Naveen Jindal and against Ambani brothers for Mukesh Ambani against Anil Ambani.
- Prashant Bhushan
A prominent member of Anna Hazare’s campaign and later became one of the co-founder of Aam Adami Party in 2012. He was enrolled to study engineering at IIT-Madras but quit after one semester and decided to do a two-year BSc programme with Philosophy, Economics and Political Science in Allahabad. During this period Mrs. Gandhi’s election case was taking place, and attended the hearings both in Allahabad and the Supreme Court and knew that he is only seeing a small part of Law because this was a high profile case. And presently, he is well known for his use of public interest litigation (PIL) to support a number of causes like corruption, environmental protection and human rights.
- Ram Vilas Paswan
Ram Vilas Paswan (born 5 July 1946) is an Indian politician, from Bihar and the current Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. He is also the president of the Lok Janshakti Party. He was born in a Dalit family in 1946 in Bihar and has a Bachelor of Laws and Master of Arts degrees from Kosi College, Khagaria and Patna University. He is one of those who took the issue of Ayodhya case.
- Kapil Sibal
He is an Indian lawyer, politician, and government official who became a senior leader in the Indian National Congress (Congress Party). He studied in St. Stephens College, University of Delhi, then completed his degree in law from Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, LL.M from Harvard Law School in 1977 though he joined the bar association in 1970. He was also appointed the Additional Solicitor General of India. He has augmented Subrata Sahara Roy in Sahara v. SEBI , Manmohan Singh in the Coal Scam case against CBI, etc.
