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Why spend Rs 3.8 cr of taxpayers' money? In 2015, Jethmalani offered to defend Kejriwal for free

Noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani ​on Tuesday said he will defend Arvind Kejriwal for free in the defamation case slapped against him by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley without taking a fee, if the Delhi Chief Minister cannot afford to pay him. Jethmalani also hit out at Jaitley alleging that the row over the Delhi government's move to clear his bills for fighting the case has been "instigated" by the FM. Jethmalani said it is the government's duty to defend the chief minister. "I will certainly defend him even if he can't pay, but he said, 'No, I want to pay, send us the bills.' so I have sent the bills. Even if the government does not support him, I will. If necessary, I will support him for his livelihood because he is a clean force compared to Arun Jaitley," said Jethmalani.

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Noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani ​on Tuesday said he will defend Arvind Kejriwal for free in the defamation case slapped against him by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley without taking a fee, if the Delhi Chief Minister cannot afford to pay him. Jethmalani also hit out at Jaitley alleging that the row over the Delhi government's move to clear his bills for fighting the case has been "instigated" by the FM. Jethmalani said it is the government's duty to defend the chief minister. "I will certainly defend him even if he can't pay, but he said, 'No, I want to pay, send us the bills.' so I have sent the bills. Even if the government does not support him, I will. If necessary, I will support him for his livelihood because he is a clean force compared to Arun Jaitley," said Jethmalani.

Jethmalani normally gets a retainer of Rs 1 crore and charged Rs 22 lakh for every appearance in court.

However, Jethmalani’s statement is in stark contrast to what he said on December 31, 2015, in an interview with Scroll where he promised to defend Kejriwal for free.  He had said: Listen, I have this reputation that I am a highly paid lawyer, but what many people don’t know is that I earn money from only 10% of my clients. The rest of my work is pro bono. I work free. Sure, I am not charging any fee from Kejriwal and that’s because his government itself is so poor. (Laughs heartily.)”

What's strange is that while Jethmalani had promised to defend Kejriwal for free, Kejriwal insisted on paying him with money. The news came to light after Lieutenant Governor​ Anil Baijal sought Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar's advice in clearing bills of a top lawyer who has been fighting for Kejriwal in a defamation case in a city court. The move will raise questions about Kejriwal's propensity to spend taxpayers' money when it's not required. 

The move by Baijal comes after the Law Department of Delhi Government, responding to a note by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, said that LG's permission for clearing the bills was necessary. In December, Sisodia had asked for releasing appearance fee to Jethmalani. They said that the amount of pending dues to the noted lawyer is around Rs 3 crore and the Law Department had opinioned that why Delhi Government should foot the bills when the case is not related to the city administration.

Sources said that the Lt Governor is learnt to have written to Kumar seeking his advice on whether the payment should be cleared or not.  On its part, the AAP alleged that Jaitley was paid large retainership fee for defending a private firm when it was mired in the 2G scam. The party also sought to defend the government's move to pay Jethmalani from the public exchequer, saying the "penniless" AAP and Kejriwal cannot "afford" expensive lawyers.

Sisodia had directed the General Administration Department to clear the bills of Jethmalani. It is learnt that Lt Governor Anil Baijal has sought Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar's advice in doing so. The bills totalled around Rs 3.86 crore.

Sisodia said this is not a personal legal battle of Kejriwal and the case is a follow-up of a probe ordered by the Delhi government to clean up corruption in cricket administration in the city. "The government will fight the case," he told reporters.

In a series of tweets, AAP leader Ashish Khetan, a former journalist, said Jaitley is a "rich man" so he can afford expensive lawyers. "Dear @narendramodi Sir, @ArvindKejriwal & @AamAadmiParty are pennyless. Your FM is a rich man, he can afford expensive advocates. We can't. "@narendramodi ji, your FM has made his money defending big ppl involved in big scams. @ArvindKejriwal all his life has defended the poor (sic)," he tweeted.

Khaitan further said, "What is most important that large retainership fee was paid to @arunjaitley at a time when Anil Ambani & his companies were mired in 2G scam."


With inputs from PTI 

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