Rajya Sabha gets yet another legal luminary

With President Droupadi Murmu nominating noted lawyer Ujwal Deorao Nikam, along with three others to the Rajya Sabha, he has joined legal luminaries such as P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal and AM Singhvi who already adorn the Upper House.

In fact, Rajya Sabha Jagdeep Dhankhar himself has been a distinguished senior advocate of the Supreme Court. Former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi – who was nominated to the Upper House in March 2020 – continues to be there.

Nikam’s nomination comes at a time when the government is gearing up to move a motion in the monsoon session of Parliament to remove Justice Yashwant Varma of the Allahabad High Court who has been indicted for recovery of unaccounted cash during a fire incident at his residence in the national capital on March 14.

The issue of removal of Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav of the Allahabad High Court for his alleged misconduct is also likely to come up in the monsoon session commencing on July 21. More than six months after 55 MPs submitted a notice for motion to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat seeking to remove Justice Yadav, the issue is hanging fire as only 45 of the MPs have verified their signatures.

While the Opposition has senior lawyers such as Chidambaram, Singhvi, Vivek Tankha, KTS Tulsi (all Congress), Sibal (Independent), P Wilson (DMK) and advocate Haris Beeran (IUML) on their side, the treasury bench lack the legal fire power in the Rajya Sabha which once had the likes of Arun Jaitley, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Mahesh Jethmalani to articulate the BJP-led government views.

While Jaitley died in 2019, Prasad won the Lok Sabha election from Patna Sahib in 2019 and 2024 and Jethmalani’s term ended in July 2024.

Nikam will join the Bar Council of India Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra who was elected as a Rajya Sabha on a BJP ticket from Bihar in August 2024.

Nikam’s nomination to the Rajya Sabha is being seen as an attempt by the government to strengthen its legal power in the Upper House. However, it remains to be seen whether Nikam joins a political party (read BJP) within six months from the date of taking oath as a Rajya Sabha member as permissible under relevant rules.

India