Kapil Sibal

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Kapil Sibbal
Portrait of Kapil Sibal
Kapil Sibal at 2008 World Economic Forum
Law and Justice
Incumbent
Assumed office
11 May 2013
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
Preceded by Ashwani Kumar
Minister of Communications and Information Technology
Incumbent
Assumed office
15 November 2010
Preceded by A. Raja
Minister of Human Resource Development
In office
22 May 2009 – 28 October 2012
Preceded by Arjun Singh
Succeeded by Pallam Raju
Minister of Science and Technology
In office
22 May 2004 – 2010
Preceded by Vijay Goel
Succeeded by Pawan Kumar Bansal
Minister of Earth Sciences
In office
22 May 2004 – 2010
Succeeded by Pawan Kumar Bansal
Member of Lok Sabha
Incumbent
Assumed office
2004
Constituency Chandni Chowk
Personal details
Born (1948-08-08) 8 August 1948 (age 64)
Jalandhar, Punjab
Nationality Indian
Political party Indian National Congress
Spouse(s) Nina Sibal (deceased)(1973-2000)
Promila Sibal
Children 2 sons
Residence New Delhi
Alma mater University of Delhi (M.A./LL.B.)
Harvard Law School (LL.M.)
Profession Politician, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India
Religion Hindu
Signature
Website Kapil Sibal
As of 5 June, 2011

Kapil Sibal (Punjabi: ਕਪਿਲ ਸਿਬਲ, Hindi: कपिल सिब्बल; born 9 August 1948) is a lawyer and an Indian politician. He is currently the Law Minister of India as well as the Minister of Communications and Information Technology and Law and Justice.[1] He also held the two positions of Minister of Science and Technology and Minister of Earth Sciences in the First Manmohan Singh Cabinet.

Sibal was first nominated in July 1988, as a Member of the upper house of the Indian Parliament, the Rajya Sabha, from the State of Bihar and served as Additional Solicitor General of India (December 1989 – December 1990) and President of the Supreme Court Bar Association on three occasions (1995–96, 1997–98 and 2001–2002).[2]

Contents

Early life and education [edit]

Sibal was born on 8 August 1948 in Jalandhar, Punjab. After his schooling from St John's High School in Chandigarh, he joined St. Stephen's college, University of Delhi, where he earned his L.L.B degree, and later a M.A. in history. He joined the bar association in 1970. In the year 1973, he qualified for Indian Administrative Services and was offered an appointment. But he declined the offer and decided to set up his own law practice. Afterwards, he attended the Harvard Law School where he enrolled for a LL.M. which he completed in 1977. He was designated as senior lawyer in 1983. In 1989, he was appointed the Additional Solicitor General of India. In 1994, he was the only lawyer to appear in the Parliament, and successfully defended a Supreme Court judge during impeachment proceedings. He had served as the President of the Supreme Court Bar association on three occasions, i.e. 1995-1996, 1997-1998 and 2001-2002.

Controversies [edit]

In 2G spectrum scam [edit]

During his tenure as Telecom Minister his comment about the loss in the 2G spectrum scam being only notional and causing "zero loss"[3] created a public outcry[4] and he had to clarify it later.[5] Kapil Sibal was indicted by CAG for favoring M/S Phoenix Rose LLC by overlooking rules and regulations and handpicking that company for creating a database for over 500,000 working professionals of People of Indian Origin settled in the US. CAG's report said that the project’s cost was $120,000 but three years after the initiation, the company has dumped the networking site, completing just over 16% of the targeted work.[6]

Vodafone tax Scandal [edit]

It involves Rs 11,000-crore [7] [8] tax dispute case in India. There were corruption charges on Kapil Sibal because of Law ministry's U-turn to agree to conciliation in Vodafone tax case[9]

Internet Censorship [edit]

His move to regulate internet content[10] was strongly criticized across many social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+.[11]

On 30 November 2012, Sibal's personal website was hacked by the hacktivist group Anonymous. The hacking was reportedly in protest of the Section 66A of the Information Technology Act. Earlier Sibal had refused to remove the said provisions of the Act when two girls from Palghar were arrested for protesting on Facebook the shut-down of Mumbai on account of the death of Bal Thackeray.[12] The group posted the following message about Sibal on his website: "Born with a below-60 IQ he thought he could mess with the Internet and let the elite of his party suppress freedom of speech".[13]

Swami Agnivesh Controversy [edit]

Swami Agnivesh was seen in a phone conversation with, evidently, Kapil Sibal, who was among the government ministers actively looking to sabotage any deal that would offer concessions to Team Anna.Swami Agnivesh was heard telling “Kapilji”: “Yeh to pagal ki tarah ho raha hai” (It’s like he’s turned mad”) in context to activist Anna Hazare.[14][15][16]

Personal life [edit]

Kapil Sibal's father was H.L. Sibal, a renowned advocate, was rendered homeless along with his entire family during partition. In 1994, H.L. Sibal was named a "Living Legend of the Law" by the International Bar Association and in 2006, the Government of India honoured him with the ‘Padma Bhushan’ award for his distinguished services in the field of Public Affairs.[17] He married Nina Sibal in 1973, who died of breast cancer in 2000.[18] Amit and Akhil, Sibal's two sons from his first marriage, are both lawyers.[19] In 2005, Sibal married social activist Promila Sibal.[20][21][22]His brother is Kanwal Sibal who is the former Foreign Secretary of India.

  1. ^ "Council of Ministers – Who's Who – Government: National Portal of India". http://india.gov.in. Government of India. Retrieved 11 August 2010. 
  2. ^ Minister for Earth Sciences, Govt. of India: Shri Kapil Sibal Ministry of Earth Sciences website.
  3. ^ "No loss to Govt from 2G spectrum allocation: Sibal". Hindu Businessline. 7 January 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2011. 
  4. ^ Ninan, T N. "Sibal's 'zero loss' claim carries zero credibility". Rediff. Retrieved 6 December 2011. 
  5. ^ "I never said zero loss if spectrum was auctioned: Kapil Sibal". The Economic Times. PTI. 1 March 2011. Retrieved 28 December 2011. 
  6. ^ "CAG indictment adds to Kapil Sibal troubles". Daily News and Analysis. 11 July 2011. Retrieved 7 December 2011. 
  7. ^ http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-05-02/news/31538233_1_retrospectively-tax-overseas-transactions-warning-that-foreign-investment-ceo-vittorio-colao
  8. ^ http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/pranab-mukherjee-vodafone-tax-issue/1/24654.html
  9. ^ http://www.financialexpress.com/news/law-ministry-does-uturn-agrees-to-conciliation-in-vodafone-tax-case/1115991
  10. ^ Timmons, Heather (5 December 2011). "India Asks Google, Facebook to Screen User Content". Newyork Times. Retrieved 6 December 2011. 
  11. ^ Iyer, Srividya (7 December 2011). "Kapil Sibal under attack: Twitter, Facebook users target him". Times of India. Retrieved 28 December 2011. 
  12. ^ "Kapil Sibal's website hacked". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 30 November 2012. 
  13. ^ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/internet/IT-minister-Kapil-Sibals-website-defaced-by-hackers/articleshow/17428809.cms.  Missing or empty |title= (help)[dead link]
  14. ^ [1]
  15. ^ [2]
  16. ^ [3]
  17. ^ http://kapilsibalmp.com/kprofile.aspx
  18. ^ The Tribune, Chandigarh, India – Nation. Tribuneindia.com. Retrieved on 2011-01-22.
  19. ^ Basu, Arundhati (12 November 2005). "Legally speaking". The Telegraph (Calcutta, India). Retrieved 28 December 2011. 
  20. ^ Bishakha De Sarkar (24 August 2008). "‘When I’m in politics, I stick to the party line; when I’m a poet, I don’t’". The Telegraph (Calcutta, India). Retrieved 28 December 2011. 
  21. ^ Chadha, Kum Kum (10 February 2006). "Kapil da dhaba". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 28 December 2011. 
  22. ^ <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune-times/No-politricks-for-Kapil-Sibal/articleshow/44009939.cms>

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kapil Sibal
Political offices
Preceded by
Ashwani Kumar		 Minister of Law and Justice
2013-present		 Incumbent
Preceded by
Andimuthu Raja		 Minister of Communications and Information Technology
2010-present		 Incumbent
Preceded by
Arjun Singh		 Minister of Human Resource Development
2009–2012		 Succeeded by
Pallam Raju
Indian National Congress (7)
Authority control
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