The State vs. Jolly LL.B 2, commonly referred to as Jolly LL.B 2, is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language dark comedy directed and written by Subhash Kapoor. The film stars Akshay Kumar as the main character, Jagdishwar Mishra, taking over from Arshad Warsi, who played the lead in the 2013 original. The cast also includes Huma Qureshi, Annu Kapoor, Kumud Mishra, and Saurabh Shukla, who reprises his role from the first film. Set in Lucknow, the story revolves around a lawyer who takes on a powerful advocate to seek justice for the victim of a staged encounter involving a corrupt police officer.

Released worldwide on February 10, 2017, Jolly LL.B 2 was made on a budget of ₹450 million (US$5.4 million) and grossed ₹2 billion (US$24 million) globally, becoming both a critical and commercial success. The film received praise for Subhash Kapoor's writing and direction, as well as the performances of Akshay Kumar, Saurabh Shukla, and Annu Kapoor.

A third installment in the series is planned, with Akshay Kumar, Arshad Warsi, and Saurabh Shukla set to reprise their roles.

Plot

Jagdishwar "Jolly" Mishra (Akshay Kumar) is a lawyer in Lucknow, living with his wife Pushpa (Huma Qureshi) and their son. Despite his profession, Jolly works as a low-level assistant to Mr. Rizvi, one of Lucknow's most prominent lawyers, a position his father also held for 30 years. Jolly is street-smart and aspires to have his own law chamber. To raise money for this dream, he deceives a widow named Hina Qasim into believing that Mr. Rizvi will take her case, charging her ₹200,000 as a fee. When Hina learns of Jolly's deception, she takes her own life. Jolly soon discovers that Hina’s husband, Iqbal Qasim, was killed in a staged encounter on August 13, 2015, the day after their wedding, by Inspector Suryaveer Singh, who falsely identified him as a terrorist, Mohammed Iqbal Quadri, in official reports. Singh even killed a fellow constable, Baldev Singh Bhadauria, to make the encounter appear legitimate.

Overcome with guilt, Jolly decides to fight for justice for Hina by filing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL). In response, Singh hires Pramod Mathur (Annu Kapoor), the best lawyer in Lucknow, to defend him. Initially, Jolly is reprimanded by Justice Sunderlal Tripathi (Saurabh Shukla) for filing the PIL with insufficient evidence. However, Tripathi grants a hearing date, warning Jolly to gather solid evidence beforehand.

With the help of a bookie named Guru Ji in Varanasi, Jolly obtains a copy of the FIR and other documents related to the case, paying ₹500,000 by selling his chamber. He later tracks down Ram Kumar Bhadauria, the son of the constable killed in the fake encounter. However, Mathur manipulates the narco test video of the witness, turning it against Jolly. Although Justice Tripathi orders disciplinary action against Jolly for presenting allegedly false evidence, Mr. Rizvi, the chairman of the Disciplinary Committee, gives Jolly four days to prove his case, feeling guilty for not taking on the case himself.

Jolly and Pushpa, while reviewing Hina and Iqbal Qasim’s wedding album, notice an unidentified policeman from Kashmir named Fahim Bhat. Jolly travels to Kashmir and learns from Fahim, who is now suspended and jailed on false charges, that the real terrorist was not Iqbal Qasim. Fahim had filed a complaint against Inspector Singh, and Jolly manages to bring him to Lucknow. Meanwhile, Jolly pressures Police Commissioner V.K. Paul into revealing the truth by threatening to file a PIL against all of Paul's encounters. Mathur tries to prevent Fahim from testifying in court by staging a protest, but Justice Tripathi, unimpressed, decides to continue the proceedings.

During the midnight hearing, Fahim’s testimony reveals the truth, and with Paul’s help, Jolly presents Mohammed Iqbal Quadri, who had been posing as a Brahmin. Initially reluctant, Justice Tripathi allows Jolly to question Quadri, who eventually admits that he is indeed the terrorist Quadri and that he bribed Singh to let him go free. Justice Tripathi declares Iqbal Qasim innocent and orders Quadri’s arrest, sentencing Singh and his accomplices to life imprisonment for murder, tampering with evidence, misleading the court, and presenting false evidence. Jolly wins the case.

Cast

• Akshay Kumar as Advocate Jagdishwar "Jolly" Mishra
• Huma Qureshi as Pushpa Mishra (née Pandey), Jolly's wife
• Saurabh Shukla as Justice Sunderlal Tripathi
• Annu Kapoor as Advocate Pramod Mathur
• Ram Gopal Bajaj as Mr. Rizvi, Jolly's employer and senior advocate
• Kumud Mishra as Inspector Suryaveer Singh
• Sayani Gupta as Hina Qasim (née Siddiqui), Iqbal's wife
• Manav Kaul as Iqbal Qasim
• Inaamulhaq as Mohammed Iqbal Quadri, disguised as Pandit Ramkrishan Premkrishan Saraswat
• Sitaram Panchal as Sitaram, the farmer
• Sanjay Mishra as Guru Ji
• Brijendra Kala as Shiv Kumar Dubey, Jolly’s chamber arranger
• V.M. Badola as Mr. Mishra, Jolly's father
• Rajiv Gupta as Birbal, Jolly’s assistant
• Vinod Nagpal as Zahoor Siddiqui, Hina's father
• Avijit Dutt as Commissioner V.K. Paul
• Brijesh Sharma as CBI Officer Nair
• Sudhanva Deshpande as CBI Officer Basu
• Sunil Kumar Palwal as Fahim Bhat, Kashmir Police Constable
• Saurabh Agnihotri as Gul Mohammad
• Saran Tiwari as Tripathi's nephew
• Shubhangi Latkar as Dr. Hema Deshpande, narco specialist
• Zia Ahmed as Reporter
• Tarun Kumar as Baldev Singh Bhadauria
• Dadhi Pandey as Siraj Alam
• Sushil Pandey as Ram Kumar Bhadauria
• A.R. Rama as Mushtaq, Mathur's assistant
• Yakub Sayed as Jugal Kishore Mathur, Mathur's father
• Gurpal Singh as Judge Harbhajan Singh
• Rati Shankar Tripathi as Chacha in the opening cheating scene
• Mir Sarwar as Kashmir Police Inspector Hidayat Baig
• Ajay Singh as Rizvi's assistant