The minister of law and justice is the head of the Ministry of Law and Justice and one of the cabinet ministers of the Government of India. The first law and justice minister of independent India was B. R. Ambedkar, who served in first Nehru ministry during 1947–52. On 18 May 2023, Arjun Ram Meghwal replaced Kiren Rijiju and became the minister of state (independent charge) of Ministry of Law and Justice.
Titles Ever since the ministry's creation in 1947, the ministry had undergone several changes and adopted various name. The present form of "Ministry of Law and Justice" was adopted in July 2002 after the Department of Company Affairs of the erstwhile Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs was separated and made an independent ministry which was later known as the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
15 August 1947 18 March 1971: Minister of Law 18 March 1971 5 February 1973: Minister of Law and Justice 5 February 1973 31 October 1984: Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs 4 November 1984 21 June 1991: Minister of Law and Justice 21 June 1991 1 July 2002: Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs 1 July 2002 present: Minister of Law and Justice
Cabinet ministers Note: MoS, I/C Minister of State (Independent Charge)
PortraitMinisterTerm of officePolitical party Ministry Prime Minister From To Period Minister of Law 1 B. R. Ambedkar 15 August1947 11 October1951 Scheduled Castes Federation Nehru I Jawaharlal Nehru 2 Kailash Nath Katju 5 November1951 13 May1952 Indian National Congress 3 Charu Chandra Biswas 13 May1952 17 April1957 Nehru II 4 Ashoke Kumar Sen(MoS until 12 May 1958) 18 April1957 24 January1966 Nehru III Nehru IV Nanda I Gulzarilal Nanda Shastri Lal Bahadur Shastri Nanda II Gulzarilal Nanda 5 Gopal Swarup Pathak 24 January1966 13 March1967 Indira I Indira Gandhi 6 Panampilly Govinda Menon 13 March1967 23 May1970 Indira II 7 Kengal Hanumanthaiah 26 June1970 18 March1971 Minister of Law and Justice 8 H. R. Gokhale 18 March1971 5 February1973 Indian National Congress (R) Indira III Indira Gandhi Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs (8) H. R. Gokhale 5 February1973 24 March1977 Indian National Congress (R) Indira III Indira Gandhi 9 Shanti Bhushan 26 March1977 28 July1979 Janata Party Desai Morarji Desai 10 Hans Raj Khanna 30 July1979 3 August1979 Janata Party (Secular) Charan Charan Singh 11 Shyam Nath Kacker 3 August1979 14 January1980 12 P. Shiv Shankar 14 January1980 15 January1982 Indian National Congress (I) Indira IV Indira Gandhi 13 Jagannath Kaushal 15 January1982 31 October1984 Minister of Law and Justice (13) Jagannath Kaushal 4 November1984 31 December1984 Indian National Congress (I) Rajiv I Rajiv Gandhi (4) Ashoke Kumar Sen 31 December1984 31 March1987 Rajiv II (12) P. Shiv Shankar 25 July1987 14 February1988 14 Bindeshwari Dubey 14 February1988 26 June1988 15 B. Shankaranand 26 June1988 2 December1989 16 Dinesh Goswami 6 December1989 10 November1990 Asom Gana Parishad Vishwanath Vishwanath Pratap Singh 17 Subramanian Swamy 21 November1990 21 June1991 Janata Party Chandra Shekhar Chandra Shekhar Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs 18 Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy 21 June1991 9 October1992 Indian National Congress (I) Rao P. V. Narasimha Rao P. V. Narasimha Rao(Prime Minister) 9 October1992 16 May1996 19 Ram Jethmalani 16 May1996 1 June1996 Independent Vajpayee I Atal Bihari Vajpayee 20 P. Chidambaram 1 June1996 29 June1996 Tamil Maanila Congress Deve Gowda H. D. Deve Gowda 21 Ramakant Khalap(MoS, I/C) 29 June1996 19 March1998 Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party Gujral Inder Kumar Gujral 22 M. Thambidurai 19 March1998 8 April1999 . All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Vajpayee II Atal Bihari Vajpayee 23 Rangarajan Kumaramangalam 9 April1999 8 June1999 Bharatiya Janata Party (19) Ram Jethmalani 8 June1999 23 July2000 Independent Vajpayee III 24 Arun Jaitley(MoS, I/C until 7 November 2000) 24 July2000 1 July2002 Bharatiya Janata Party Minister of Law and Justice 25 Jana Krishnamurthi 1 July2002 29 January2003 Bharatiya Janata Party Vajpayee III Atal Bihari Vajpayee (24) Arun Jaitley 29 January2003 22 May2004 26 H. R. Bhardwaj 23 May2004 22 May2009 Indian National Congress Manmohan I Manmohan Singh 27 Veerappa Moily 28 May2009 12 July2011 Manmohan II 28 Salman Khurshid 12 July2011 28 October2012 29 Ashwani Kumar 28 October2012 11 May2013 30 Kapil Sibal 11 May2013 26 May2014 31 Ravi Shankar Prasad 27 May2014 9 November2014 Bharatiya Janata Party Modi I Narendra Modi 32 D. V. Sadananda Gowda 9 November2014 5 July2016 (31) Ravi Shankar Prasad 5 July2016 7 July2021 Modi II 33 Kiren Rijiju 7 July2021 18 May2023 34 Arjun Ram Meghwal(MoS, I/C) 18 May2023 Incumbent Modi III
Ministers of state PortraitMinisterTerm of officePolitical party Ministry Prime Minister From To Period Minister of State for Law 1 Hari Vinayak Pataskar(Minister of Legal Affairs,from 23 August 1955) 7 December1954 16 April1957 Indian National Congress Nehru II Jawaharlal Nehru 2 Ramchandra Martand Hajarnavis 29 October1965 11 January1966 Indian National Congress Shastri Lal Bahadur Shastri 3 C. R. Pattabhiraman 24 January1966 13 March1967 Indian National Congress Indira I Indira Gandhi 4 Kotha Raghuramaiah 13 March1967 18 March1967 Indira II 5 Phulrenu Guha 14 February1969 26 June1970 Indian National Congress (R) Indira II 6 Jagannath Rao 27 June1970 18 March1971 Minister of State for Law and Justice 7 Nitiraj Singh Chaudhary 18 March1971 5 February1973 Indian National Congress (R) Indira III Indira Gandhi Minister of State for Law, Justice and Company Affairs (7) Nitiraj Singh Chaudhary 5 February1973 17 October1974 Indian National Congress (R) Indira III Indira Gandhi 8 Dajisaheb Chavan 8 July1973 9 Sarojini Mahishi 10 October1974 3 January1976 10 V. A. Seyid Muhammad 25 December1975 24 March1977 11 Narsingh Yadav 14 August1977 11 July1978 Janata Party Desai Morarji Desai 12 S. D. Patil 20 February1979 28 July1979 13 A. A. Rahim 15 January1982 2 September1982 Indian National Congress (I) Indira IV Indira Gandhi Minister of State for Law and Justice 14 H. R. Bhardwaj 31 December1984 2 December1989 Indian National Congress (I) Rajiv II Rajiv Gandhi Minister of State for Law, Justice and Company Affairs 15 Rangarajan Kumaramangalam 21 June1991 2 September1992 Indian National Congress (I) Rao P. V. Narasimha Rao (14) H. R. Bhardwaj 2 September1992 16 May1996 16 O. Rajagopal 13 October1999 24 July2000 Bharatiya Janata Party Vajpayee III Atal Bihari Vajpayee Minister of State for Law and Justice 17 Ravi Shankar Prasad 1 July2002 29 January2003 Bharatiya Janata Party Vajpayee III Atal Bihari Vajpayee 18 P. C. Thomas 24 May2003 22 May2004 Kerala Congress 19 K. Venkatapathy 23 May2004 22 May2009 Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Manmohan I Manmohan Singh 20 P. P. Chaudhary 5 July2016 30 May2019 Bharatiya Janata Party Modi I Narendra Modi 21 S. P. Singh Baghel 7 July2021 18 May2023 Bharatiya Janata Party Modi II
Length of Tenure Cabinet Ministers #Name of MinisterPartyTermsLength of term Longest tenure Total tenure 1 Ashoke Kumar Sen 6 4 years, 357 days 11 years, 6 days 2 H. R. Gokhale 2 4 years, 47 days 6 years, 6 days 3 Ravi Shankar Prasad 3 2 years, 329 days 5 years, 167 days 4 H. R. Bhardwaj 1 4 years, 364 days 4 years, 364 days 5 Charu Chandra Biswas 1 4 years, 339 days 4 years, 339 days 6 B. R. Ambedkar 1 4 years, 57 days 4 years, 57 days 7 P. V. Narasimha Rao 1 3 years, 219 days 3 years, 219 days 8 Arjun Ram Meghwal 2 1 years, 324 days 9 Arun Jaitley 2 1 years, 342 days 3 years, 90 days 10 Panampilly Govinda Menon 1 3 years, 71 days 3 years, 71 days 11 Jagannath Kaushal 2 2 years, 289 days 2 years, 346 days 12 P. Shiv Shankar 2 2 years, 1 day 2 years, 205 days 13 Shanti Bhushan 1 2 years, 124 days 2 years, 124 days 14 Veerappa Moily 1 2 years, 45 days 2 years, 45 days 15 Kiren Rijiju 1 1 years, 315 days 1 years, 315 days 16 Ramakant Khalap 2 0 years, 332 days 1 year, 263 days 17 D. V. Sadananda Gowda 1 1 years, 238 days 1 years, 238 days 18 B. Shankaranand 1 1 years, 160 days 1 years, 160 days 19 Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy 1 1 years, 110 days 1 years, 110 days 20 Salman Khurshid 1 1 years, 108 days 1 years, 108 days 21 Ram Jethmalani 3 0 years, 284 days 1 year, 62 days 22 Gopal Swarup Pathak 1 1 years, 48 days 1 years, 48 days 23 M. Thambidurai 1 1 years, 20 days 1 years, 20 days 24 Kapil Sibal 1 1 years, 15 days 1 years, 15 days 25 Dinesh Goswami 1 0 years, 339 days 0 years, 339 days 26 Kengal Hanumanthaiah 1 0 years, 265 days 0 years, 265 days 27 Subramanian Swamy 1 0 years, 212 days 0 years, 212 days 28 Jana Krishnamurthi 1 0 years, 212 days 0 years, 212 days 29 Ashwani Kumar 1 0 years, 195 days 0 years, 195 days 30 Kailash Nath Katju 1 0 years, 190 days 0 years, 190 days 31 Shyam Nath Kacker 1 0 years, 164 days 0 years, 164 days 32 Bindeshwari Dubey 1 0 years, 133 days 0 years, 133 days 33 Rangarajan Kumaramangalam 1 0 years, 60 days 0 years, 60 days 34 P. Chidambaram 1 0 years, 28 days 0 years, 28 days 35 Hans Raj Khanna 1 0 years, 4 days 0 years, 4 days
References
External links Law & Justice Minister Ministry, Official website
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