Minister of Law and Justice

Minister of Law and Justice
*Vidhi aur Nyaay Mantrī*
Minister of Law and Justice; Vidhi aur Nyaay Mantrī
	Emblem of India
	File:KirenRijiju.jpgIncumbent; Kiren Rijiju; since 7 July 2021
	Ministry of Law and Justice
Style	The Honourable
Nominator	Prime Minister
Appointer	President (on the advice of the Prime Minister)
Inaugural holder	Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar
Formation	15 August 1947

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. Kiren Rijiju is currently the Cabinet Minister of Law and Justice of India.

List of Law & Justice Ministers[edit]

No.	Portrait	Name	Term of office			Prime Minister	Party
1		B. R. Ambedkar	15 August 1947	11 October 1951	4 years, 57 days	Jawaharlal Nehru	Scheduled Castes Federation
2		Kailash Nath Katju	5 November 1951	13 May 1952	190 days		Indian National Congress
3		Charu Chandra Biswas	13 May 1952	17 April 1957	4 years, 339 days
4		Ashoke Kumar Sen	12 May 1957	24 January 1966	8 years, 257 days
4		Ashoke Kumar Sen	12 May 1957	24 January 1966	8 years, 257 days	Lal Bahadur Shastri
5		Gopal Swarup Pathak	24 January 1966	13 March 1967	1 year, 48 days	Indira Gandhi
6		Panampilly Govinda Menon	13 March 1967	23 May 1970	3 years, 71 days
7		Kengal Hanumanthaiah	26 June 1970	18 March 1971	265 days
8		H. R. Gokhale	18 March 1971	24 March 1977	6 years, 6 days
9		Shanti Bhushan	26 March 1977	28 July 1979	2 years, 124 days	Morarji Desai	Janata Party
10		Hans Raj Khanna	30 July 1979	3 August 1979	4 days	Charan Singh	Janata Party (Secular)
11		S. N. Kacker	3 August 1979	14 January 1980	164 days	Charan Singh	Janata Party (Secular)
12	File:SHIV SHANKER, SHRI P.jpg	P. Shiv Shankar	14 January 1980	15 January 1982	2 years, 1 day	Indira Gandhi	Indian National Congress
13		Jagannath Kaushal	15 January 1982	31 December 1984	2 years, 351 days	Indira Gandhi
13		Jagannath Kaushal	15 January 1982	31 December 1984	2 years, 351 days	Rajiv Gandhi
(4)		Ashoke Kumar Sen	31 December 1984	31 March 1987	2 years, 90 days (total 10 years, 347 days)
(12)	File:SHIV SHANKER, SHRI P.jpg	P. Shiv Shankar	25 July 1987	14 February 1988	204 days (total 2 years, 205 days)
14		Bindeshwari Dubey	14 February 1988	26 June 1988	132 days
15		B. Shankaranand	25 June 1988	2 December 1989	1 year, 160 days
16		Dinesh Goswami	6 December 1989	10 November 1990	339 days	V. P. Singh	Asom Gana Parishad
17		Subramanian Swamy	21 November 1990	21 June 1991	212 days	Chandra Shekhar	Janata Party
18		Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy	21 June 1991	9 October 1992	1 year, 110 days	P. V. Narasimha Rao	Indian National Congress
19		P. V. Narasimha Rao	9 October 1992	16 May 1996	3 years, 220 days	P. V. Narasimha Rao	Indian National Congress
20		Ram Jethmalani	16 May 1996	1 June 1996	16 days	Atal Bihari Vajpayee	Independent
21		P Chidambaram	1 June 1996	29 June 1996	28 days	H. D. Dewe Gowda	Tamil Maanila Congress
22		Ramakant Khalap (Independent Charge)	29 June 1996	19 March 1998	1 year, 263 days	H. D. Dewe Gowda	Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party
22		Ramakant Khalap (Independent Charge)	29 June 1996	19 March 1998	1 year, 263 days	Inder Kumar Gujral	Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party
23		M. Thambidurai	19 March 1998	8 April 1999	1 year, 20 days	Atal Bihari Vajpayee	All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
24		P R Kumaramangalam	9 April 1999	8 June 1999	60 days		Bharatiya Janata Party
(20)		Ram Jethmalani	8 June 1999	23 July 2000	1 year, 45 days (total 1 year, 61 days)		Independent
25		Arun Jaitley (Independent Charge till 7 November 2000)	24 July 2000	1 July 2002	1 year, 342 days		Bharatiya Janata Party
26		Jana Krishnamurthy	1 July 2002	29 January 2003	212 days
(25)		Arun Jaitley	29 January 2003	22 May 2004	1 year, 114 days (total 3 years, 91 days)
27		H. R. Bhardwaj	23 May 2004	22 May 2009	4 years, 364 days	Manmohan Singh	Indian National Congress
28		Veerappa Moily	28 May 2009	12 July 2011	2 years, 45 days
29		Salman Khurshid	12 July 2011	28 October 2012	1 year, 108 days
30		Ashwani Kumar	28 October 2012	11 May 2013	195 days
31		Kapil Sibal	11 May 2013	26 May 2014	1 year, 15 days
32		Ravi Shankar Prasad	26 May 2014	9 November 2014	167 days	Narendra Modi	Bharatiya Janata Party
33		D. V. Sadananda Gowda	9 November 2014	5 July 2016	1 year, 239 days
(32)		Ravi Shankar Prasad	5 July 2016	7 July 2021	5 years, 2 days (total 5 years, 169 days)
34	File:KirenRijiju.jpg	Kiren Rijiju	7 July 2021	Incumbent	3 years, 151 days

List of Ministers of State[edit]

Ministers of State For Law and Justice
Minister of state	Portrait	Political party		Term		Years
P. P. Chaudhary		Bharatiya Janata Party		5 July 2016	30 May 2019	2 years, 329 days
S. P. Singh Baghel		Bharatiya Janata Party		7 July 2021	Incumbent	3 years, 151 days

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Law & Justice Minister Ministry, Official website

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