In a major Cabinet reshuffle, Kiren Rijiju was replaced as the Law Minister and transferred to the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences. Arjun Ram Meghwal has been appointed as the new Law Minister. Rijiju, who previously served as the Sports Minister and Minister of State for Minority Affairs, took on the role of Law Minister after Ravi Shankar Prasad’s resignation on July 7, 2021. The Ministry of Earth Sciences was previously overseen by Union Minister Jitendra Singh.
Meghwal, currently serving as the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Minister of State for Culture, will now also take on the additional responsibility of Minister of State in the Ministry of Law and Justice. The central government has been actively working towards implementing a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and has held several high-level meetings on the matter. States governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have already initiated the process of adopting the UCC.
The Law Ministry was entrusted with the task of expediting the nationwide implementation of the UCC. However, there have been notable delays in the process. According to sources, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed dissatisfaction with the slow progress. Sources reported that Kiren Rijiju while holding the Law and Justice portfolio, faced criticism from the Prime Minister. Rijiju had frequent disagreements with the Supreme Court regarding judicial appointments. In November of the previous year, he publicly criticized the collegium system of appointing judges, stating that it was “alien” to the Constitution. In January, he wrote to Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud requesting the inclusion of government nominees in the collegium system.
Rijiju’s public criticism of the Collegium system caused discomfort within the government. However, his removal as Law Minister was postponed due to the upcoming Karnataka elections.
Sources have revealed that the government had decided to relieve Rijiju of his Law Minister responsibilities immediately after the conclusion of the Karnataka elections. The decision was made approximately 15 days ago.