In a surprise move, the Narendra Modi government on May 18 removed Kiren Rijiju as Law Minister and appointed Arjun Ram Meghwal as his replacement.
Mr. Meghwal, a Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, has been made Minister of State with independent charge of the Law and Justice Ministry in addition to his other responsibilities.
A communique from the Rashtrapati Bhavan announced the changes in the responsibilities of Ministers, including that of Minister of State for Law S.P. Singh Baghel being moved in the same rank to the Ministry of Health.
Screenshot of Kiren Rijiju’s Twitter profile.
The change of guard at the Law Ministry comes at a time when there is a perception that the judiciary and the Centre have been on a collision course.
“The executive and the judiciary have a cordial relationship, and it will stay cordial and constitutional. The boundaries are already there,” Mr. Meghwal told reporters soon after taking over.
Mr. Rijiju changed his Twitter bio to the newly allocated ministry, and said, “It has been been a privilege and an honour to serve as Union Minister of Law & Justice under the guidance of Hon’ble PM Shri @narendramodi ji. I thank honble Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, all Judges of Supreme Court, Chief Justices and Judges of High Courts, Lower Judiciary & entire Law officers for the huge support in ensuring delivering ease of Justice and providing legal services for our citizens”.
There are many reasons being advanced for the removal of Mr. Rijiju from the crucial law portfolio, not least the slow progress on important legislative business such as the Uniform Civil Code, one of the three core ideological issues of the BJP (apart from the removal of special status for Jammu and Kashmir and the construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya) that the government wants to go forward on, with just a year to spare before the next Lok Sabha polls.
Mr. Rijiju has also been very critical about the existing collegium system of appointing judges to the higher judiciary. He recently courted controversy when he claimed that a section of the retired Supreme Court judges were part of the “anti-India gang”. While the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, 2014 had been passed unanimously by Parliament, and 17 out of 29 States had ratified it. Mr. Rijiju’s comments had raised suspicions in the minds of Opposition leaders that the ruling party’s desire for control over judicial appointments was politically motivated rather than a clash over constitutional issues.
Mr. Meghwal replacing Mr. Rijiju points to the fact that possibly for the first time ever, the Law Ministry is not being helmed by a Cabinet Minister. The choice of Mr. Meghwal is said to be because of his administrative experience as an IAS officer in Rajasthan, with the State going to polls later this year.
Mr. Meghwal denied that polls in Rajasthan were a consideration in his appointment, and said that his priority would be “Justice should be served to all and cases pending in courts should be as less as possible.”
