Minister of Law and Justice

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 – 22 August 1968: Minister of Law
• 22 August 1968 – 18 March 1971: Minister of Law and Social Welfare
• 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

• Note: MoS, I/C – Minister of State (Independent Charge)

Portrait		Minister (Birth-Death) Constituency	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
			From	To	Period
Minister of Law
		B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) MP for Bombay	15 August 1947	11 October 1951	4 years, 57 days	Scheduled Castes Federation	Nehru I	Jawaharlal Nehru
		Kailash Nath Katju (1887–1968) MP for United Provinces	5 November 1951	13 May 1952	190 days	Indian National Congress
		Charu Chandra Biswas (1888–1960) MP for West Bengal (Rajya Sabha)	13 May 1952	17 April 1957	4 years, 339 days		Nehru II
							Nehru III
		Ashoke Kumar Sen (1913–1996) MP for Calcutta North West (MoS until 12 May 1958)	12 May 1957	2 April 1962	8 years, 257 days
			2 April 1962	27 May 1964			Nehru IV
			27 May 1964	9 June 1964			Nanda I	Gulzarilal Nanda (acting)
			9 June 1964	11 January 1966			Shastri	Lal Bahadur Shastri
			11 January 1966	24 January 1966			Nanda II	Gulzarilal Nanda (Acting)
		Gopal Swarup Pathak (1896–1982) MP for Uttar Pradesh (Rajya Sabha)	24 January 1966	13 March 1967	1 year, 48 days		Indira I	Indira Gandhi
		Panampilly Govinda Menon (1906–1970) MP for Mukundapuram	13 March 1967	22 August 1968	1 year, 162 days
Minister of Law and Social Welfare
		Panampilly Govinda Menon (1906–1970) MP for Mukundapuram	22 August 1968	23 May 1970	1 year, 274 days	Indian National Congress	Indira I	Indira Gandhi
		Kengal Hanumanthaiah (1908–1980) MP for Bangalore City	26 June 1970	18 March 1971	265 days
Minister of Law and Justice
		H. R. Gokhale (1915–1978) MP for Mumbai North West	18 March 1971	5 February 1973	1 year, 324 days	Indian National Congress	Indira II	Indira Gandhi
Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs
		H. R. Gokhale (1915–1978) MP for Mumbai North West	5 February 1973	24 March 1977	4 years, 47 days	Indian National Congress	Indira II	Indira Gandhi
		Shanti Bhushan (1925–2023) MP for Uttar Pradesh (Rajya Sabha)	26 March 1977	28 July 1979	2 years, 124 days	Janata Party	Desai	Morarji Desai
		Justice (Retd.) Hans Raj Khanna (1912–2008) Unelected	30 July 1979	3 August 1979	4 days	Janata Party (Secular)	Charan Singh	Charan Singh
		Shyam Nath Kacker (born unknown) Unelected	3 August 1979	14 January 1980	164 days
		P. Shiv Shankar (1929–2017) MP for Secunderabad	14 January 1980	15 January 1982	2 years, 1 day	Indian National Congress	Indira III	Indira Gandhi
		Jagannath Kaushal (1915–2001) MP for Chandigarh	15 January 1982	31 October 1984	2 years, 290 days
Minister of Law and Justice
		Jagannath Kaushal (1915–2001) MP for Chandigarh	4 November 1984	31 December 1984	57 days	Indian National Congress	Rajiv I	Rajiv Gandhi
		Ashoke Kumar Sen (1913–1996) MP for Calcutta North West	31 December 1984	31 March 1987	2 years, 90 days		Rajiv II
		P. Shiv Shankar (1929–2017) MP for Gujarat (Rajya Sabha)	25 July 1987	14 February 1988	204 days
		Bindeshwari Dubey (1921–1993) MP for Bihar (Rajya Sabha)	14 February 1988	26 June 1988	133 days
		B. Shankaranand (1925–2009) MP for Chikkodi	25 June 1988	2 December 1989	1 year, 160 days
		Dinesh Goswami (1935–1991) MP for Assam (Rajya Sabha)	6 December 1989	10 November 1990	339 days	Asom Gana Parishad	V. P. Singh	V. P. Singh
		Subramanian Swamy (born 1939) MP for Uttar Pradesh (Rajya Sabha)	21 November 1990	21 June 1991	212 days	Janata Party	Chandra Shekhar	Chandra Shekhar
Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs
		Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy (1920–2001) MP for Kurnool	21 June 1991	9 October 1992	1 year, 110 days	Indian National Congress	Rao	P. V. Narasimha Rao
		P. V. Narasimha Rao (1921–2004) MP for Nandyal (Prime Minister)	9 October 1992	16 May 1996	3 years, 220 days
		Ram Jethmalani (1923–2019) MP for Maharashtra (Rajya Sabha)	16 May 1996	1 June 1996	16 days	Independent	Vajpayee I	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
		P. Chidambaram (born 1945) MP for Sivaganga	1 June 1996	29 June 1996	28 days	Tamil Maanila Congress	Deve Gowda	H. D. Deve Gowda
		Ramakant Khalap (born 1946) MP for Panaji (MoS, I/C)	29 June 1996	21 April 1997	1 year, 263 days	Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party
			21 April 1997	19 March 1998			Gujral	Inder Kumar Gujral
		M. Thambidurai (born 1947) MP for Karur	19 March 1998	8 April 1999	1 year, 20 days	All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	Vajpayee II	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
		Rangarajan Kumaramangalam (1952–2000) MP for Tiruchirappalli	9 April 1999	8 June 1999	60 days	Bharatiya Janata Party
		Ram Jethmalani (1923–2019) MP for Maharashtra	8 June 1999	13 October 1999	1 year, 45 days	Independent
			13 October 1999	23 July 2000			Vajpayee III
		Arun Jaitley (1952–2019) MP for Uttar Pradesh (Rajya Sabha) (MoS, I/C until 7 November 2000)	24 July 2000	1 July 2002	1 year, 342 days	Bharatiya Janata Party
Minister of Law and Justice
		Jana Krishnamurthi (1928–2007) MP for Gujarat (Rajya Sabha)	1 July 2002	29 January 2003	212 days	Bharatiya Janata Party	Vajpayee III	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
		Arun Jaitley (1952–2019) MP for Uttar Pradesh (Rajya Sabha)	29 January 2003	22 May 2004	1 year, 114 days
		H. R. Bhardwaj (1939–2020) MP for Madhya Pradesh, until 2006 (Rajya Sabha) MP for Haryana, from 2006 (Rajya Sabha)	23 May 2004	22 May 2009	4 years, 364 days	Indian National Congress	Manmohan I	Manmohan Singh
		Veerappa Moily (born 1940) MP for Chikballapur	28 May 2009	12 July 2011	2 years, 45 days		Manmohan II
		Salman Khurshid (born 1953) MP for Farrukhabad	12 July 2011	28 October 2012	1 year, 108 days
		Ashwani Kumar (born 1952) MP for Punjab (Rajya Sabha)	28 October 2012	11 May 2013	348 days
		Kapil Sibal (born 1948) MP for Chandni Chowk	11 May 2013	26 May 2014	1 year, 15 days
		Ravi Shankar Prasad (born 1954) MP for Bihar (Rajya Sabha)	26 May 2014	9 November 2014	167 days	Bharatiya Janata Party	Modi I	Narendra Modi
		D. V. Sadananda Gowda (born 1953) MP for Bangalore North	9 November 2014	5 July 2016	1 year, 239 days
		Ravi Shankar Prasad (born 1954) MP for Bihar (Rajya Sabha), till 2019 MP for Patna Sahib, from 2019	5 July 2016	30 May 2019	5 years, 2 days
			31 May 2019	7 July 2021			Modi II
		Kiren Rijiju (born 1971) MP for Arunachal West	7 July 2021	18 May 2023	1 year, 315 days
		Arjun Ram Meghwal (born 1953) MP for Bikaner (MoS, I/C)	18 May 2023	Incumbent	162 days

• Law & Justice Minister Ministry, Official website