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Ravi Shankar Prasad

28 July 2017

The law and commerce ministries, including law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, met with a number of stakeholders of the Indian legal profession today, paving the way for the first stage of allowing foreign law firms to set up shop in India.

21 April 2017

Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today that the government had not yet taken a decision on the Law Commission proposals to overhaul the regulation of the legal profession, which included the banning of lawyer strikes and induction of non-elected, non-lawyer members into bar councils.

06 July 2016

The new Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Wednesday that "comprehensive consultations" were required before taking steps towards a Uniform Civil Code (UCC).

05 July 2016

Communications and Information Technology minister and lawyer Ravi Shankar Prasad has been made the law minister again in today's cabinet reshuffle, replacing DV Sadananda Gowda, reported DNA and others.

11 November 2014

Ex Karnataka chief minister and former railways minister DV Sadananda Gowda has become the latest minister of law and justice in the first major cabinet reshuffle of the new government, following telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who held the law portfolio from 26 May 2014, reported PTI.

Gowda will not hold any other ministry portfolios.

30 July 2014

The Law Commission chairman Justice AP Shah has recommended that the tenure of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) should be fixed to at least two years, and that the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) should consist of at least four judges, including the CJI as chairperson, reported The Hindu and the Indian Express.

The minimum CJI tenure should take effect after the current roster of sitting Supreme Court judges in line for the CJI post will have retired by August 2022, with Justice NV Ramana as the last CJI under the old system, recommended Shah in a note he sent to the law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Furthermore, he recommended that judges should have a three year “cooling off period” after retirement before they take up any government jobs. The JAC, apart from the four sitting Supreme Court judges, should also include the law minister, with an eminent jurist and an eminent member of civil society picked by the CJI, the prime minister and the leader of the Lok Sabha opposition.

Shah’s proposal was reportedly discussed in Monday’s meeting between the law ministry and top lawyers and retired judges.

28 July 2014

The central government and its law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad are set to meet in Delhi with a number of advocates today, to discuss the shape of a constitutional amendment on judicial appointments, reported the Times of India.

The panel to give feedback on a possible change to the collegium system includes “former CJIs AM Ahmadi, AS Anand, VN Khare and RC Lahoti; former AGs K Parasaran, Soli Sorabjee and Ashok Desai; eminent lawyers Fali Nariman, Shanti Bhushan, Anil Divan, KK Venugopal and Harish Salve; eminent jurists NR Madhava Menon and Upendra Baxi [and] attorney general Mukul Rohatgi and solicitor general Ranjit Kumar,” according to the TOI.

The previous government's draft Judicial Appointments Commission Bill proposed a panel of the CJI and two Supreme Court judges, the law minister as well as two eminent citizens, who will be nominated by the prime minister, the CJI and the Lok Sabha's Leader of the Opposition - a position currently unfilled.

02 July 2014

During the retirement function of Justice BS Chauhan, Chief Justice of India (CJI) RM Lodha said that he had requested Gopal Subramanium to withdraw his resignation from the Supreme Court bench elevation process, reported the Hindustan Times. However, the senior counsel wrote a "30-word regret letter" reiterating his withdrawal from the process, which the CJI discussed with the collegium and two future CJI's and decided not to "pursue" further.

Lodha also said at the function that he was critical of the government's decision to separate Subramanium's file from the other three candidates who were recommended by the collegium. "I have taken objection to the segregation, unilaterally done by the executive without my knowledge and concurrence. It was not proper."

"In the last 20 years, I have fought for independence of the judiciary and for me this is one subject that is non-negotiable... I will be the first man to leave this chair if I know independence of the judiciary has been compromised; I will not hold my office even for a second then."

Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the Hindustan Times: "The government has the highest regard for the judiciary, including the independence of the Supreme Court and all other courts of India. It also has the highest regard for the Chief Justice of India."

26 May 2014

BJP veteran, senior advocate Ravi Shankar Prasad has been assigned the union law ministry, tweeted journalist Ashok Bagariya.

Prasad was designated a senior at the Patna high court in 1999 and at the Supreme Court in 2000, the same year as he also became a member of parliament. He became the Minister of State (Coal and Mines) in 2001 and Minister of State in the Ministry of Law and Justice in 2002, where he prepared a bill amending the Representation of People Act and sped up the process of fast track courts, as reported by the Business Standard.