Prime Minister Narendra Modi replaced Kiren Rijiju with Arjun Ram Meghwal as union law and justice minister, shifting the former to the lightweight ministry of earth sciences.
The standalone change was widely considered a downgrade for Rijiju who would often forcefully take issue with the judiciary in public and sparked a buzz about the possible reason for the drastic move.
Rijiju's public claims that the government has a stake in the selection of Supreme Court and high court justices have worsened the perception of a conflict between the judiciary and executive branch.
Rijiju received a public response from CJI D Y Chandrachud, although many people questioned whether or not this was the main cause of the move. Law and justice have been assigned to Meghwal, a junior minister with independent charge of parliamentary affairs.
Political circles are unanimous that Rijiju, an MP from Arunachal Pradesh, has been brought down a notch and, that too, in an unambiguous manner, but were at a loss to divine the reason for the sudden strike. Interestingly, in his first tweet after the change, Rijiju thanked, besides the PM, CJI and judges of the SC.