H. R. Bhardwaj
| H. R. Bhardwaj | |
|---|---|
| 16th Governor of Karnataka | |
|
In office 25 June 2009 – 28 June 2014 |
|
| Preceded by | Rameshwar Thakur |
| Succeeded by | Konijeti Rosaiah |
| 20th Governor of Kerala | |
|
In office 1 March 2012 – 9 March 2013 |
|
| Preceded by | M. O. H. Farook |
| Succeeded by | Nikhil Kumar |
| Minister of Law and Justice | |
|
In office 22 May 2004 – 28 May 2009 |
|
| Preceded by | Arun Jaitley |
| Succeeded by | Veerappa Moily |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
17 May 1937 Gahri Sampla Kiloi, Rohtak district, Haryana, Punjab Province, British Raj (now present-day India) |
| Political party | Indian National Congress |
| Religion | Hinduism |
Hansraj Bhardwaj (born 17 May 1937) is an Indian politician who was Governor of Karnataka from 2009 to 2014; he has also been Governor of Kerala from 2012 until 2013. He is a member of the Indian National Congress. He holds the record of having the second longest tenure in Law Ministry since independence, after Ashoke Kumar Sen. He was the minister of state for nine years and a cabinet minister for law and justice for five years. At the end of his five-yeae term in 2014, Governor of Tamil Nadu, former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Konijeti Rosaiah has replaced Bharadwaj as Governor of Karnataka.
On 16 January 2012, he was given the additional charge of Governor of Kerala, which he abandoned on 9 March 2013.
Bhardwaj was first elected to the Rajya Sabha in April 1982. He served as Minister of State in the Ministry of Law and Justice from 31 December 1984 to November 1989 and was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha in April 1988. He was then Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the Ministry of Planning and Programme Implementation from 21 June 1991 to 2 July 1992 and Minister of State in the Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs from 3 July 1992 to May 1996. He was again re-elected to the Rajya Sabha in April 1994 and April 2000, and from 22 May 2004 to 28 May 2009 he served as Union Cabinet Minister of Law and Justice.
Having previously represented Madhya Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha, Bhardwaj was instead elected to the Rajya Sabha from Haryana on 20 March 2006, without opposition.
Bhardwaj introduced the concept of rural courts (gram nyayalayas) during the UPA-I government.
A media shy minister, the old Gandhi family loyalist handled the most sensitive and controversial cases in the Manmohan Singh cabinet between 2004 and 2009.
From Bofors to office of profit and the failed attempt to remove Navin Chawla as election commissioner, were all deftly handled by the Congress veteran to the satisfaction of the Prime Minister and party leadership
In March 2009, H. R. BharadwaJ was criticized for taking the initiative to de-freeze two bank accounts of Ottavio Quattrocchi, an accused in the Bofors Scam case. In particular, it appears he did not consult the investigating agency CBI which had gotten the accounts frozen.
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