Dr. Anju Rathi Rana is the Union Law Secretary to the Government of India, heading the Department of Legal Affairs under the Ministry of Law and Justice. A senior officer of the Indian Legal Service, she is the first lady to hold this position.

With over 30 years of experience spanning legal practice, public prosecution and government advisory, Dr. Rana has built a distinguished career at the intersection of law and public service. She began as an advocate in the District Courts at Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, and then served for nearly two decades as Public Prosecutor, Government of NCT of Delhi representing the State across a wide spectrum of legal matters. She was also involved in imparting training to officers of Delhi Police, contributing to capacity building within the prosecution service.

Dr. Rana is an ex-officio member of several key institutions, including the Law Commission of India, the India International Arbitration Centre, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India and the Indian Law Institute—where she also serves on the Governing Council, Executive Council and Finance Committee. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru; the Executive Council of the Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies; and the Governing Body of the Indian Council of Arbitration.

She has been leading the policy and legislative initiatives in the domain of commercial dispute resolution under key enactments including the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, the Commercial Courts Act, 2015, and the Mediation Act, 2023, aimed at inter-alia improving the Ease of Doing Business in the country.

She has represented India at several international platforms, including the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and BRICS, contributing to dialogues on legal cooperation, cross-border governance and security. Under her leadership, the Department is actively contributing to key bilateral and multilateral agreements, such as the Indo-UK Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, taking forward cooperation under the India–Singapore MoU on Cooperation in Law and Dispute Resolution, and India-UK MoU in the sphere of law and justice and ongoing negotiations for Bilateral Investment Treaties, with several countries.

A 2017 recipient of the Lok Sabha Research Fellowship, Dr. Rana has navigated the many layers of India’s legal and administrative machinery with institutional insight and a deep-rooted commitment to public service.