Original story: Law minister Veerappa Moily (pictured) could be shifted out of the law ministry to another department in a government cabinet reshuffle expected to be announced at 5pm today, according to media speculation.

With a drastic cabinet reshuffle apparently imminent, IANS reported: “[Salman] Khurshid may be given law portfolio with M. Veerappa Moily shifted to human resource development [HRD] which is currently with Kapil Sibal.”

The Express also speculated that Moily could be shifted to the HRD, in which case the Law Ministry was “likely to either go to Parliamentary Affairs/Water Resource Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal or to Minister of State with independent charge of Corporate and Minority Affairs Salman Kurshid”.

NDTV reported that sources said “that Law Minister Veerappa Moily, Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath and Minister of Rural Development CP Joshi may be shown the door”.

But according to the Express: “The Prime Minister, sources said, was in a mood to drop Moily but the Rahul Gandhi factor, which is being repeatedly cited in various circles in the context of the impending reshuffle, is said to have helped Moily.”

However, according to the Daily Pioneer Moily would lose the law ministry to Sibal because the government was “facing embarrassment recently on count of Supreme Court decisions criticising it on various issues”.

Moily took up the law ministry in May 2009, succeeding HR Bhardwaj.