Kasiviswanathan ShanmugamSC (Tamil:காசிவிஸ்வநாதன் சண்முகம்,romanized: Kācivisvanātaṉ Caṇmukam; born 26 March 1959),^[1][3] better known asK. Shanmugam, is a Singaporean politician and lawyer who has been serving asMinister for Law since 2008 andMinister for Home Affairs since 2015. A member of the governingPeople's Action Party (PAP), he has been theMember of Parliament (MP) representing theChong Pang division ofNee Soon GRC since 2011.

The Honourable K. Shanmugam SC
காசிவிஸ்வநாதன் சண்முகம்
Shanmugam in 2013
Minister for Home Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 October 2015
Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong Lawrence Wong
Second Minister	Desmond Lee (2017) Josephine Teo (since 2017)
Preceded by	Teo Chee Hean
In office 1 November 2010 – 20 May 2011
Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong
Preceded by	Wong Kan Seng
Succeeded by	Teo Chee Hean
Minister for Law
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 May 2008
Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong Lawrence Wong
Second Minister	Indranee Rajah (2018) Edwin Tong (2020-present)
Preceded by	S. Jayakumar
Minister for Foreign Affairs
In office 21 May 2011 – 30 September 2015
Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong
Second Minister	Lui Tuck Yew (2011-2012) Grace Fu (2012-2015) Masagos Zulkifli (2015)
Preceded by	George Yeo
Succeeded by	Vivian Balakrishnan
Second Minister for Home Affairs
In office 1 May 2008 – 31 October 2010
Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong
Minister	Wong Kan Seng
Succeeded by	S. Iswaran (2011-2015) Masagos Zulkifli (2015)
Member of Parliament forNee Soon GRC (Chong Pang)
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 May 2011
Preceded by	Constituency established
Majority	33,149 (23.80%)
Member of Parliament forSembawang GRC (Chong Pang)
In office 3 September 1988 – 18 April 2011
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born	Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam (1959-03-26)26 March 1959 (age 66)[1] Colony of Singapore
Political party	People's Action Party
Spouse	Seetha Shanmugam ​ (m. 2008)​
Children	2[2]
Education	National University of Singapore (LLB)

A lawyer by profession, Shanmugam made a name for himself inlitigation,arbitration andinsolvency cases before he entered politics. In 1998, at the age of 38, he was one of the youngest lawyers in Singapore to be appointedSenior Counsel. Along withDavinder Singh, he was known as one of the "twin titans of litigation" and a prominent figure in Singapore's legal circles.^[4][5] Shanmugam has acted for formerprime ministers in civil lawsuits.^[6]

Shanmugam was educated atRaffles Institution from 1972 to 1977. He went on to read law at theNational University of Singapore'sFaculty of Law and graduated in 1984.

During his time in law school, Shanmugam earned several awards, book prizes and scholarships for being the top student from his first to third years and for academic merit (1982–1983). He also won the Montrose Memorial Prize for Jurisprudence (1984).^[7]

Shanmugam was awarded the Adrian Clarke Memorial Medal, the Leow Chia Heng Prize and the External Examiner's Prize (1984) for being the top law student of his graduating class and top student in the final-year examinations. He also represented Singapore in thePhilip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition in 1984, in which his team won Runner-Up in the International Division.^[8]

After being admitted to the Singapore Bar as an advocate and solicitor in 1985, Shanmugam went into private practice and became a senior partner and Head of Litigation and Dispute Resolution atAllen & Gledhill.

In 1998, Shanmugam became one of the youngest lawyers to be appointedSenior Counsel of theSupreme Court at the age of 38.^[9]

Shanmugam has acted for Singapore'sPrime MinisterLee Hsien Loong and his predecessors (Lee Kuan Yew andGoh Chok Tong) in lawsuits. In 1995, theInternational Herald Tribune selected Shanmugam to represent them after the Lees and Goh initiated a civillibel lawsuit against the newspaper. Lee Kuan Yew later stated that theTribune's decision to choose Shanmugam to represent them even though he was aPeople's Action Party member and was close to the Lees and Goh, was the highest form of praise to the Senior Counsel's integrity and to the integrity of theSingapore Government as a whole.^[10]

At the age of 29, Shanmugam entered politics when he joined thePeople's Action Party (PAP) team contesting inSembawang GRC in the1988 general election. The PAP team won and Shanmugam was elected theMember of Parliament representing theChong Pang division of Sembawang GRC.

Shanmugam served as a Member of Parliament and continued to practise law until 2008 when he joined theCabinet to replaceS. Jayakumar asMinister for Law.^[11] He was concurrently appointedSecond Minister for Home Affairs in 2008, and succeededWong Kan Seng as Minister for Home Affairs in 2010.

Following the2011 general election, Shanmugam relinquished his portfolio as Minister for Home Affairs and was appointedMinister for Foreign Affairs, while continuing to serve concurrently as Minister for Law.^[12] As of 2015, Shanmugam remains as a Member of Parliament representingChong Pang ward, which had become part ofNee Soon GRC.^[13]

Following Shanmugam's remarks on changes to the qualifying criteria forSingapore's elected presidency, he was criticised by former presidential candidateTan Cheng Bock for pre-empting thelegislative process and thePresidential Elections Committee, which decides the eligibility of candidates for the presidential election.^[14]

In February 2018, Shanmugam said that Singapore would change its criminal breach of trust (CBT) laws to address concerns that company directors and key officers of charities would face lower maximum penalties for CBT offences compared to their employees.^[15]

Shanmugam was a member of theSelect Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods formed in 2018. During the public hearings, he questioned Simon Milner,Facebook's Vice President of Public Policy for Asia-Pacific, about the misuse of online data byCambridge Analytica., and crossed swords with historianThum Ping Tjin over a paper aboutOperation Coldstore written by Thum in 2013.^[16]

After being re-elected by the people of Nee Soon GRC in the general elections of 2015 and 2020, Shanmugam was named to the corresponding new Cabinets as the Minister of Law and the Minister of Home Affairs.^[17]

Shanmugam has long served on the Central Executive Committee of the PAP, which is the party's highest decision-making body.^[18]

In 2021, after the passing of theForeign Interference (Countermeasures) Act 2021^[19], activistThum Ping Tjin claimed that the bill was a "coup" attempt by Shanmugam as Minister for Home Affairs, making him "the most powerful man in Singapore".^[20] Shanmugam has refuted the claim.^[21]

In 2023, Shanmugam andVivian Balakrishnan were investigated by theCorrupt Practices Investigation Bureau fortheir rentals of state-owned bungalows at Ridout Road. The CPIB subsequently found that neither Shanmugam nor Balakrishnan had committed any wrongdoing.^[22]

In September 2024,Singapore Democratic Party leaderChee Soon Juan, in an open letter, expressed concern over the lack of transparency and media coverage of Shanmugam's sale of hisGood Class Bungalow atAstrid Hill.^[23][24][25] Despite the apparent conflict of interest, Shanmugam has refrained from commenting about the sale to the Singapore media.^[26][27][28]

A voter sentiment survey conducted in June 2024 found that Shanmugam was the most polarising politician in Singapore. The gap in Shanmugam's likeability between PAP supporters and opposition supporters was found to be the highest.^[29]

On 16 December 2024, Shanmugam announced that he was initiating legal action against various media outlets, including Bloomberg, in respect of an article about good class bungalow transactions in Singapore mentioning property transactions involving Shanmugam andTan See Leng. Shanmugam and Tan both alleged that the article was libellous.^[30]

During Shanmugam's tenure as Minister for Law, some changes to the criminal and family justice system were effected. These include:

• Overhaul of the existingPenal Code, to modernise Singapore's criminal laws and enhance protection for the vulnerable in society, such as women and children.^[31]
• Enactment of theProtection from Harassment Act, to provide remedies and recourse for victims of harassment,online bullying andstalking. Subsequent amendments fortified the Act by establishing a stand-alone Protection from Harassment Court to allow protection to be obtained expediently by victims, including that of intimate partner violence.^[32]
• Enhancing access to justice through government funding forlegal representation of accused persons.^[33]
• Major changes to the family justice system, in which the child's welfare and best interests are placed at the centre of the system. Changes also include helping families navigate the court system with less costs and delays by handling family disputes in less rancorous ways.^[34]
• Introduction of community-based sentences to tap on community resources in therehabilitation of offenders.^[35]
• Review of themandatory death penalty to give judges discretion to replace the death penalty withlife imprisonment in cases involving unintentionalhomicide anddrug trafficking by couriers, if the stipulated conditions for such are met.^[36]
• Amendments to theMisuse of Drugs Act to fortify Singapore'sdrug rehabilitation regime through a more calibrated approach.^[37]

Shanmugam served on the board of directors for several companies before his appointment to the Singapore Cabinet.

• Non-Executive Director ofSembcorp (July 1998 – April 2008)^[38]
• Director of Asia Food & Properties (July 1997 – 2001)^[39]
• Director of Golden Agri-Resources (May 1999 – 2001)^[39]

• Advisory Board of the Faculty of Law^[7]
• Raffles Institution Board of Governors^[7]
• Media Development Authority^[7]
• Sembawang Corporation Industries Ltd^[7]

Shanmugam served as the President of theSingapore Indian Development Association (SINDA) from March 2002 to March 2009.^[7] Since October 2023, he has been the Chairman of the SINDA Board of Trustees.

Shanmugam has been married to clinical psychologist Dr. Seetha Subbiah since 2008.^[40] From 1993 to 2008, he was married to legal academic Jothie Rajah. They divorced due to "mutual incompatibility".^[41]

Shanmugam is a practising Hindu.^{[citation needed]} He is also often involved in various religious activities organised by communities of various faiths. He has met Pope Francis in the Vatican City and has referred to the Pontiff as exemplifying the "essence of religion" and a "strong advocate of interfaith dialogue and understanding".^[42]

Shanmugam also participates regularly in the Taoist Nine Emperor God's festival in his Constituency since he became an MP for the area.^[43]

• K. Shanmugam on Prime Minister's Office
• K. Shanmugam onParliament of Singapore
• K. Shanmugam onFacebook