Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi set to return as attorney general

PTI, Sep 14, 2022, 12:14 PM IST

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New Delhi: Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi is set to return as India’s attorney general from October 1, sources familiar with the development said. Rohatgi was the country’s attorney general from June 2014 to June 2017.

The present man in the job, K K Venugopal, 91, was re-appointed as the top law officer of the country for three months on June 29. He had been unwilling to continue in the position due to ”personal reasons” but acceded to a request by the government, Law Ministry officials said. Venugopal was appointed as attorney general in July 2017, succeeding Rohatgi.

The attorney general usually has a tenure of three years. When Venugopal’s first term as the attorney general was to end in 2020, he requested the government to relieve him of his responsibilities on account of his age. He later accepted a fresh tenure of one year since the government was keen on him continuing given the high-profile cases he was handling and his vast experience at the Bar.

Rohatgi, a veteran lawyer, has appeared in several high-profile cases in the apex court as well as high courts across the country.

He appeared for the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the apex court, which had heard a plea by Zakia Jafri pertaining to the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Jafri, the wife of slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri who was killed during the violence at Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002, had challenged the SIT’s clean chit to 64 people, including Narendra Modi who was Gujarat chief minister during the riots.

In June this year, the Supreme Court upheld the SIT’s clean chit to Modi and 63 others in the 2002 riots.