On Monday, 29th June 2020, the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions reappointed Solicitor- General Tushar Mehta for a period of 3 years with effect from 1st July 2020. In addition to that, the Appointments Committee has reappointed five existing Additional Solicitor- Generals of India for the Supreme Court for a period of 3 years with effect from 1st July 2020. These Additional Solicitor- Generals are Vikramjit Banerjee, Aman Lekhi, Madhavi Godaria Divan, KM Nataraj, and Sanjay Jain.
Senior Advocates Anil C Singh and Satya Pal Jain have been reappointed as Additional Solicitor- Generals of the Bombay High Court and Punjab High Court and Haryana High Court respectively for a period of 3 years with effect from 1st July 2020. Furthermore, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has appointed Senior Advocates Balbir Singh, Suryaprakash V Raju, Rupinder Singh Suri, N Venkataraman, Jayant K Sud, and Aishwarya Bhati as Additional Solicitor- Generals at the Supreme Court of India for a period of 3 years with effect from 1st July 2020. Additionally, five Senior Advocates/ Advocates have been appointed as Additional Solicitor- Generals for High Courts for the duration of 3 years as follows: Senior Advocate Yezdezard Jehangir Dastoor for Calcutta High Court, Senior Advocate Chetan Sharma for Delhi High Court, Senior Advocate R. Sankarnarayanan for Madras High Court, Senior Advocate Dr. Krishna Nandan Singh for Patna High Court and Advocate Devang Girish Vyas for Gujarat High Court. Senior Advocate Pinky Anand and A N S Nadkarni have been dropped as Additional Solicitor- Generals.
KK Venugopal has also been reappointed as Attorney General of India by President of India Ram Nath Kovind. The term has extended by another year. The notification released stated, “KK Venugopal, Senior Advocate as Attorney General for India for a period of one year with effect from July 1.” Venugopal’s term as Attorney General of India started in July 2017 after he succeeded Mukul Rohtagi who resigned from his post.
The Ministry of Personnel, Public grievances and Pensions is the Government of India's Department of Personnel Affairs, which deals primarily with recruiting, training, career development, staff welfare, and post-retirement dispensation. The Ministry is also associated with the process of responsive people-oriented modern administration. The Allocation of business rules determines the job allocated to the Department. Normally, though not always, the ministry is led by the Prime Minister, with the Minister of State reporting to him.
The Attorney General is the Chief Legal Advisor of the government of India and the lead advocate in the Supreme Court of India. They can be considered to be the government's advocate. They are appointed by the President of India on the advice of the Cabinet of the Union according to Article 76(1) of the Constitution of India and shall hold office during the pleasure of the President.
Article 76 (1) of the Constitution of India is as follows - “The President shall appoint a person who is qualified to be appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court to be Attorney General for India.”
