Mukul Rohatgi will begin his second stint on October 1, sources say.
New Delhi:
Senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi will return as the Attorney General of India, the government’s top lawyer, sources said today.
Mukul Rohatgi, 67, stepped down as Attorney General in June 2017. KK Venugopal took over after him.
Mr Venugopal’s extended tenure ends on September 30. He served as the Centre’s top law officer for five years.
When he completed three years in 2020, Mr Venugopal, 91, requested the Centre to let him go because of his age. The government asked him to continue for another term. He stayed on, but only for two years.
Mukul Rohatgi will begin his second stint on October 1, sources say. He has also served as Additional Solicitor General of India in the past.
Sources say even after Mr Rohatgi left office in 2017, the government consulted him on sensitive legal issues including the scrapping of Article 370 that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
In his first term, Mr Rohatgi was appointed the government’s top lawyer in 2014, soon after the BJP won a huge mandate and came to power.
One of India’s most high-profile lawyers, Mr Rohatgi has several important cases to his credit, including the Gujarat riots case, in which he represented the Gujarat government. He also argued the case related to the National Judicial Appointment Commission. More recently, Mr Rohatgi led the defence team of Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, who was arrested in the drugs-on-cruise case.
