Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi has declined the offer to return as India’s attorney general, sources told CNN-News18 on Sunday. The development came a week after Rohatgi was reported to succeed senior lawyer KK Venugopal, who is all set to demit office as the Attorney General of India at the end of this month.
K K Venugopal, 91, was re-appointed as the top law officer of the country for three months on June 29. However, while he had declined to continue in the position due to “personal reasons”, he later acceded to a request by the government, Law Ministry officials said.
Venugopal was appointed in July 2017, succeeding Rohatgi. According to reports, Rohatgi was set to take over on October 1 for his second stint as the country’s attorney general after his first from June 2014 to June 2017.
Law fraternity had termed the move as a “loss” and a gain for the union government. Prateek Chadha, Advocate on Record (AOR) of Supreme Court had said, “Rohatgi is a giant at our bar and a worthy choice for the office of Attorney General. Those of us who appear for private parties will miss the reassurance that being led by him in a matter brings but our loss is the Union of India’s gain.”
Rohatgi, a veteran lawyer, has appeared in several high-profile cases in the Supreme court as well as high courts across the country. Born on August 17, 1955, in Mumbai, he is the son of former Delhi High Court judge Justice Awadh Behari Rohatgi and completed his education from Government Law College in Mumbai. Enrolled at the Bar Council of Delhi in 1978, he was appointed as a senior advocate within two decades in 1994.
During his first stint which began in 2014 and continued till 2017, Rohatgi defended the government in various crucial cases. He was appointed the AG soon after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government came into power.
He appeared for the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the apex court, which had heard a plea by Zakia Jafri in connection to the 2002 Gujarat riots.
(With inputs from PTI)
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