Mukul Rohatgi is the new Attorney General of India

NEW DELHI: Mukul Rohatgi, one of India’s top lawyers, will be the new Attorney General while senior advocate Ranjit Kumar will be the Solicitor General. While Rohatgi has been formally appointed as Attorney General, a formal notification naming Kumar as Solicitor General has not been issued. The remaining members of the Modi government’s legal team will be appointed in a few days, said government officials. Speaking minutes after he was appointed to the post, Rohatgi told ET that his "first task would be to streamline government litigation in court, cut down unnecessary appeals and try and prevent government departments from litigating against each other".

"I will take it from there," he said. An Additional Solicitor General under the earlier NDA regime, Rohatgi is one of the top corporate lawyers in the country. The pugnacious, aggressive lawyer is known for his amazing success rate in winning cases for his clients. "He is a man with a unique skill set. His court craft is outstanding. He strikes the perfect balance of being the court’s officer and the client’s attorney," said lawyer Mahesh Agrawal. "It (his appointment as AG) is a major loss for his clients." The AG’s post, a constitutional position, bars him from private practice. He can only represent the state and its entities. He can also attend Parliamentary discussions but has no right to vote.





Another contemporary said on the condition of anonymity: "He was a very good lawyer in the Delhi High Court. He shifted to the Supreme Court as ASG. Acceptability doesn’t come easy in the Supreme Court. But he worked hard and came up." The tall and imposing lawyer, with a booming voice, is a favourite with clients for his quick grasp of briefs.

Rohatgi, son of a very popular Delhi High Court lawyer and later judge AB Rohatgi, started off as a junior to former Chief Justice of India YK Sabharwal. Rohatgi, who is said to be close to a section of the BJP leadership, was appointed ASG in 1999 during the Vajpayee regime. Lawyers said there was no doubting his stature or ability. Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar comes from a family with no legal connections. Known for his thundering voice, a notch higher than even Rohtagi’s, Kumar is a very "solid", "effective" counsel, said a senior lawyer. "He’s a very hardworking lawyer," said the colleague from the bar. "He shifted here from Patna and did not know anybody when he came here. He has also done so many public interest cases that at one point he was known as the amicus general of India."