File photo of Mukul Rohatgi
The government today officially appointed senior Supreme Court advocate Mukul Rohatgi as the new Attorney General of India, the top law officer of the country. Mr Rohatgi will take charge next week and will hold the post for three years.
Mr Rohatgi's name was cleared for appointment after the country's two top law officers Attorney General Goolam Essaji Vahanvati and Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran resigned, following the change in the government at the Centre.
Speaking to NDTV earlier, Mr Rohatgi had said, "My priority would be to streamline the litigation process, to cut down litigation between government departments and PSUs... new government will co-operate in this aspect as this government wants to change a lot."
Mr Rohatgi had served as Additional Solicitor General in the last NDA regime, and is considered close to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. "Jaitley and Ravi Shankar Prasad are my good friends. They will help me in my endeavor," he said.
"I appeared for lot of corporates. There won't be any conflict of interest," he added.
The law officers - the Attorney General, the Solicitor General and Additional Solicitors Generals - represent the government in various courts and tender legal advice on complex issues.
Last week, senior Supreme Court advocate Ranjit Kumar, considered an expert on Constitutional laws, was appointed as the Solicitor General. Mr Kumar has defended Gujarat in a number of cases.
L Nagaeswara Rao, Maninder Singh, P S Patwalia, Tushar Mehta, Neeraj Kishan Kaul and P S Narasimha were recently appointed as Additional Solicitor Generals.