Lawyer Mukul Rohatgi also served under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
Highlights
- The Centre had extended Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi's term on June 3
- Mukul Rohatgi said he wants to return to his private practice
- He earlier represented the Gujarat government in the Supreme Court
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi has written to the Narendra Modi government, saying he is not interested in the continuation of his tenure as the nation's senior law officer and wishes to get back to private practice.
Mr Rohatgi, 61, who had been appointed for three years in June 2014, had his term extended on June 3. Sources in the law ministry said they were "not aware why the Attorney General is not keen to continue".
"I have worked for five years as law officer under the Vajpayee government and now three years under the Modi government," the Attorney General told NDTV. "I want to return to my private practice. I have a good relationship with the government... That's why I wrote to the government not to extend my term."
Sources in the law ministry said a decision on Mr Rohatgi's resignation will be taken after the law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad returns from Bihar on June 13.
Mr Rohatgi had been appointed as the Additional Solicitor General by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1999. His appointment as the nation's 14th Attorney General on June 19, 2014, less than a month after the Narendra Modi government came to power followed his rapid rise in the fields of corporate and constitutional law.
Over the last three years, Mr Rohatgi was handling the cases involving Aadhaar, judicial appointments for the government.
His recent cases also involved the contentious triple talaq issue, the matter is being heard by a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court.
The son of former Delhi High Court judge Justice Awadh Behari Rohatgi, Mr Rohatgi earlier represented the Gujarat government in the Supreme Court regarding the 2002 Gujarat riots, and cases involving Zahira Sheikh and the Best Bakery.