Attorney General (A-G) K.K. Venugopal has been re-appointed as the country’s top law officer for a period of three months, the Law Ministry said in a notification on Wednesday.
Mr. Venugopal, whose current one-year term ends on June 30, agreed to a short tenure following a request from the government. The sources cited above said that he was initially not willing to continue in the Constitutional post due to "personal reasons".
“The President is pleased to re-appoint Shri K.K. Venugopal, Senior Advocate as Attorney General for India with effect from July 1, 2022 for a further period of three months or until further orders, whichever is earlier,” read the official gazette notification.
In July 2017, Mr. Venugopal, 90, was appointed by the President of India to succeed Mukul Rohatgi as the A-G. The government’s top law officer enjoys a tenure of three years. However, when Mr. Venugopal's first term as A-G was to end in 2020, he requested the government to give him a one-year tenure keeping in mind his advanced age. Last year too, he was reappointed for one year.
The government was keen that he continued as the A-G in view of the high-profile cases he was handling in the Supreme Court and his experience at the Bar.
An eminent advocate of the Supreme Court, who served as the Additional Solicitor General of India between 1979 and 1980, Mr. Venugopal was conferred the Padma Bhushan in 2002 and Padma Vibhushan in 2015.
