Tanisha Rana
Published on: September 29, 2022 at 22:27 IST
President Droupadi Murmu has chosen Senior Advocate R. Venkataramani to serve as the country’s new Attorney General (AG) for a three-year term, the Law Ministry announced on Wednesday.
Mr. Venkataramani will succeed K. K Venugopal, whose term comes to expire on September 30.
Mr. Venkataramani has spent more than 40 years practising law at the Supreme Court, and his areas of expertise include civil and criminal law, indirect tax law, human rights law, and constitutional law.
Only a few days prior to his appointment, senior attorney Mukul Rohatgi turned down the government’s invitation to become the new attorney general.
Mr. Rohatgi said on Saturday that this was the case, though he made no mention of why.
Previously, Mr. Rohatgi held the position for three years before resigning in June 2017. Mr Venugopal succeeded him and was appointed for a three-year tenure.
Since 2020, Mr. Venugopal had requested and received two one-year extensions. However, in June, Mr. Venugopal petitioned the Law Ministry not to prolong his stay beyond three months because of his senior age.
Meet The New Attorney General Of India:
Early life
In Pondicherry, Venkataramani was born on April 13, 1950. He graduated from the Government Law College in Pondicherry and began his legal career in 1977 with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu.
In 1979, he relocated to Delhi to practise law before the Supreme Court (SC), and in 1997, the SC named him a senior advocate.
Career
Since he began practising at the Supreme Court more than 40 years ago, Venkataramani has developed a number of legal specialties, including indirect tax law, constitutional law, human rights law, and civil and criminal law.
In significant lawsuits before the Supreme Court and the state High Courts, he has defended the Centre as well as numerous state governments, universities, and public sector enterprises.
He served as a member of the South Asian Task Force on Judiciary, which was charged with producing recommendations on institutional reforms, judicial service conditions, and other topics in an effort to strengthen the rule of law and access to the courts.
He was also a law member of the Planning Commission of India’s ‘Expert Group on Welfare Legislations’ in the year 1990.
He wrote a book titled “Judgments of Justice O. Chinnappa Reddy” that same year.
In cases involving the Afro-Asian region, Venkataramani has collaborated with the International Court of Justice.
He reportedly participated in a workshop held in 2001 by the International Commission of Jurists and the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations.