by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
Internal bickering led to quitting of Rohtagi
Salve in line of suucession
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, June 12
With Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi declining to continue in the post “until further orders” decks are cleared for a shake up in the government’s legal officers’ team.
It transpires that the proposal for extending the terms of AG Mukul Rohtagi, Solicitor-General of India Ranjit Kumar and eight other Additional Solicitor generals of India was mooted almost two months ago.
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. Normally, such decisions are taken well in advance rather than delaying until the last moment. But in the instant case, the file remained pending somewhere in the Law Ministry or the Prime Minister’s Office.
Without waiting for the government to take a decision, Rohtagi wrote to the government that he was not interested in continuing with the job and wants to return to private law practice.
Rohatgi, 61, had been appointed for three years and his term was to expire on June 18, 2017. However, Prime Minister Modi, before embarking on a foreign tour, issued a general order saying that the term of all law officers is extended until further orders. It is said that this was the crux of the problem as self-respecting Rohtago felt that he can’t remain an atmosphere of uncertainty and decided to call it a day. 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," Rohtagi said in the state. "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," he added.
A word is yet to emerge in respect of Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar whose term had also been extended until further order.
Sources in the law ministry said the present team of law officers was considered close to Finance & defence minister Arun Jaitley. It is also felt that Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was always uncomfortable with Rohtagi and even Ranjit Kumar. It is not known what will happen next because the entire government will now be stationed in Delhi for the next one week as various important decisions are to be taken in bureaucracy, law ministry and also Presidential elections.
Over the last three years, 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, he earlier represented the Gujarat government in the Supreme Court regarding the 2002 Gujarat riots, and cases involving Zahira Sheikh and the Best Bakery. There are reports that leading lawyer Harish Salve may now be brought in a AG and Tushar Mehta, an additional solicitor general of India may be promoted.
