On Friday, Attorney General K K Venugopal was bid farewell by Law Minister Kiren Rijiju. R Venkataramani, in place of Venugopal, will take over as India’s attorney general on Saturday.
Rijiju tweeted on Friday night, “Emotional farewell to the outgoing Attorney General for India & a hearty welcome to the new Attorney General.” He expressed gratitude to Venugopal, a “famous advocate,” for his unconditional service to the country.
Mr.Venugopal, 90, was chosen by the Indian President to succeed Mukul Rohatgi as Attorney General in July 2017. The chief prosecutor of the government has a three-year term.
However, Mr. Venugopal asked the government to grant him one-year tenure in light of his elderly age when his first term as Attorney General was set to expire in 2020. He received a one-year appointment last year as well. But Venugopal complied with the request from the central government to keep the position of power for an additional term, but he only agreed to a one-year extension.
Kottayan Katankot Venugopal, an Indian constitutional lawyer and senior advocate in the Supreme Court of India, was born on September 6, 1931. He previously served as President of SAARCLAW, the organization’s regional apex body.
He founded the NALSAR Law University’s M K Nambyar SAARCLAW Center for Advanced Legal Studies. The government wanted him to stay as A-G because of the high-profile cases he was handling at the Supreme Court and his background at the Bar.
Mr Venugopal is a renowned Supreme Court attorney who held the position of Additional Solicitor General of India from 1979 to 1980. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2002 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2015.
