KK Venugopal is the new Attorney General for India

Senior Advocate and Constitution Law Expert KK Venugopal has been appointed the 15th Attorney General for India.

It is understood that President Pranab Mukherjee has approved KK Venugopal’s appointment as Attorney General. The notification will be out in a day or two.

Venugopal succeeds Mukul Rohatgi, who stepped down after his first term ended on June 11.

On KK Venugopal’s appointment as Attorney General, Dushyant Dave said, 

“In Mr. KK Venugopal, government has chosen not only a brilliant lawyer, constitutional expert but a great human being with high moral values. His appointment will enhance the stature of the office as originally conceived and will take to new moral heights. I congratulate him and wish him my best wishes.” 

This is the second time Venugopal’s name was being considered for the post. He was earlier considered for the post of Attorney General under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government. The post was initially offered to Fali Nariman, who had rejected the post.

Back then, the next two Senior Advocates that were being considered for the post were Soli Sorabjee and KK Venugopal (in that order), but Soli Sorabjee accepted it.

Venugopal has been a practising lawyer for nearly six decades. He was Additional Solicitor General once in Morarji Desai’s Government. Widely regarded as an expert in Constitutional Law, Venugopal shifted base to Delhi from Chennai, 25 years after joining the Bar in Madras.

By his own admission, Venugopal joined the legal field by sheer accident as he could not complete his BSc in Physics.

He enrolled at the Bar in January 1954 in the then Mysore High Court and thereafter in the Madras High Court, and started his practice under his father, MK Nambiar. He initially practiced in litigation relating to the grant of motor vehicle permits, inter-State permits and variation of routes.

He began appearing in the Supreme Court in the 1960s, when the Advocates Act was enacted. The Act provided for a unified bar throughout the country; by enrolling in one High Court, a lawyer would be entitled to practice in all High Courts in India as well as in the Supreme Court of India.

He grew in eminence as a Constitutional Law Expert and was designated Senior Advocate by the Supreme Court in 1972.

Read our full interview with KK Venugopal here.