Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi is set to be appointed as the 15th Attorney General of India (AG) after KK Venugopal vacated the post, news agency ANI reported.
Notably, Rohatgi (67) had previously served the post of AG for the first time between June 2014 and June 2017.
The current AG KK Venugopal had earlier expressed unwillingness to continue in the top law officer's post beyond September 30 citing health problems. Venugopal told a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court last week that his tenure ends on September 30.
Widely respected as a constitutional law expert, Venugopal succeeded Rohatgi as Attorney General on July 1, 2017, for a three-year term. The 91-year-old Venugopal, who was given two one-year extensions beyond his three-year term by the Union government, repeatedly expressed his unwillingness to continue in the post.
Earlier this year in June, Centre had extended Venugopal’s term by three more months. He finally agreed for the three months extension, till September 30, to allow the government to search for a new face.
Rohatgi held the office of AG for three years starting from 2014 to 2017 after the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government came to power.
Rohatgi is a senior advocate at the Supreme Court of India and also earlier served as Additional Solicitor General of India.
