Mukul Rohatgi to be appointed as next Attorney General, say sources

NEW DELHI: Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi is set to be appointed as the fourteenth Attorney General of India after KK Venugopal vacates the post, said sources.

This will be Rohatgi's second tenure as an AG, after he served the post for the first time between June 2014 and June 2017.

Earlier, a veteran lawyer and present Attorney General KK Venugopal 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.

In June this year, Venugopal's term was extended by three more months by the Centre. The government urged him to continue for three more months. He had finally agreed for a three months extension, till September 30, to allow the government to search for a new face.

Now sources said the 67-year-old Rohatgi will start his second stint as the Attorney General on October 1.

Rohatgi held the office of AG for three years starting from 2014 to 2017 after the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government came to power.

Rohatgi is a senior advocate at the Supreme Court of India and has earlier served as Additional Solicitor General of India.