Who is an advocate general? What is their role and why do some states replace them frequently?

Who is an Advocate General?

On December 16, senior advocate Kishor Dutta was appointed the advocate general of West Bengal. Dutta, a second-time AG of the Trinamool Congress government of West Bengal, is also the sixth AG in the past 12 years.

The appointment was made over a month after SN Mukherjee resigned abruptly in early November, citing personal reasons. According to media reports, Mukherjee emailed his resignation letter to the governor while he was on holiday in the UK. Mukherjee told media outlets he resigned due to differences with the government over the selection of advocates to represent the state.

Dutta too had resigned abruptly in September 2021, citing personal reasons. Over the past 12 years, senior advocates Anindya Mitra, Bimal Chatterjee, Jayanta Mitra, Dutta and Mukherjee have resigned as AGs of the state.

According to reports, the previous Left Front government of the state had three AGs for the 35 years they were in power. To put things in perspective, Naranarayan Gooptu, a senior lawyer who passed away in February 2023, was AG of the state from 1987 to 2001.

Dutta defended the government in a case pertaining to violence in the aftermath of the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal. He resigned in September 2021, a few weeks after the high court referred the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Three AGs in Punjab in 1.5 years

The situation is not unique to West Bengal. There have been six AGs in Punjab over the past six years. The government of the Aam Aadmi Party, which won the state assembly elections in 2022, has had three AGs in the past year and a half.

The Punjab government initially appointed Anmol Rattan Sidhu who resigned in four months. Vinod Ghai, who was appointed subsequently, resigned after serving for just over a year. Gurminder Singh is currently the AG of the state.

What does an AG do?

An AG is the highest law officer of the state. An AG is to a state what an Attorney General is to a country. AGs are entrusted with the task defending the state and its decisions in the high court and the Supreme Court.

Article 165 of the constitution empowers the appointment of an AG by a state. An AG is appointed by the governor on the advice of the state government.

AGs play a key role in advising the government on issues such as the passage of laws and also counsel the government on issues referred to them.

Some state governments appoint a lawyer from the ruling party as the AG. R Shanmugasundaram, the current AG of Tamil Nadu, was a member of the Rajya Sabha from the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Navaneetha Krishnan, an advocate of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, was a former MP from the party.

When a new party comes to power in a state, the AG is usually replaced. However, as an exception to this rule, Maharashtra’s former AG Ashutosh Kumbhakoni was retained by three different governments over five years.

He was appointed by the BJP-led government in 2017 and the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government that subsequently came to power chose to retain him. When the BJP-Sena came to power again in May 2022, they asked him to continue.

Kumbhakoni’s resignation was ultimately accepted by the cabinet in December 2022. Currently, Kamal Trivedi, the AG of Gujarat, Kamal Trivedi, is the longest-serving AG – he was appointed to the post in 2006 and has continued holding the position.

In the past, AGs had longer stints. Senior lawyer HM Seervai was the AG of Maharashtra for 17 years from 1957 to 1974. Similarly, senior lawyers Krishnamoorthy (full name?) and Govind Swaminadhan have been the AGs of Tamil Nadu for nine years each.