Senior SC advocate Ranjit Kumar appointed Solicitor General

Senior Supreme Court advocate Ranjit Kumar, considered an expert on constitutional laws, was appointed as the solicitor general on Saturday.

The law ministry issued a notification appointing Kumar, who has defended Gujarat in a number of cases, as the next solicitor general of India.

The ministry also issued notifications appointing senior advocates Maninder Singh, Tushar Mehta, L Nageshwar Rao, P S Patwalia, Neeraj Kishen Kaul and P S Narasimha as additional solicitors general.

With this, the Narendra Modi government has made its first appointments of law officers who would be representing it in courts. However, so far, there is no word on the appointment of the attorney general, the top-most law officer of the central government. Senior advocate Mukul Rohtagi had recently said that he has given his consent for the prestigious post.

Kaul is a former additional judge of the Delhi high court. He had resigned from his post in September 2009. Rao had been an ASG during the rule of the UPA-II.

The appointments committee of the Cabinet had on June 4 cleared the names of the SG and ASGs.        

Kumar had been a counsel for the Gujarat government and amicus curiae in several cases in the Supreme Court. Among the cases he represented were the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case.

Recently, he appeared before the Supreme Court on behalf of the family of a woman, who was at the centre of 'snoopgate' controversy in which the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's name had figured.

Kumar had also represented Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case pending in a Bangalore court.

Sources said more law officers are likely to be appointed in the coming days.

G E Vahanvati and Mohan Parasaran resigned last week as Attorney General and Solicitor General respectively along with other law officers after the National Democratic Alliance government assumed office. It is a convention that law officers step down with the change of government.

The previous UPA-II government had appointed 12 additional solicitors general.