This will be Mukul Rohatgi’s second stint as the country’s top law officer. In his long career, he has represented various high-profile clients, displaying his legal prowess
Mukul Rohatgi is set to return as Attorney General from 1 October after he finished his first stint in 2017. PTI
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi is all set to return as Attorney General of India, sources have been quoted as saying to multiple news outlets.
Mukul Rohatgi, 67, will take on the mantle from KK Venugopal, whose extended tenure ends on 30 September. Venugopal, 91, was appointed as Attorney General on 1 July 2017 for a three-year term, which was subsequently extended twice, for a year each.
Rohatgi, who is known as one of India’s most high-profile lawyers, was approached by the Prime Minister’s Office to take up the role of AG and the senior advocate obliged to the request, reported News18.
As we prepare for Rohatgi’s second tenure, here’s all you need to know about him — from his education to his stellar law career.
Mukul Rohatgi’s early life
Mukul Rohatgi, born on 17 August 1955, followed in the footsteps of his famous father — Awadh Behari Rohatgi — who was a judge in the Delhi High Court. In 1975, he completed his Commerce (Honours) course from Delhi University and went on to obtain his LLB degree from Bombay University in 1978.
Initially, he worked under Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal, who later became the 36th Chief Justice of India, in Delhi High Court. He then started his own legal practice. In 1993, Rohatgi was designated as a senior counsel by the Delhi High Court and was later appointed as Additional Solicitor General (ASG) of India in 1999.
In his capacity as ASG during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, Rohatgi represented the government in the Supreme Court in the 2002 Gujarat riots and fake encounter cases.
His tenure as ASG came to an end in 2004 owing to a change in government. The National Judicial Appointment Commission case is also another landmark case argued by Rohatgi in his capacity as ASG.
Mukul Rohatgi as Attorney General
In May 2014, Rohatgi was appointed as the Attorney General of India during the Narendra Modi regime.
Minutes after he was officially appointed to the post, Rohatgi had been quoted by Economic Times as saying that his “first task would be to streamline government litigation in court, cut down unnecessary appeals and try and prevent government departments from litigating against each other”.
One of his biggest cases earlier in his tenure as AG was appearing for the Centre was in the Aadhaar case. He made headlines then when he argued that an individual does not have absolute authority over their body and there was no recognised right to privacy under the Constitution. His single statement changed the course of the case completely and a nine-judge bench had to be set up to decide the nature of privacy rights. After 700 days, the matter was settled when the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in August 2017 that privacy is a fundamental right in India.
It was during his tenure as AG that triple talaq was struck down by the Supreme Court. He also challenged criminal prosecution of security forces’ personnel over alleged extra-judicial killings in Manipur and argued the case of playing the national anthem before movies in theatres.
Mukul Rohatgi shared a close bond with Arun Jaitley, the former finance and law minister in Narendra Modi’s first tenure.
The two lawyers were part of a circle of friends who would take walks in Lodi Garden in the morning and engage in chai and chit-chat, putting aside their professional differences.
“Our chambers in the high court used to be next to each other. We still have those chambers. In court, we used to oppose each other very often. In heat of the moment, we used to use harsh words but later sit as friends,” Rohatgi, paying tribute to Jaitley, was quoted as saying in August 2019 when the latter passed away.
Hindustan Times reports that the senior counsel is fond of travelling and also is a proud owner of a fleet of super cars. As an art connoisseur, he has a vast collection of paintings. The newspaper also said that he enjoys historical books as well as light thrillers penned by authors such as Jeffrey Archer.
Other high-profile cases
After his stint as AG, he has taken on multiple high-profile cases, earning him a spot in Times of India’s ‘top 10 lawyers’ list.
In 2018, the Maharashtra government appointed Rohatgi as the special prosecutor in the judge BH Loya death case, in which he successfully secured a clean chit for the state government.
The senior advocate was also one of the three senior advocates representing the producers, directors and artistes of the Amazon web-series Tandav before the Supreme Court in the criminal cases that were filed against them. The makers had approached the Supreme Court seeking protection from arrest.
Rohatgi has also represented social media giants Facebook and WhatsApp before the Delhi High Court recently in the matters pertaining to the challenge to WhatsApp’s new privacy policy as well as the petitions by Facebook and WhatsApp challenging the 2021 IT Rules.
His other high-profile clients have included former Delhi Police commissioner Rakesh Asthana, former Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh.
Journalists and politicians such as Arnab Goswami and Rajdeep Sardesai, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor have also availed of his legal services.
One of his most public clients was Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan in 2021 in the Cordelia cruise drugs case.
Rohatgi most recently represented Ashish Mishra, an accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri case, challenging the Allahabad High Court order denying him bail.
With inputs from agencies
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.