Senior advocate R Venkataramani named Attorney General of India

Senior advocate R Venkataramani was appointed as the Attorney General of India on Wednesday for a term of three years, according to a notification.

He will succeed K K Venugopal, whose term will end on September 30.

"The President is pleased to appoint R Venkataramani, Senior Advocate as Attorney General for India for a period of three years from the date he enters upon his office," read the notification.

He would most likely join the constitutional office on October 1, a day after Venugopal demits office.

Venugopal, 91, was appointed to the post in July 2017. He was reappointed as the top law officer of the country for three months on June 29.

He is perhaps the oldest person to hold the office of AG.

Venugopal had expressed his unwillingness to continue in the constitutional post due to his advanced age.

Another senior advocate, Mukul Rohatgi, had last week declined the offer to be the attorney general.

There was no specific reason behind his decision, Rohatgi had said.

Rohatgi had been the attorney general in the first Narendra Modi government between June 2014 and June 2017. Venugopal had succeeded him.

The attorney general is the top law officer of the government and enjoys the right to appear in any court in India.

Besides handling government litigations, the AG also advises government on complex legal issues.

Born on April 13, 1950 in Puducherry, Venkatamanani, 72, has practised in the Supreme Court for decades.

He has practised in various branches of law, prominently constitutional law, law of indirect taxes, human rights law, civil and criminal laws, consumer law, as well as law relating to services.

He has represented the central government, several state governments, universities, public sector undertakings in their major litigations in the Supreme Court and various high courts.

Venkataramani enrolled in July, 1977 in the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and moved to the Supreme Court in 1979.

He was designated as Senior Advocate by the Supreme Court in 1997. He had also been a member of the Law Commission in 2010.