The Attorney General for India is the

Indian government The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the Government, national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy lo ...

's chief legal advisor, and is its chief advocate in the courts. They are appointed by the

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...

at the instance of the

Union Cabinet The Union Council of Ministers Article 58 of the ''Constitution of India'' is the principal executive organ of the Government of India, which is responsible for being the senior decision making body of the executive branch. It is chaired by t ...

under Article 76(1) of the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

and hold office during the pleasure of the President. They must be a person qualified to be appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court. Hence, they must have been a judge of a high court for five years or an advocate of a high court for ten years, or an eminent jurist in the opinion of the President. R. Venkataramani is the incumbent Attorney-General for India. He succeeded to the office as the 16th Attorney-General on 1 October 2022. His predecessor was

K. K. Venugopal Kottayan Katankot Venugopal (born 6 September 1931) is an Indian constitutional lawyer and a senior advocate in the Supreme Court of India. On 1 July 2017, he was appointed as the Attorney General of India and retired on 30 September, 2022. He ...

Powers, duties and functions

The attorney general is necessary for advising the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

on legal matters referred to them. They also perform other legal duties assigned to them by the President. The attorney general has the right of audience in all Courts in India as well as the right to participate in the proceedings of the

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, though not to vote. The attorney general appears on behalf of

in all cases (including suits, appeals and other proceedings) in the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

in which Government of India is concerned. They also represent the Government of India in any reference made by the President to the Supreme Court under Article 143 of the

. Unlike the

Attorney General of the United States The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

, the Attorney General of India has no executive authority. Those functions are performed by the Law Minister of India. Also the AG is not a government servant and is not debarred from private legal practice. The attorney general can accept briefs but cannot appear against the Government. They cannot defend an accused in the criminal proceedings and accept the directorship of a company without the permission of the Government. The attorney general is assisted by a Solicitor General and Additional Solicitor Generals. The attorney general is to be consulted only in legal matters of real importance and only after the Ministry of Law has been consulted. All references to the attorney general are made by the Law Ministry.

Fee and allowances payable

Fee and allowances payable to the law officers (including Attorney General for India,

Solicitor General of India The Solicitor General of India (SGI) is subordinate to the Attorney General for India. They are the second-highest law officer of the country, assists the Attorney General, and is assisted by Additional Solicitor Generals of India (Addl. SGIs) ...

and the Additional Solicitors General) of the

are as under: In addition to the above fee payable for cases, a retainer fee is paid to the attorney general for India,

and the Additional Solicitors General at the rate of ₹50,000, ₹40,000 and ₹30,000 per month, respectively. Moreover, the attorney general for India is also paid a sumptuary allowance of Rs. 4,000 per month, except during the period of his leave.

Politicisation of the Attorney General

It has become a tradition that the attorney general resigns when a new government is formed. The attorney general is selected by the Government and acts as its advocate, and hence is not a neutral person. Nevertheless, it is a constitutional authority, and his or her opinions are subject to public scrutiny. On several occasions however, the opinions pursued by the attorney general appear to have been extremely politicised. During some of the AG tenures, it has been felt that the attorney general has gone too far.

Niren De Niren De was an Indian Lawyer and was the Attorney General of India from November 1968 to March 1977 and it covered Indian Emergency. He was earlier the Solicitor General of India. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1974. He was also the Chairma ...

during

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...

replied to a question by

Hans Raj Khanna Hans Raj Khanna (3 July 1912 – 25 February 2008) was an Indian judge, jurist and advocate who propounded the basic structure doctrine in 1973 and attempted to uphold civil liberties during the time of Emergency in India in a lone dissenting ...

stating that even the right to life can be suspended during emergency. Similarly, in 2005, when the UPA government was planning a possible coalition with Mayawati, Milon K. Banerjee's opinion absolving

Mayawati Kumari Mayawati (born 15 January 1956) is an Indian politician. She has served four separate terms as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. She is the national president of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which focuses on a platform of social cha ...

in the

Taj corridor case The Taj Heritage Corridor case is an alleged scam wherein 2002–2003, the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Mayawati and a minister in her government, Nasimuddin Siddiqui, were charged with corruption. The Taj Corridor project was intended to ...

was ignored by the Supreme Court. In a direct condemnation of the government which asked the CBI to heed attorney general Milon Banerjee's opinion and close the case against

, the Supreme Court told the agency not to go solely on the AG's opinion and place all evidence before it. In 2009, Milon K. Banerjee's opinion absolving

Ottavio Quattrocchi Ottavio Quattrocchi (1938 – 13 July 2013) was an Italian businessman who was being sought until early 2009 in India for criminal charges for acting as a conduit for bribes in the Bofors scandal. Quattrocchi's role in this scandal, and his prox ...

in the

Bofors scandal The Bofors scandal was a major weapons-contract political scandal that occurred between India and Sweden during the 1980s and 1990s, initiated by Indian National Congress politicians and implicating the Indian prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, an ...

has also been viewed as "devaluing and eroding the Attorney General's position". During the UPA-II government (2009–2014), the conduct of Attorney General Goolam Vahanvati was criticised in a number of cases. In

2G spectrum case The 2G spectrum case was a political controversy in which politicians and private officials of the United Progressive Alliance coalition government India were involved in selling or allotting 122 2G spectrum licenses on conditions that provi ...

, he became the first attorney general in India's history who had to

testify In law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. Etymology The words "testimony" and "testify" both derive from the Latin word ''testis'', referring to the notion of a disinterested third-party witness. La ...

as a

witness In law, a witness is someone who has knowledge about a matter, whether they have sensed it or are testifying on another witnesses' behalf. In law a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, e ...

in a corruption case in a trial court. In late April 2013, in

coal-gate The Coal allocation scam, dubbed in media as Coalgate, is a major political scandal concerning the Indian government's allocation of the nation's coal deposits to public sector enterprise (PSEs) and private companies. In a draft report issued i ...

scandal, Vahanvati was accused of misrepresenting facts in the top-most court of India.http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/coal-gate-attorney-general-misrepresented-facts-to-supreme-court-says-letter-bomb-360750 , coal-gate-attorney-general-misrepresented-facts-to-supreme-court-says-letter-bomb NDTV news report. Again in the same case, Vahanvati's role came under scrutiny after allegations of impropriety and coercion emerged from his junior law officer, Harin P. Raval, who resigned from the post of Additional Solicitor General as a result.

List of Attorneys General for India

The attorneys general for India since independence are listed below:Attorney General for Independent India

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Attorney General for India Supreme Court of India