
The central government is likely to reappoint Senior Advocate K K Venugopal as Attorney General for India for a period of one more year with effect from July 1.
The Attorney General for India, a constitutional post, is the top legal officer of the country. Venugopal took over as the 15th Attorney General for India on July 1, 2017, succeeding senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi who was A-G from 2014-2017.
When his three-year tenure came to an end in 2020, 91-year old Venugopal had requested that he be relieved of his post citing his advancing age. However, the central government requested him to continue holding the top office for another term and Venugopal agreed but restricted extending his term by a year.
Venugopal is representing the central government in several key cases including the constitutional challenge to dilution of Article 370, the case challenging Section 124-A of the penal code that criminalises sedition among others. He has successfully defended the government in the Rafale case in 2018 and in the constitutional challenge to Aadhaar among other key cases.
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Born in 1931, Kottayam Katankot Venugopal is a doyen of the bar with 67-years of practice. His father MK Nambiar, too, was a veteran barrister. In 2002, KKV (as he is known in legal circles) was awarded the Padma Bhushan and in 2015, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan.
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