NEW DELHI, June 4:
Senior Supreme Court advocate Ranjit Kumar, who has defended Gujarat in a number of cases, is set to be the next Solicitor General of India.
The Appointments Committee of Cabinet is learnt to have cleared today the name of Kumar who is considered an expert in Constitutional laws, service matters, taxation, local laws pertaining to rent control, sources said.
The ACC also cleared the names of senior advocates Maninder Singh, L Nageshwar Rao, Tushar Mehta, P S Patwalia and Neeraj Kishen Kaul as Additional Solicitors General, the sources said.
Nageswar Rao has been an Additional Solicitor General when UPA-II was in power.
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 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 in the Government said a formal notification regarding these appointments is likely to be issued tomorrow.
However, so far, there is no word on the appointment of the Attorney General, the topmost law officer of the Central Government. Senior advocate Mukul Rohtagi had recently said that he has given his consent for the prestegious post.
The 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 NDA 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. (PTI)
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