CHENNAI: Grandson of a doyen of jurisprudence who helped establish the contours of constitutional law, and nephew of another giant who, as the Attorney General of India, is working on deciding its boundaries, senior counsel Vijay Narayan was appointed as the next Advocate General for Tamil Nadu.
He will occupy the space vacated by senior counsel R Muthukumaraswamy, who stepped down as the top lawyer for the government citing health reasons.
After completing graduation from Loyola College, Narayan joined the Government Law College of Madras, perhaps a natural calling for him considering the family lineage – his maternal grandfather, the late legend M K Nambiar, was among those responsible for the development of constitutional law of the then young India, while his uncle K K Venugopal is the current Attorney
General.
Over the decades, Narayan has handled a variety of cases including service law, labour law, constitutional law, administrative law and commercial law, a useful track record for the officer who is to shepherd the government in the thousands of litigations that it is involved in.
“The government is going to face political cases that will be tough; Narayan is the apt person to be made Advocate General in these trying times,” said V R Kamalanathan, secretary of the Madras Bar Association. Narayan is the president of the Association. “He has challenging times ahead of him.”
According to him, the new AG is a patient observer, someone with great integrity and extremely meticulous when it comes to working. “He has a knack of ensuring that he does not antagonise the court while never compromising on his client’s rights,” Kamalanathan added.
He was designated as a senior advocate in 2004 and was appointed by the Chief Justice of India as a member of the executive committee of the Indian Law Institute (Chennai Chapter) in 2012.
In February, the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court appointed him as a member of the general council of the Tamil Nadu National Law School, Tiruchy.
His grandfather Nambiar was a legend, whose most significant contribution in the field of constitutional law and fundamental rights is considered to be his argument in the famous Golaknath case that the amending power under Article 368 of the Constitution is not absolute, but is subject to certain implied limitations.
Appointed by the Governor of the State, the Advocate-General represents the State in civil or criminal cases including appeals and other proceedings filed in the High Courts, Supreme Court and various other courts.