NEW DELHI: Senior advocate PS Narasimha has resigned from the post of Additional Solicitor General (ASG) and requested the Ministry of Law and Justice to relieve him of all the duties by December 15.
The resignation, however, is still to be accepted by the Central government.
Narasimha had been verbally communicating his wish not to continue in the office for the last few months, but the senior lawyer was requested to carry on. He was a part of the high-level committee which reviewed the institutionalisation of arbitration mechanisms in India.
If his resignation is accepted, the government will be left with six ASGs — Maninder Singh, Tushar Mehta,Pinky Anand, Atmaram Nadkarni, Aman Lekhi and Vikramjeet Banerjee.
Apart from the Attorney General and the Solicitor General in the Supreme Court, the government appoints nine ASGs whose tenure is usually fixed for a period of three years.
The Solicitor General ’s job is the most sought after apart from that of the Attorney General , as it is the Solicitor General who generally demarcates cases for ASGs after consultations with the Attorney General .
So far, four senior law officers appointed by the Modi government have quit. Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi was the first to quit, citing personal reasons in May last year.In August, the resignation of senior advocate Sandeep Sethi from the post of ASG was accepted by the government. Ranjit Kumar resigned last October from the post of Solicitor General, citing personal reasons.
Post of Solicitor General not filled
One interesting fact is that the post of Solicitor General remains vacant since December last year. After Ranjit Kumar resigned from the post of Solicitor General last October, there has been no appointment so far.