Attorney General of India Explained [UPSC]

Along with the President, Vice President, Prime Minister and Council of Ministers of India, the Attorney General of India is also the executive.

In this article, we will discuss the Attorney General of India in a simple and easy way and understand its various important aspects, So to understand well, definitely read the article till the end, as well as read other related articles.

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Attorney General of India

There are mainly 5 executives at the union level. President, Vice-President, Prime Minister, Union Council of Ministers and Attorney General of India.

In fact, whenever a law degree holder becomes an advocate, that is, becomes capable of fighting a case on behalf of someone, then that person can become a lot in this field in the future; For example, if he takes the side of a victim on behalf of the state in the court, then he is called a Public Prosecutor. If that person stands on behalf of the state government in the court, then he is called the Advocate General of the state. If that person stands on behalf of the Central Government in the court, then he is called Attorney General. (This is what we are going to talk about today.) The officer who works as an assistant to the Attorney General is called the General Solicitor General.

The Attorney General of India is actually the highest law officer of the country. Article 76 of the Constitution provides for the office of the Attorney General of India. That is, it is a constitutional post.

Appointment and tenure of Attorney General of India

According to Article 76(1) , the Attorney General of India shall be appointed by the President, but the President shall appoint a person who is qualified to be appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court.

In other words, the Attorney General of India must possess the same qualifications as are required for the appointment of a Judge of the Supreme Court; that is,
(1) he is a citizen of India,
(2) he has five years’ experience of serving as a Judge of a High Court or ten years’ experience of practice in a High Court, or
(3) in the eyes of the President. He should be a person capable of judicial matters.

tenure of attorney general

No definite arrangement has been made in the constitution regarding the tenure of Attorney General . Along with this, no basic system has been given in the constitution to remove it. However , Article 76(4) states that he shall hold office during the pleasure of the President, as well as receive the salary and allowances as decided by the President.

This means that the Attorney General can be removed by the President at any time. Or if he himself wants, he can be relieved at any time by submitting his resignation to the President.

By the way, the tradition is that when the government resigns or it falls, then it has to resign because its appointment is done only on the recommendation of the government. Then, when the new government is formed, the person who recommends it will become the Attorney General of India.

Functions and Powers of Attorney General

As the Chief Law Officer of the Government of India, the Attorney General has the following duties:-

1. Advise the Government of India on such legal matters as may be assigned to it by the President
2. To discharge the functions provided by the Constitution or any other law.

The President also delegates functions to the Attorney General such as –

1. Appearing on behalf of the Government of India in the Supreme Court on matters relating to the Government of India.

2. Representation of the Government of India in the Supreme Court by the President under Article 143 of the Constitution

3. The right to be heard in the High Court in any matter relating to the Government.

The Attorney General has the right to be heard in any court of India. Apart from this, he has the right to speak or take part in the proceedings of both the houses of the Parliament. However, he cannot participate in the voting process. Like a Member of Parliament, the Attorney General also gets all the allowances and privileges.

Limitations of Attorney General of India

The Attorney General also has the following limits so that there is a clear distinction between what he can and cannot do.
1. He cannot make any advice or analysis against the Government of India
2. He cannot comment on the matter in which he has to appear on behalf of India
3. Cannot defend any person.
4. He cannot hold the office of director of any council or company without the permission of the Government of India.

Other facts related to It

Apart from the Attorney General, there are other legal officers of the Government of India. It consists of one Solicitor General of India and 4 Additional Solicitors General for India. These people help the Attorney General in fulfilling his responsibility.

Keep one thing in mind here that the office of Attorney General is a constitutional post which is mentioned in Article 76. On the other hand, talking about the Solicitor General of India and Additional Solicitors General for India, it has not been discussed in the Constitution.

To say, it has been kept in the category of executive, but the Attorney General is not a member of the Union Cabinet. There is a separate Law Minister in the Union Cabinet to look after the legal matters at the government level . Whereas the Attorney General of America also has executive authority.

list of attorneys general

attorney general of India	tenure	Prime Minister of that time
MC Setalvad	28 January 1950 – 1 March 1963	Jawaharlal Nehru
c k office	2 March 1963 – 30 October 1968	Jawaharlal Nehru; Lal Bahadur Shastri
niren day	1 November 1968 – 31 March 1977	Indira Gandhi
S V Gupte	1 April 1977 – 8 August 1979	Morarji Desai
L N Sinha	9 August 1979 – 8 August 1983	Indira Gandhi
osmosis of	9 August 1983 – 8 December 1989	Indira Gandhi; Rajiv Gandhi
soli sorabji	9 December 1989 – 2 December 1990	V P Singh; Chandrashekhar
G Ramaswamy	3 December 1990 – 23 November 1992	Chandrashekhar; PV Narasimha Rao
Milan K Banerjee	21 November 1992 – 8 July 1996	P V Narasimha Rao
Ashok Desai	9 July 1996 – 6 April 1998	HD Deve Gowda; Inder Kumar Gujral
soli sorabji	7 April 1998 – 4 June 2004	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Milan K Banerjee	5 June 2004 – 7 June 2009	Manmohan Singh
Ghulam Issaji Vehanvati	8 June 2009 – 11 June 2014	Manmohan Singh
Mukul Rohatgi	19 June 2014 – 18 June 2017	Narendra Modi
K K Venugopal	1 July 2017 – present	Narendra Modi