My Tenure Ends On September 30, Attorney General KK Venugopal Tells Supreme Court

Attorney General for India KK Venugopal told a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday that his tenure ends on September 30. The AG made this statement when a 5-judge bench hearing the Delhi-LG dispute was discussing the hearing schedule.

When the bench led by Justice Chandrachud tentatively fixed the hearing date as October 11, the AG said, "There is a little problem. My tenure is only upto September 30."

"You don't under estimate the powers of this Court under Article 142", Justice Chandrachud told the AG in a lighter vein, suggesting that the Court can nevertheless require his assistance in the matter by exercising special powers.  Solicitor General Tushar Mehta joined the conversation with a lighter vein remark, "I can be the petitioner for that".

On June 29, AG Venugopal's term was extended by three more months by the Union Government. There were reports that Venugopal had requested the Government to not further extend his tenure citing health problems, and the Government requested him to continue for three more months.

Widely respected as a constitutional law expert, Venugopal was appointed AG on July 1, 2017 for a three year term, after the resignation of the then AG Mukul Rohatgi. He was given extension of one year each in 2020 and 2021.