Solicitor General of India

The Solicitor General of India is subordinate to the Attorney General for India. He/She is the second law officer of the country, assists the Attorney General, and is himself/herself assisted by Additional Solicitors General for India. Currently, the Solicitor General of India is Tushar Mehta.[1] Like the Attorney General for India, the Solicitor General and the Additional Solicitors General advise the Government and appear on behalf of the Union of India in terms of the Law Officers (Terms and Conditions) Rules, 1972.[2] However, unlike the post of Attorney General for India, which is a Constitutional post under Article 76 of the Constitution of India, the posts of the Solicitor General and the Additional Solicitors General are merely statutory. Appointments Committee of the Cabinet(ACC) recommends the appointment and president officially appoints the Solicitor General.[3] The proposal for appointment of Solicitor General, Additional Solicitor General is generally moved at the level of Joint secretary/Law Secretary in the Department of Legal Affairs and after obtaining the approval of the Minister of Law & Justice, the proposal goes to the ACC and then to the president.

Solicitor General of India
Incumbent
Tushar Mehta
since 10 October 2018
AppointerAppointments Committee of the Cabinet
Term length3 years
DeputyAdditional Solicitor General of India
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Duties

Duties of Solicitor General are laid out in Law Officers (Conditions of Service) Rules, 1987:[4]

  • to give advice to the Government of India upon such legal matters, and to perform such other duties of a legal character, as may from time to time, be referred or assigned to him by the Government of India.
  • to appear, whenever required, in the Supreme Court or in any High Court on behalf of the Government of India in cases (including suits, writ petitions, appeal and other proceedings) in which the Government of India is concerned as a party or is otherwise interested;
  • to represent the Government of India in any reference made by the President to the Supreme Court under Article 143 of the Constitution; and
  • to discharge such other functions as are conferred on a Law Officer by or under the Constitution or any other Law for the time being in force.

Restrictions of private practice

As law officers represent government of India, there are certain restrictions which are put on their private practice. A law officer is not allowed to:

  • hold briefs in any court for any party except the Government of India or the government of a State or any University, Government School or College, local authority, Public Service Commission, Port Trust, Port Commissioners, Government aided or Government managed hospitals, a Government company, any Corporation owned or controlled by the State, any body or institution in which the Government has a preponderating interest;
  • advice any party against the Government of India or a Public Sector Undertaking, or in cases in which he is likely to be called upon to advise, or appear for, the Government of India or a Public Sector Undertaking;
  • defend an accused person in a criminal prosecution, without the permission of the Government of India; or
  • accept appointment to any office in any company or corporation without the permission of the Government of India;
  • advise any Ministry or Department of Government of India or any statutory organisation or any Public Sector Undertaking unless the proposal or a reference in this regard is received through the Ministry of Law and Justice, Department of Legal Affairs.[4]

Fee and allowances payable

Fee and allowances payable to the law officers (including Attorney General of India, Solicitor General of India and the Additional Solicitors General) of the Government of India are as under:[5]

S.No.Nomenclature of the item of workRates of fees payable for appearance and other work
(1)Suits, writ petitions, appeals and references under article 143Rs. 16,000/- per case per day
(2)Special leave petitions and other applicationsRs. 10,000/- per case per day
(3)Settling pleadings (including affidavits)Rs. 5,000/- per pleading
(4)Settling Statement of CaseRs. 6,000/- per case
(5)For giving opinions in statements of cases sent by the Ministry of LawRs. 10,000/- per case
(6)For written submission before the Supreme Court, High Court, and Commissions of Inquiry or Tribunals and the likeRs. 10,000/- per case
(7)Appearance in Courts outside DelhiRs. 40,000/- per day per case

In addition to the above fee payable for cases, a retainer fee is paid to the Attorney General of India, Solicitor General of India and the Additional Solicitors General at the rate of Rs. 50,000, Rs. 40,000, and Rs. 30,000 per month, respectively. Moreover, the Attorney General of India is also paid a sumptuary allowance of rupees four thousand per month, except during the period of his leave.

Current Solicitor General and Additional Solicitors General

The current Solicitor General of India and Additional Solicitors General as of 11 October 2018 are as follows:[6][7]

Solicitor GeneralTerm
Tushar Mehta11 October 2018 - 30 June 2020(incumbent)
Additional Solicitors General of India Term
Mr. Vikramjit Banerjee
Mr. Atmaram Nadkarni
Mr. Aman Lekhi28 June 2018 - 30 June 2020 (incumbent)
Ms. Madhavi Goradia Diwan
Mr. K.M. Nataraj
Ms. Pinky Anand9 July 2014 – 8 July 2017 (incumbent)
Mr. Anil C Singh9 July 2014 – 8 July 2017 (incumbent)
Mr. Sanjay Jain23 July 2014 – 22 July 2017 (incumbent)
Mr. G.Rajagopalan28 July 2014 – 27 July 2017 (incumbent)
Mr. Prabhuling K Navadgi8 April 2015 – 7 April 2018 (incumbent)
Mr. Rajdeepak Rastogi28 July 2014 – June 2019 (incumbent)
Mr. Shashi Prakash Singh (Allahabad)2018 – (incumbent)
Mr. Satya Pal Jain8 April 2015 – 7 April 2018 (incumbent)
Mr. Chetan Sharma - High Court of DelhiJuly 2020 – till date (incumbent)

Former Solicitors General

The former Solicitors General for India were as follows:[7]

Solicitor GeneralTermPrime Ministers[8]
C.K.Daphtary28 January 1950 – 1 March 1963Jawaharlal Nehru
H.N. Sanyal2 March 1963 – 9 September 1964Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri
S.V. Gupta10 September 1964 – 16 September 1967Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi
Niren De30 September 1967 – 30 October 1968Indira Gandhi
Jagadish Swarup5 June 1969 – 4 June 1972Indira Gandhi
L.N. Sinha17 July 1972 – 5 April 1977Indira Gandhi
S.N. Kacker5 April 1977 – 2 August 1979Morarji Desai
Soli Sorabjee9 August 1979 – 25 January 1980Charan Singh
K. Parasaran6 March 1980 – 8 August 1983Indira Gandhi
Milon K. Banerji4 April 1986 – 3 April 1989Rajiv Gandhi
Ashok Desai18 December 1989 – 2 December 1990VP Singh
A.D. Giri4 December 1990 – 1 December 1991Chandra Shekhar
Dipankar P. Gupta9 April 1992 – 10 April 1997PV Narasimha Rao, HD Deve Gowda
T R Andhyarujina11 April 1997 – 4 April 1998Inder Kumar Gujral
Nitte Santhosh Hegde10 April 1998 – 7 January 1999Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Harish Salve1 November 1999 – 3 November 2002Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Kirit Raval4 November 2002 – 19 April 2004Atal Bihari Vajpayee
G. E. Vahanvati20 June 2004 – 7 June 2009Manmohan Singh
Gopal Subramaniam15 June 2009 – 14 July 2011Manmohan Singh
Rohinton Nariman23 July 2011 – 4 February 2013Manmohan Singh
Mohan Parasaran15 February 2013 – 26 May 2014Manmohan Singh
Ranjit Kumar07 June 2014 - 20 October 2017Narendra Modi
Tushar Mehta10 October 2018 - incumbentNarendra Modi

Former Additional Solicitors General

The former Additional Solicitor General of India are as follows:[7]

Notes
  1. "Tushar Mehta is new SG". The Hindu. Special Correspondent. 11 October 2018. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 3 November 2018.CS1 maint: others (link)
  2. "Law Officers (Conditions of Service) Rules, 1987" (PDF).
  3. "Extra Ordinary Gazette Notification for appointment" (PDF).
  4. "Law Officers (Condites, 1987" (PDF). Gazette of India. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  5. "Fee and allowances payable to law officers" (PDF). Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  6. "List of Law Officers (As on 9.4.2015)" (PDF). Ministry of Law and Justice. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  7. "Solicitor general". Vakilno1.com. Archived from the original on 20 September 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  8. "Former Prime Ministers". PM India. Archived from the original on 9 October 2014. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
Additional Solicitors General of India Term
Fali S. Nariman May 1972– June 1975[1]
K K Venugopal
V.P. Raman
N. Santosh Hegde November 1989 – October 1990[2]
Kuldip Singh August 1987 – December 1988[3]
Kapil Sibal December 1989 – December 1990[4]
K.G. Bhagat
B. Dutta
Arun Jaitley 1989–1990
Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud 1998–2000
Madan B. Lokur July 1998 – February 1999[5]
R. Mohan July 2004– February 2009[6]
Amarendra Sharan August 2004– June 2009
Parag P Tripathi February 2008 – Jan 2012[7][8]
M. Chandrasekharan February 2008 – 2008[7][9]
Farook M Razack (Kolkata) July 2009 – July 2012[7]
Muthukrishnan Ravindran (Chennai) July 2009 – July 2012[7]
Darius J Khambatta (Mumbai) July 2009 – July 2012[7]
Muthukrishnan Ravindran (Chennai) July 2009 – July 2012[7]
Ashok Nigam (Allahabad) July 2009 – July 2012[7]
Bishwajit Bhattacharyya November 2009 – November 2012[10]
Rajeeve Mehra (Delhi)[11] July 2012 – June 2014[7]
P. P. Malhotra 2004-2014[12]
  1. Member Official Biography – N Rajya Sabha website.
  2. "Biodata of Justice Nitte Santosh Hegde" (PDF). Government of Karnataka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 May 2011. Retrieved 7 September 2009.
  3. "Biodata of Justice Kuldip Singh". Supreme Court of India. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
  4. "Biographical Sketch". Dod.nic.in. 8 August 1948. Archived from the original on 15 April 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  5. "Biodata of Chief Justice". High Court of Andhra Pradesh. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
  6. "Additional Solicitor General Mohan dead". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 25 February 2009.
  7. "List of Law Officers". Ministry of Law and Justice. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
  8. "Parag P. Tripathi Appointed as Additional Solicitor General of India". New Delhi, India: The Press Information Bureau. 5 February 2008.
  9. "M. Chandrasekharan Appointed Additional Solicitor General of India". New Delhi, India: The Press Information Bureau. 6 February 2008.
  11. http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/govt-reappoints-6-asgs/970977/
  12. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/P-P-Malhotra-appointed-ASG/articleshow/771147.cms?referral=PM
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