The Solicitor General of India (SGI) is subordinate to the Attorney General for India. The SGI is the second-highest law officer of the country, assists the Attorney General, and is assisted by Additional Solicitors General of India (Addl. SGIs). The SGI and the Addl. SGIs advise the Government and appear on behalf of the Union of India in terms of the Law Officers (Conditions of Service) Rules, 1972.[1] 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.
| Solicitor General of India | |
|---|---|
 | |
since 11 October 2018 | |
| Abbreviation | SGI |
| Reports to | Attorney General for India |
| Appointer | ACC |
| Term length | 3 years (per discretion of ACC) |
| Formation | 28 January 1950 |
| First holder | C. K. Daphtary |
| Deputy | Addl. Solicitor Generals |
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) recommends the appointment and officially appoints the Solicitor General.[2] The proposal for appointment of Solicitor General, Additional Solicitor General is generally moved at the level of Joint secretary (or 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.
Currently, the Solicitor General of India is Tushar Mehta.[3]
Duties
editThe Solicitor General works under the Attorney General of India. The duties of the 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
editAs law officers representing the Government of India, SGIs are bound by certain restrictions concerning 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
editFee 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 work | Rates of fees payable for appearance and other work |
|---|---|---|
| (1) | Suits, writ petitions, appeals and references under article 143 | Rs. 16,000/- per case per day |
| (2) | Special leave petitions and other applications | Rs. 10,000/- per case per day |
| (3) | Settling pleadings (including affidavits) | Rs. 5,000/- per pleading |
| (4) | Settling Statement of Case | Rs. 6,000/- per case |
| (5) | For giving opinions in statements of cases sent by the Ministry of Law | Rs. 10,000/- per case |
| (6) | For written submission before the Supreme Court, High Court, and Commissions of Inquiry or Tribunals and the like | Rs. 10,000/- per case |
| (7) | Appearance in Courts outside Delhi | Rs. 40,000/- per day per case |
In addition to the above fee payable for cases, a retainer fee is paid to the Solicitor General and the Addl. Solicitors General at the rate of Rs. 40,000, and Rs. 30,000 per month, respectively.
List of incumbent Law Officers
editThe list of incumbent Law Officers (i.e. AGI, SGI, Addl. SGIs) as of 10 September 2024 are as follows:[6][7]
| List of Law Officers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Attorney General for India | Appointment | Term Length | |
| R. Venkataramani | 1 October 2022 | 2 years, 88 days | |
| Solicitor General of India | Appointment | Term Length | |
| Tushar Mehta | 10 October 2018 | 6 years, 79 days | |
| Additional Solicitors General | Appointment | Term Length | |
| Vikramjit Banerjee | Supreme Court | 5 March 2018 | 6 years, 298 days |
| K.M. Nataraj | 14 January 2019 | 5 years, 349 days | |
| Suryaprakash V. Raju | 30 June 2020 | 4 years, 181 days | |
| N. Venkataraman | 30 June 2020 | 4 years, 181 days | |
| Aishwarya Bhati | 30 June 2020 | 4 years, 181 days | |
| S. Dwarkanath | 10 September 2024 | 109 days | |
| Archana Pathak Dave | 10 September 2024 | 109 days | |
| Satya Darshi Sanjay | 10 September 2024 | 109 days | |
| Brijender Chahar | 10 September 2024 | 109 days | |
| Rajkumar Bhaskar Thakare | 10 September 2024 | 109 days | |
| Raghavendra P Shankar | 10 September 2024 | 109 days | |
| Rajdeepak Rastogi | Rajasthan HC | 28 July 2014 | 10 years, 153 days |
| Satya Pal Jain | Punjab & Haryana HC | 8 April 2015 | 9 years, 264 days |
| Anil Chandrabali Singh | Bombay HC | 9 July 2017 | 7 years, 172 days |
| Shashi Prakash Singh | Allahabad HC | 9 February 2018 | 6 years, 323 days |
| K. Arvind Kamath | Karnataka HC | 17 October 2023 | 1 year, 72 days |
| T. Surya Karan Reddy | Southern Zone | 18 December 2019 | 5 years, 10 days |
| R. Sankaranaryanan | Madras HC | 30 June 2020 | 4 years, 181 days |
| Ashok Kumar Chakraborty | Calcutta HC | 9 July 2022 | 2 years, 172 days |
| Devang Girish Vyas | Gujarat HC | 30 June 2020 | 4 years, 181 days |
| Chetan Sharma | Delhi HC | 1 July 2020 | 4 years, 180 days |
| Dr. Krishna Nandan Singh | Patna HC | 1 July 2020 | 4 years, 180 days |
List of Solicitors General of India
editThe Solicitors General of India since independence are listed below:[7]
| List of Solicitors General of India | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Solicitor General | Term Start | Term End | Term Length | Prime Ministers[8] |
| 1 | Chander Kishan Daphtary [1] | 28 January 1950 | 1 March 1963 | 13 years, 32 days | Jawaharlal Nehru |
| 2 | H. N. Sanyal | 2 March 1963 | 9 September 1964 | 1 year, 191 days | Jawaharlal Nehru |
| Lal Bahadur Shastri | |||||
| 3 | S. V. Gupta [2] | 10 September 1964 | 16 September 1967 | 3 years, 6 days | Lal Bahadur Shastri |
| Indira Gandhi | |||||
| 4 | Niren De [3] | 30 September 1967 | 30 October 1968 | 1 year, 30 days | Indira Gandhi |
| 5 | Jagadish Swarup | 5 June 1969 | 4 June 1972 | 2 years, 365 days | Indira Gandhi |
| 6 | Lal Narayan Sinha | 17 July 1972 | 5 April 1977 | 4 years, 262 days | Indira Gandhi |
| 7 | S. N. Kacker | 5 April 1977 | 2 August 1979 | 2 years, 119 days | Morarji Desai |
| 8 | Soli Jehangir Sorabjee [4] | 9 August 1979 | 25 January 1980 | 169 days | Charan Singh |
| 9 | Keshava Parasaran [5] | 6 March 1980 | 8 August 1983 | 3 years, 155 days | Indira Gandhi |
| 10 | Milon Kumar Banerji [6] | 4 April 1986 | 3 April 1989 | 2 years, 364 days | Rajiv Gandhi |
| 11 | Ashok Desai [7] | 18 December 1989 | 2 December 1990 | 349 days | V. P. Singh |
| 12 | A. D. Giri | 4 December 1990 | 1 December 1991 | 362 days | Chandra Shekhar |
| 13 | Dipankar P. Gupta | 9 April 1992 | 10 April 1997 | 5 years, 1 day | P. V. Narasimha Rao |
| H. D. Deve Gowda | |||||
| 14 | Tehmtan R. Andhyarujina | 11 April 1997 | 4 April 1998 | 358 days | Inder Kumar Gujral |
| 15 | Nitte Santhosh Hegde [8] | 10 April 1998 | 7 January 1999 | 272 days | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| 16 | Harish Salve | 1 November 1999 | 3 November 2002 | 3 years, 2 days | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| 17 | Kirit Raval | 4 November 2002 | 19 April 2004 | 1 year, 167 days | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| 18 | Goolam Essaji Vahanvati [9] | 20 June 2004 | 7 June 2009 | 4 years, 352 days | Manmohan Singh |
| 19 | Gopal Subramaniam | 15 June 2009 | 14 July 2011 | 2 years, 29 days | Manmohan Singh |
| 20 | Rohinton Fali Nariman [10] | 23 July 2011 | 4 February 2013 | 1 year, 196 days | Manmohan Singh |
| 21 | Mohan Parasaran | 15 February 2013 | 26 May 2014 | 1 year, 100 days | Manmohan Singh |
| 22 | Ranjit Kumar | 7 June 2014 | 20 October 2017 | 3 years, 135 days | Narendra Modi |
| 23 | Tushar Mehta | 10 October 2018 | Incumbent | 6 years, 79 days | Narendra Modi |
Notes
editSee also
edit- Advocate general (India)
- Mohan Jain, Additional Solicitor General of India (2009-2014)
References
edit- ^ "Law Officers (Conditions of Service) Rules, 1987" (PDF).
- ^ "Extra Ordinary Gazette Notification for appointment" (PDF).
- ^ "Tushar Mehta is new SG". The Hindu. 11 October 2018. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
- ^ a b "Law Officers (Condites, 1987" (PDF). Gazette of India. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
- ^ "Fee and allowances payable to law officers" (PDF). Retrieved 11 June 2014.
- ^ "List of Law Officers (As on 02.09.2022)". Ministry of Law and Justice.
- ^ a b "Solicitor general". Vakilno1.com. Archived from the original on 20 September 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
- ^ "Former Prime Ministers". PM India. Archived from the original on 9 October 2014. Retrieved 2 January 2015.