Senior lawyer Kishore Dutta has been reappointed as advocate general (AG), sources in the state law department said. The AG post was lying vacant for more than one month after Soumendranath Mukhopadhyay resigned from the post on 10 November. The state government has issued a notification today in connection with Mr. Dutta’s reappointment. Mr Mukhopadhyay was made state AG in 2021 after Mr Dutta resigned showing ‘personal reasons’. Mr Dutta was made AG in 2017.
On 11 November, The Statesman had reported that the state government might bring back Mr Dutta as the AG again. Mr Dutta did not respond when this correspondent contacted him seeking his reaction on the development in connection with his reappointment as the AG.
Sources at the state secretariat Nabanna said that the chief minister Mamata Banerjee had held a high-level meeting earlier in November with law minister Moloy Ghatak, chief secretary Hari Krishna Dwivedi and senior police officials in the evening to explore replacement of Mr Mukhoadhyay.
Mr Dutta’s name was discussed in the meeting as a replacement of Mr Mukhopadhyay. Mr Dutta was contacted by Nabanna and offered to take charge of the AG portfolio again. More than two years ago Kishore Dutta had stepped down from his post citing ‘personal reasons’ but government sources had claimed that his resignation was due to other reasons.