The Bhagwant Mann-led Punjab government has notified the appointment of 161 law officers at its advocate general (AG) office in Chandigarh and legal Cell of Delhi.
Pending for five months since Bhagwant Mann took over as the Chief Minister of Punjab, the appointments include 13 senior additional advocates general, 28 additional advocates general, 40 deputy advocates general, and 65 assistant advocates general.
Among others, the appointees include the relatives of retired and serving Punjab and Haryana High Court judges. Young Advocate Mohit Kapoor’s name is also among the list of those notified as additional advocate general.
Besides Punjab, 15 law officers have been appointed for Delhi. This includes five additional advocates general, four deputy advocates general, four advocates on record and two assistant advocates general. All these appointments are for the Supreme Court.
According to Vinod Ghai, state’s advocate general, “At least three dozen law officers are such who were appointed by previous Congress government and after evaluating their performance, they have been retained,”
He further said that all the appointments have been done on merit.
Last month, senior advocate Anmol Rattan Sidhu resigned as state’s advocate general. He was appointed on March 20 soon after the new government took charge in Punjab.
The appointments made so far are much less compared to the ones during the previous Congress regime. The numbers then revolved around 220, including the law officers for Delhi.
According to the available information Haryana Lokayukta Justice Pritam Pal’s son Aman Pal, Justice HS Brar’s daughter Anu pal, and Justice Raj Shekhar Attri’s son Siddharth Attri has made it to the A-G office.
Deepali Puri, wife of former CM Capt. Amrinder Singh’s OSD Sandeep Sandhu has been retained in the A-G office as Additional Advocate-General.