St Aloysius College Alumni K K Venugopal Appointed Attorney General of India
Mangaluru: It is indeed a proud moment for St Aloysius College-Mangaluru that one of their Alumnus has been appointed as the 15th Attorney General of India. A senior lawyer in the Supreme Court of India and constitutional expert K.K. Venugopal on Monday, 3 July 2017 officially took over as the new Attorney General of India, replacing Mukul Rohatgi. Speaking to Team Mangalorean, Dr AM Narahari- the Registrar at St Aloysius College (Autonomous) said, “St Aloysius College is proud that an alumnus of the college K.K.Venugopal has been appointed as the Attorney General of India. The College offers its heartiest congratulations and best wishes. K.K.Venugopal has joined several eminent Aloysians to rise to this level as an outstanding achiever. He was awarded “Eminent Aloysian Award” in the year 2011”.
86-year-old Venugopal had emerged as the front-runner for the job after Rohatgi, who had served as AG for three years, wrote to the Centre last month expressing his desire to return to private practice. With over five decades of legal experience, Venugopal is the oldest Indian to occupy the AG chamber. Venugopal, who started appearing in the Supreme Court in the early 1960’s, was designated as a senior advocate by the apex court in 1972. He held the office of additional solicitor general during the Janata Party regime and also appeared for BJP leader L K Advani in the Babri demolition case.
Venugopal was appointed by the Royal Government of Bhutan to serve as the Constitutional adviser for the drafting of the Constitution of Bhutan. Apart from being involved in many important cases before constitutional benches of the SC, he spent more than six years as amicus curiae in the infamous 2G spectrum scam case and assisted in monitoring investigations by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate.
In 2015, he was conferred Padma Vibhushan award by Government of India. This is the second-highest civilian honour in India. He had previously received the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour. President Pranab Mukherjee had approved KK Venugopal’s appointment.
