Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi is set to once again become the Attorney General for India from October 1, as the incumbent A-G, K K Venugopal,will retire on September 30.
Venguopal, who was appointed as the A-G in June 2017 and received three extensions, has reportedly refused to continue beyond his term, citing his advanced age.
Rohatgi was first appointed as the Attorney General in 2014 for a three-year term. Here are some major cases Mukul Rohatgi has overseen, and their results:
Gujarat Riots
Mukul Rohatgi was brought in by the Gujarat government when it faced lawsuits in the wake of the 2002 Gujarat riots. He played a key role in defending the government through multiple appeals and fresh lawsuits, and most recently defended the 2017 SIT clean chit to then-CM Narendra Modi against Zakia Jafri's appeal in June 2022, which resulted in the Supreme Court junking her plea.
Aryan Khan
Probably his most high-profile case in recent years, Mukul Rohatgi was the defending counsel of Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood bigwig Shah Rukh Khan, when the former was arrested for allegedly partaking of narcotics onboard a Cordiela cruise ship.
Aryan Khan was ultimately given a clean chit by the Narcotics Control Bureau, to which Rohatgi said: "I am relieved, and so must my clients be, including Shah Rukh Khan. The truth has prevailed. Ultimately, there was no material to charge this young man (Aryan Khan) or arrest him.”
Justice Loya death case
In 2014, Justice Brijgopal Harkishan Loya died of a cardiac arrest in the midst of judicial proceedings of the Soharbuddin Sheikh murder case, in which then-BJP president Amit Shah was the key accused.
The case of Loya's death was highly publicised till the Supreme Court dismissed it in 2018. Rohatgi, who was defending Shah in the case, said: "They (petitioners) say they are here to protect the rule of law but somehow target an individual who they think is so powerful that he has done all the things. They are using death of a judge as facade so that the judiciary orders an inquiry against that individual. But in that motive, they are causing immense damage to judiciary."
Vijay Mallya case
When liquor baron Vijay Mallya came under the scanner of the government over accusations of money laundering, Mukul Rohatgi was brought into the case on behalf of the consortium of banks led by the SBI who were looking to recover the money lost due to him.
As of February 2022, banks have recovered 67 per cent of the funds that were lent to billionaires like him, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, who were all labelled fugitives and willful defaulters on the loans in various high-profile scams. The process of extraditing at least some of them is currently under judicial review.