New Delhi: Senior advocate Goolam E Vahanvati, who has articulated the government's views on sensitive cases like reservation in educational institutions and tainted ministers, was appointed as the Attorney General on Monday. He is going to be the country's top law officer.
Vahanvati, 60, who was the Solicitor General during the previous UPA government and was the front-runner for the post, assumed his office on Monday.
Vahanvati succeeds Milon K Banerji who quit as Attorney General in keeping with convention in the wake of the change of guard at the Centre after the Lok Sabha polls.
Immediately after assuming the office, Vahanvati, who hails from Maharashtra, appeared in the Supreme Court and received congratulations from a vacation Bench comprising Justices B Sudershan Reddy and Aftab Alam for his elevation.
The congratulation came when the Bench, which addressed Vahanvati as the Solicitor General, was told by the Supreme Court Bar Association President M N Krishnamani about his new post.
As Solicitor General since 2004, Vahanvati appeared in key cases relating to several constitutional and revenue matters but the high point was successful defence of the challenge to the controversial 27 per cent quota for OBCs in elite central educational institutions.
He also voiced the Centre's stand before the nine-judge constitution bench in the matter relating to Ninth Schedule of the Constitution in which the Supreme Court came out with the landmark ruling that the laws put in the Schedule were open to judicial review.