Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi on Saturday confirmed to The Hindu that he has declined the offer from the Union Government to serve as the next Attorney General (AG) of India.
The development comes as a setback for the Narendra Modi government as the incumbent AG, K. K. Venugopal, is all set to retire next week, on September 30.
Last week, there were reports that Mr. Rohatgi would take over as the government’s top law officer from October 1.
However, Mr. Rohatgi said that he has declined the government offer but no reasons were cited.
Mr. Rohtagi had resigned in June 2017 after serving a term of three years. Following that, Mr. Venugopal was appointed as the AG for a term of three years.
Since then, Mr. Venugopal had been given one-year extensions in 2020 and 2021 at his request.
However, in June, Mr. Venugopal requested the Law Ministry to not extend his tenure beyond three months because of his advanced age.
