Deepinder Singh Patwalia takes over as Punjab Advocate General

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, November 19

After much ado and rigmaroles, the Punjab Government today went back to its initial decision to appoint senior advocate Deepinder Singh Patwalia as the state Advocate General (AG). The post had fallen vacant after senior advocate APS Deol stepped down following objections by a senior leader of the ruling party.

Twists and turns

• After Atul Nanda resigned, Patwalia was the first to be offered the post by CM Channi in September
• In a last-minute turnaround, govt reportedly cleared the name of Anmol Rattan Singh Sidhu for the post
• Eventually, APS Deol, ex-counsel for Behbal accused and ex-DGP Sumedh Singh Saini, was given the job

With the appointment, Patwalia has kept up the family tradition of standing up for justice. He is the son of a retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Kuldip Singh, and brother of a Punjab and Haryana High Court’s former judge, Justice Paramjit Singh Patwalia. Designated senior advocate more than seven years ago, he is the youngest AG for the state in the recallable past.

Patwalia has been practising on the constitutional side and has largely been dealing with service matters and even criminal cases. He had appeared before the Punjab and Haryana High Court on behalf of IPS officer Mohammad Mustafa in a case revolving around the appointment of another IPS officer, Dinkar Gupta, as the Director General of Police.

Patwalia, who took charge as the AG this evening, was the first to be offered the post by Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi in September. This came after senior advocate Atul Nanda resigned following the change of guard in the Congress and Channi replacing Capt Amarinder Singh as the Chief Minister.

Available information suggests the government in a last-minute turnaround reportedly cleared the name of senior advocate Anmol Rattan Singh Sidhu for the post. But it eventually appointed APS Deol, who at one point was the counsel for former top cop Sumedh Singh Saini and suspended IG Paramraj Singh Umaranangal — both accused in the Behbal Kalan police firing case.

Deol’s appointment courted controversy as the incidents of sacrilege and subsequent police firing in Faridkot district’s Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in 2015 have always been considered politically sensitive. Under attack, Deol resigned from the post last month before being engaged in a war of words with Sidhu. Deol publically accused Sidhu of disseminating misinformation to achieve political benefit over his political colleagues.

Deol also blamed him for obstructing the functioning of the state government and the AG’s office. Sidhu, in turn, used a long thread of 12 tweets to slam Deol.