Anmol Rattan Sidhu quits over 'personal reasons', Vinod Ghai to be 5th Punjab AG in 10 months

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 26

Punjab Advocate-General’s office has plunged into a crisis. Just over four months after he was appointed, senior advocate Anmol Rattan Singh Sidhu has submitted his resignation from the post citing “personal reasons”.

Ghai had appeared for Gurmeet Ram Rahim, Sumedh Saini

• Senior advocate Vinod Ghai had appeared for Punjab’s ex-DGP Sumedh Singh Saini
• He also appeared on behalf of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh

‘AG wasn’t unhappy’

I kept asking the AG to continue if possible, but he said he had personal reasons. He was not unhappy. He is still part of our team and we will continue to take his legal counsel. — Bhagwant Mann, CM

Senior advocate Vinod Ghai, who will replace him as the Advocate-General, had at one point of time appeared for Punjab’s former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini. The former top cop is otherwise an accused in the Behbal Kalan police firing case.

Ghai, who will be the fifth AG in 10 months, has also appeared on behalf of Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim. He also represented former Health Minister in the AAP-led Punjab Government Vijay Singla during the hearing of his regular bail plea in a corruption case registered against him.

Sidhu’s departure came even before the list of law officers to be appointed in the Advocate-General’s office could be finalised despite inordinate delay. The state had, in March, extended the contractual term of the existing law officers. The process of appointing the law officers was initiated soon after. But the list was never finalised.

Sidhu was the fourth Advocate-General to be appointed by the state of Punjab in less than a year. Following the resignation of AG Atul Nanda after then CM Capt Amarinder Singh stepped down from the post, senior advocate APS Deol was appointed in September last year. Deol, too, resigned from the post in November last year after which senior advocate Deepinder Singh Patwalia was appointed to the coveted post.

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