Ranjit Kumar steps down as Solicitor General

Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, the government's second-most senior legal officer, resigned from the post on Friday.

Ranjit Kumar became the government's second top legal officer to step down after Mukul Rohatgi resigned as Attorney General of India in June this year.

The Solicitor General was believed to have put in his papers with the Law Ministry on Friday morning, citing personal reasons.

"I have resigned due to personal, family issues which I need to attend to and was not able to due to my work," Ranjit Kumar is learned to have written to his colleagues.

He denied any rift with the government, saying he was satisfied with the way the government treated him. "The government is good to me," he told NDTV news channel.

Ranjit Kumar is considered an expert on constitutional laws, service matters and taxation. He earlier served as counsel for the Gujarat government and was an amicus curiae in several cases in the Supreme Court before he took over as Solicitor General in June 2014, weeks after the BJP came to power at the Centre.

Among the cases in which he represented the Gujarat government was the 2005 killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in an alleged staged shootout.

The resignation comes over three months after he got an ad-hoc extension of his tenure in June.

Rohatgi -- the government's top legal advisor -- also cited personal reasons when he resigned as Attorney General of India in June.

K.K. Venugopal took over as Attorney General after Rohatgi stepped down.

--IANS

sar/rn