Supreme Court to get three new law officers

Sources in the ministry said the names of Siddhartha Luthra, Rakesh Khanna and A S Chandhiok have been cleared for the post of Additional Solicitor General (ASG).

While Luthra and Khanna are new incumbents, Chandhiok is at present ASG in the Delhi High Court.

The Appoint Committee of Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister will clear their appointments.

Indira Jai Singh, Mohan Jain, Harin Raval, P P Malhotra, Gaurab Banerjee, Mohan Parasharan and Biswajit Bhattacharya will continue as ASGs.

The term of most of the law officers is coming to an end next month.

The fresh appointments come against the backdrop of the resignation of Vivek Tankha and Parag Tripathi recently as ASGs. They had requested the government to relieve them of their responsibility.

It is learnt that Parasharan too was not interested in continuing, but Law Minister Salman Khurshid persuaded him to continue for another term.

Attorney General G E Vahanvati, whose term was ending this month, was recently given a fresh two-year stint by the government.

Meanwhile, the name of Ravi Mehra has been cleared for the post of ASG in the Delhi High Court.