New Delhi: The central government this week issued an order reappointing the Solicitor General of India to the Supreme Court for a period of three years, commencing from July 1 this year.
The order was issued by the Department of Personnel and Training, after approval from the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), essentially a high-level committee within the central government tasked with appointing senior officials to key posts in the government or Public Sector Undertakings. It is chaired by the Prime Minister of India, and includes the home minister as a member.
In addition to notifying the appointment of the second highest law-officer in the country—behind the Attorney General—the government has approved the reappointment of five more persons to the post of Additional Solicitor General, or ASG, for the Supreme Court.
The ASGs assist the Solicitor General in representing and managing the routine litigation matters for the Union government in the Supreme Court and High Courts. There are designated ASGs for the apex court and specific high courts across the country.
The five ASGs reappointed by the Centre for a fresh three-year term, with effect from 1 July 2026, include ASG Vikramjit Banerjee, K.M. Nataraj, Suryaprakash V. Raju, Aishwarya Bhati, and N. Venkataraman.
Speaking to ThePrint, ASG Vikramjit Banerjee who was originally appointed as ASG in March 2018, and will be serving his third consecutive term this year, said, “All cases are the same for us but we try to give our best for every one of them.”
ThePrint reports on key achievements, cases and backgrounds of the five ASGs reappointed by the Centre.
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Vikramjit Banerjee
Originally appointed as an ASG to the Supreme Court by the Centre on 5 March 2018 for a period of three years, Banerjee was reappointed on July 1 2023, for a second term. Banerjee’s third appointment is slated to last till 2029.
According to the website of the Confederation of Alumni for National Law Universities (CAN Foundation), an entity for promoting access to the legal fraternity for students and alumni of all the National Law Universities (NLUs) in India, Banerjee is the first NLU graduate to be appointed Additional Solicitor General of India.
Three years after graduating from National Law School of India University in 1997, Banerjee went on to pursue an LLM degree (Master of Laws) at the University of Leicester in 2000. In his early years of practice he appeared before the Calcutta High Court for dismissed employees of the Statesman, Limited in a case that dealt with the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. In this 2006 ruling, the court held that the company could not have held a domestic enquiry against its workers before dismissing them.
Nearly eight years later, he co-edited a 2008 book titled The Truth about Teesta Setalvad, with E.D. Ambacharan Vashish and Dr Anirban Ganguly.
According to the book’s description, it “exposes the activities of one who has been conferred the fourth highest civilian honour of the Republic of India, the Padma Shree, by the United Progressive Alliance government for contribution in the field of ‘public affairs’”. It adds that rather than working for the honour and the wellbeing of the country, Setalvad “seems to have worked to subvert the laws of the land and to have denigrated, on foreign soil, our much respected and democratic and Constitutional institutions”.
In June 2015, Banerjee was appointed as the Advocate General of Nagaland, and only a year later he was designated as a senior advocate by the Guwahati High Court. Prior to becoming a senior, Banerjee served as the junior of V.R; Reddy, former Additional Solicitor General for India, and Jayanta Mitra, former Attorney General of West Bengal.
Besides this, he has also served on the faculty of West Bengal National University of Judicial Science, Kolkata.
In a 2022 interview with legal portal SCC online, Banerjee had said that his major influences in the field of law are late lawyers Shanti Bhushan and Fali Nariman, alongside senior advocate Harish Salve.
Banerjee has represented the Centre in several key cases before the Supreme Court such, as when the Supreme Court in February 2024 pulled up the Aam Aadmi Party for encroaching on public land by building its office on land allotted to the Delhi High Court on the Rouse Avenue court premises. In doing so, the bench led by then Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud had asked the Delhi government to give a proper timeline for removing the encroachment.
He has also worked on key cases under the Contempt of Courts Act, like the 2022 case before the Supreme Court where advocate Mahmood Pracha had challenged an order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), challenging the tribunal’s finding of holding him guilty for contempt. The court had, however, set aside the CAT order against Pracha saying that no proper enquiry was carried out by the tribunal.
Aishwarya Bhati
Originally appointed to the post of ASG by the Centre on 30 June 2020, Bhati has also secured a third term this time. Bhati’s appointment is slated to last for three years, or until further order, whichever is earlier.
Having a practice of over 22 years at the bar, Bhati has previously served as the Additional Advocate General (AAG) for the Uttar Pradesh government, between 2017 to 2020, for a period of three years, right before her appointment as ASG.
Bhati has also served as a panel lawyer for the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee, and as the amicus curiae (lawyer who assists the court) in several key cases like the one in the Supreme Court concerning the administration and maintenance of the Kalkaji Temple.
In August 2023, she was appointed member of the Commonwealth military justice body, ThePrint had reported, the “second Indian to be a part of the group”. She has also worked on military-related issues in the past and represented petitioners in the case which authorised permanent commission to women officers of the defence services, ThePrint had found.
Apart from this, she has fought for women’s and children’s rights, rights of persons with disabilities and has been a crusader in anti-tobacco litigation. She was designated senior advocate by the Supreme Court in 2019.
A graduate in law from the Law Faculty, JNV University Jodhpur, where she was a gold medallist, Bhati also went on to serve as an advocate-on-record at the Supreme Court, around 13 years prior to her designation as a senior advocate.
Suryaprakash V. Raju
Originally appointed as ASG on 30 June 2020, Raju was reappointed for a second term in June 2023, followed by his third reappointment now.
Earlier, he used to practice as a lawyer before the Gujarat High Court, and represented Home Minister Amit Shah and other policemen in the 2015 Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, leading to their ultimate discharge by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in 2014.
Raju has also served as the counsel for the CBI and the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
During his early years, Raju did his schooling from St. Xaviers’ School in Ahmedabad, followed by his graduation from St. Xavier’s college in the year 1973.
S.V. Raju has previously also represented Asaram Bapu in the rape case involving a minor at his ashram.
He is also known for representing the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in several key cases like the review of the landmark 2022 Vijay Madanlal Chaudhary case, where several provisions of the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act were upheld.
Apart from this, he also represented an IAS officer accused of polygamy Gaurav Dahiya, and the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank’s defamation cases against Congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Randeep Surjewala.
Significantly, he has represented the Centre in the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act cases against Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid.
N. Venkataraman
Originally appointed as ASG on 30 June 2020, N. Venkataraman was reappointed for his second term in June 2023. With Saturday’s appointment order, this will be his third consecutive term.
Noted for tax and commercial law matters, ASG Venkataraman has represented the Centre in several important cases like Tiger Global, which dealt with arbitration law. In that case, the court dealt with the question of capital gains arising to taxpayers seeking the benefit of the India Mauritius Treaty.
Venkataraman also happens to be one of the youngest lawyers to be appointed as a senior advocate at the age of 39.
He built over 31 years of practice at the Supreme Court, and also practices across the Bombay, Madras and Delhi High Courts, where he continues to work on cases ranging from competition law to tax law, and even regulatory matters, among others.
After completing his law degree from the Madurai Kamraj University in 1987, by June 2003, he started his independent practice. In 2006, he was appointed as a senior advocate by the Madras HC.
Significantly, N. Venkataraman has been involved in important cases such as Sabarimala, abrogation of Article 370 and the Citizenship Amendment Act’s legality, among others.
He continues to represent the Centre across 23 high courts and different tribunals, advance ruling authorities and the Securities Exchange Board of India.
K.M. Nataraj
Originally appointed as ASG by the Centre on January 14, 2019, he was reappointed again in July 2023, and will be serving his third successive term now, which is due to last till June 2029.
When the Supreme Court’s two-judge bench in 2024 stayed the Ayush Ministry’s notification on Ayurvedic and Unani medicines, exempting them from violation of Rule 170 which regulates the advertisement of Ayurvedic, Siddha, and Unani medicines, and requires their manufacturers to obtain approval, Nataraj appeared for the Centre.
Nataraj hails from Ishwaramangala in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district, and obtained his law degree from SDM Law College, Mangaluru, in 1992.
Prior to becoming ASG, he had served as a junior to former Advocate General B. V. Acharya. From 2009 to 2013, he served as the Additional Advocate General for Karnataka. Subsequently, in 2015, he was appointed as the Additional Solicitor General of India for the Southern Zone for a period of three years. In January 2019, became the ASG of the Supreme Court.
While he was serving as the AAG, he represented the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the 2019 money-laundering investigation against Karnataka Congress leader D.K. Shivakumar under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act. In 2023, he appeared for the ED in the K.A. Rauf Sherif case where the ED had arrested Sherif, in connection with a criminal money laundering probe conducted against the Popular Front of India (PFI).
Before becoming the Centre’s lawyer, he had argued before the Karnataka HC in a 1996 public interest litigation matter, saying that he was a “lover of the game of cricket” and a practicing advocate, who was interested in viewing the ‘Wills World Cup’ Cricket, 1996. In his plea, he had sought a direction to the Karnataka government not to apply power cut or load shedding during the telecast hour of the ‘Wills World Cup’ Cricket, 1996, commencing from 14 February to 17 March, 1996.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)