Chandigarh: The Punjab government Thursday appointed senior advocate Gurminder Singh as the state’s new advocate general — the third appointment to the post since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to power in the state in March last year.
Singh replaces senior advocate Vinod Ghai, who resigned Wednesday citing personal reasons. However, according to highly placed sources in the government, Ghai was asked to step down for failing to defend the government in the high court over its decision to dissolve village panchayats months before they were to go to the polls.
The Opposition had severely criticised the move to dissolve the panchayats, decrying it as “politically motivated” and announcing statewide protests against it. Multiple petitions challenging the decision were also filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Then, on 31 August, the government — unable to defend its decision — told the court that it had decided to withdraw the notification.
On the same day, the government suspended two senior civil servants, blaming them for the “wrong decision” to dissolve the panchayats — although one of them, D.K. Tiwari, has since been reinstated.
Rumours about the government looking to remove Ghai have been rife ever since. Ghai, a renowned criminal lawyer, had taken over as advocate general in July last year in place of Anmol Rattan Sidhu. The latter — appointed within days of the Mann government taking charge — had also cited personal reasons to step down.
After Ghai’s resignation, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann announced on X that Singh’s name was cleared during a Cabinet meeting Thursday.
ਅੱਜ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਕੈਬਨਿਟ ਦੀ ਅਹਿਮ ਮੀਟਿੰਗ ਸੱਦੀ ਗਈ….ਜਿਸ ਵਿੱਚ ਨਵੇਂ AG ਨੂੰ ਕੈਬਨਿਟ ਵਲੋਂ ਪ੍ਰਵਾਨਗੀ ਦਿੱਤੀ ਗਈ…ਨਵੇਂ AG ਵਜੋਂ ਗੁਰਮਿੰਦਰ ਸਿੰਘ ਦੇ ਨਾਮ ਨੂੰ ਕੈਬਨਿਟ ਨੇ ਪ੍ਰਵਾਨਗੀ ਦਿੱਤੀ…
ਨਾਲ ਹੀ SYL ਦੇ ਮਸਲੇ ਨੂੰ ਲੈਕੇ ਵੀ ਮੀਟਿੰਗ 'ਚ ਚਰਚਾ ਹੋਈ…ਕਿਸੇ ਵੀ ਕੀਮਤ 'ਤੇ ਇੱਕ ਬੂੰਦ ਵੀ ਵਾਧੂ ਪਾਣੀ ਕਿਸੇ ਹੋਰ ਸੂਬੇ ਨੂੰ ਨਹੀਂ… pic.twitter.com/9XJbfr1qf1
— Bhagwant Mann (@BhagwantMann) October 5, 2023
Singh has been an advocate for more than 30 years. His area of practice includes constitutional, commercial, tender, service, arbitration, and criminal matters. He has held the office of assistant advocate general, deputy advocate general and additional advocate general, Punjab.
Criticising the government for frequently changing advocate generals, Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia tweeted Wednesday that when the chief minister is “worthless”, no advocate general can help the state. “When the state is already in the ICU what can an advocate general do except lose cases?” Majithia tweeted.
BREAKING NEWS : ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੇ AG ਵਿਨੋਦ ਘਈ ਦੀ ਛੁੱਟੀ ਤੈਅ ……ਡੇਢ ਸਾਲ ’ਚ ਲੱਗੇਗਾ ਤੀਜਾ ਏ ਜੀ…..ਏ ਜੀ ਭਾਵੇਂ ਜਿੰਨਾ ਮਰਜ਼ੀ ਕਾਬਲ ਹੋਵੇ ਜਦੋਂ ਸੂਬੇ ਦਾ ਮੁੱਖ ਮੰਤਰੀ ਭਗਵੰਤ ਮਾਨ @BhagwantMann ਹੀ ਨਲਾਇਕ ਹੈ ਤਾਂ ਕੇਸ ਤਾਂ ……..ਪੰਜਾਬ ਤਾਂ ਪਹਿਲਾਂ ਹੀ ICU ’ਚ ਹੈ….AG ਵਿਚਾਰਾ ਕੀ ਕਰੂ…..ਕੇਸ ਹੀ ਹਾਰੇਗਾ ? @AAPDelhi…
— Bikram Singh Majithia (@bsmajithia) October 4, 2023
Punjab & advocate generals
The term of an advocate general is not fixed. Generally, they hold their posts as long as the government that appointed them is in power. However, the past two years have seen six advocate generals in the state.
Senior advocate Atul Nanda, who became the advocate general when Captain Amarinder Singh took over as chief minister in 2017, resigned when Charanjit Singh Channi replaced Amarinder in September 2021.
Channi appointed A.P.S. Deol as advocate general, but the latter’s term was also short lived as the CM was allegedly forced to replace him with D.S. Patwalia on the insistence of the then Congress state chief, Navjot Singh Sidhu. Sidhu had resigned from his post to ensure that Patwalia got the post.
When AAP came to power in March 2022, Patwalia was replaced by Anmol Rattan Sidhu.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)