The AG is a constitutional office (article 76). He is the principal advisor and legal conscience-keeper of the Government. In disreputable times, AG Francis Bacon was called the ‘King’s bulldog’ in 1614. In India, the 1934 Joint Parliamentary Committee created the post which transited into the Constitution. In 1962-63 when Ashok Sen tried to combine the offices of AG and Law Minister, he was rebuffed. Today, it could be argued that a de facto merger has taken place between Law Minister Bharadwaj and AG Banerjee. It wasn’t always so: independent India’s first AG, M.C. Setalvad, chastised the government over the Mundhra deal, averring that he was accountable to the nation, not the government. He addressed Parliament on preventive detention in 1960 — and politicians listened. Fali Nariman resigned as Additional Solicitor General (ASG) in July 1975 when the Emergency was declared. In 1977, Soli Sorabjee as ASG defended Presidents Rule, but on 10 December 1989 reportedly told Krishnan Mahajan that he regretted doing so. Then he, as AG supported opening up Babri Masjid for Hindu prayer in March 2002, even though in 1994 he opposed this stance in the Babri Masjid case. In UP K.L. Mishra and in Bombay H.M. Seervai set standards for Advocate Generals, the comparable office at State level.

Attorney Generals anywhere are troubled when confronting the government that appointed them. In 1975 Australian AG Endicott resigned because embattled PM Whitlam would not give him documents. In 1978, Canadian AG Ron Basford was called up to explain why he prosecuted the Toronto Sun but not an MP. In 1977 AG Sam Silkin was taken to court for non-prosecution of postal workers; Lord Denning declared his actions illegal, but was reversed by the House of Lords. In Australia, Isaac Isaacs (later chief justice and then Governor-General of Australia) is rightly remembered for continuing prosecution in the Mercantile Bank case in 1893. English AG Havers was rightly criticised in 1978 for not prosecuting breakers of Rhodesian sanctions, just as the New Zealand AG was applauded in 1981 for refusing to succumb to union pressure. But, in 2005, the UK’s AG Goldsmith was exposed for inconsistency, obfuscation and untruth over the Iraq invasion.

... contd.