Advocate Gaurav Banerjee, whose father Milon Banerjee was the Attorney General in the last government, has been appointed Additional Solicitor General of India (ASG) by the Government. He is among 12 lawyers who have been appointed ASGs to assist Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati and Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium. The appointments were cleared by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet.

Also in the list is former Haryana Advocate-General and Punjab and Haryana High Court lawyer Mohan Jain. Sources said Jain has been asked to shift base to New Delhi to handle Government of India cases in the Supreme Court. As already reported, Indira Jaising will be the first-ever woman ASG in the country.

Other names in the list are current ASGs Mohan Parasaran, Ashok Nigam (for Allahabad High Court), Parag P Tripathi, Muthukrishnan Ravindran for Chennai and P P Malhotra.

Malhotra, who had argued the Centre’s case in the Delhi High Court in the matter of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, will now argue cases in the Supreme Court. His place in the Delhi High Court will be taken by A S Chandioke. Former Assistant Solicitor General of India for Gujarat Harin Raval has been also appointed ASG. Berry S Khambatta will be the ASG in Mumbai while Farook Razak will handle cases in Calcutta and North-East.

Among ASGs in the previous government who have not found favour is B Dutta who had opposed the CBI’s plan to act against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in the Bofors case. He had also gone to London and met officials in the Crown Prosecution Service. In January 2006, Quattrocchi’s accounts were defrozen and the money withdrawn.