The Punjab government has appointed senior advocate Gurminder Singh Kharbanda as the state's new advocate general (AG) today (October 5). The development comes following the resignation of senior lawyer Vinod Ghai from the post of AG.
The state cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, gave its approval to Singh's name as the new AG. Singh will be the third AG in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government that came to power in the state in March last year.
Ghai resigned from the AG's post around a month after the AAP government faced embarrassment in the high court in the matter of dissolution of gram panchayats. In August, the AAP government had to take a "U-turn" in the Punjab and Haryana High Court by withdrawing its notification that dissolved all gram panchayats in the state.
Facing embarrassment, the state government had suspended two senior IAS officers- Dhirendra Kumar Tiwari and Gurpreet Singh Khaira- for a technically-flawed decision in the matter. A Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader had challenged the state government's August 10 notification on the dissolution of gram panchayats.
The state government was also not able to defend itself in the matter of delivery of wheat flour at the doorsteps of beneficiaries when fair price shop owners moved the high court, forcing it to put the scheme on hold last year.
Ghai, a leading criminal lawyer, took over the AG's post in July 2022. He had succeeded senior advocate Anmol Rattan Sidhu.
(With agencies inputs)
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