Attorney General of India
NAME – Kottayan Katankot Venugopal.
PROFESSION – Senior Advocate of Supreme Court of India., Attorney General of India.
BORN – 06 September 1931.
PLACE OF BIRTH – Kanhangad, Kasaragod District, Madras Presidency, British India.
FATHER’S NAME – M.K. Nambiar.
MOTHER’S NAME – Kalyani Nambiar.
SPOUSE – Shantha Konath Venugopal.
SIBLINGS – Shiva Shanker Nambiar, Ramkumaran Nambiar, Late Nalini Vasudevan.
CHILDREN – Krishnan Venugopal (senior advocate, Supreme Court), Kannan Venugopal, Lakshmi Venugopal.
EDUCATION –
- B.Sc. in Physics from Madras Christian College, Chennai.
- Law from Raja Lakhamgouda Law College, Belgaum.
AWARDS –
- He was honored with Padma Bhushan in 2002, the third largest civilian honor.
- He was honored with Padma Vibhushan in 2015, the second-highest civilian honor.
HOBBIES – He loves collecting antiquarian books.
BACKGROUND – K.K. Venugopal was born on 06 September 1931 in Kanhagad, Madras Presidency, British India. On that time country was still ruled by the British. His father, M.K. Nambiar, was a barrister. His mother’s name is Kalyani Nambiar. He spent his childhood in Mangalore where he moved with his Family.
UPBRINGING & EDUCATION –He did his primary education in Mangalore. After that he moved to Chennai to take higher education. Later he pursued B.Sc. in Physics at Madras Christian College, Chennai.
His father was a barrister in Madras High Court. This sparked on him as interest to pursue law as career which he did from Raja Lakhamgouda Law College, Belgaum, and he started his career as a Lawyer in Mysore in 1954.
WALK OF LIFE – He started his career working under his father in Madras High Court, and he went on to have over five decades of legal experience. In 1972, he moved to Delhi where was appointed as a Senior Advocate and handled several cases.
Venugopal has appeared for many high-profile cases like the Babri Masjid demolition case where he represented the BJP leaders, LK Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Venugopal served as the President of the Union Internationale des Avocats (International Association of Lawyers) where he served from 1996 to 1997.Venugopal was appointed by the Royal Government of Bhutan to serve as the Constitutional adviser for drafting of the Constitution of India.
He was appointed as the Attorney General of India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 30th, 2017.
On 25 March 2020, Venugopal coverts his rare book collection and granted public access to a wide collection through website. It lists books which date back to 17th Century and includes over 570 books.
The 88-year-old succeeded Mukul Rohtagi, who stepped down after the first term. On 29 June 2020, the Ministry of Law and Justice released a statement that “the President has re-elected K.K. Venugopal, Senior Advocate as the Attorney General of India for a period of one year 1st July 2020.”
CONTROVERSIES –
- In the Rafale documents case, he informed the Supreme Court that the government was planning to take “Criminal Action” under the Official Secrets Act against few unnamed persons who tampered with Rafale documents and he was representive the Narendra Modi government.
- K.K. Venugopal ended up in the limelight when he asked senior advocate Anand Grover to address Senior Advocate Indira Jaising as his wife and not “Ms. Jaising” in the Supreme Court.
- Attorney General K.K. Venugopal in recent Farmer’s protest claimed that the protests have been infiltrated by Khalistani elements. He had also witnessed the hearing before the Supreme Court in the challenge to the three Farm Laws.