Senior Advocate R Shanmugasundaram to be next Advocate General of Tamil Nadu
Senior Advocate R Shanmugasundaram will be the next Advocate General for Tamil Nadu. The development came after the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party led by MK Stalin formed new government in Tamil Nadu pursuant to their success in the recently concluded Assembly elections.
On May 1, a day before the declaration of election results, former Advocate General Vijay Narayan had resigned from the post.
Shanmugasundaram had earlier served as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, representing the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party. Prior to this, he had also served as a State Public prosecutor. He is likely to make his first appearance as Tamil Nadu's Advocate General on Monday before a Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, which is expected to take up the suo motu case registered to monitor COVID-19 management in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Last week, the High Court Bench had cut short its hearing in the matter, in view of concerns that the State was not sufficiently represented since new law officers were yet to be appointed after a change in Government.
In the last two hearings, Government Advocate K Suresh had represented the the State. Prior to his resignation, Senior Advocate Narayan had been leading the submissions made on behalf of the earlier AIADMK-led regime. While the suo motu case was earlier listed for May 12, the Court had illuminated that it would hear the matter earlier if required. The next hearing has now been scheduled for May 10, Monday.