Hyderabad: Mr. Parankusam Venugopal resigned as Advocate General of the AP government on Sunday. His sudden resignation came as a shock to the legal fraternity.
He told this newspaper, “Mr. Posani Venkateswarlu, public prosecutor of AP, visited me at my office today and asked me resign. When I expressed my desire to have a talk with Mr Dammalapati Srinivas, Additional Advocate General, before writing my resignation letter, Mr Venkateswarlu told me that Mr Srinivas was abroad.”
He said that the public prosecutor asked him to cite some reasons for his resignation. “I refused to cite any reason as there is no reason for resignation except being asked to quit the post,” he said.
“Later I addressed my resignation letter to Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan and the chief secretary and thanked the AP government for making me AG and keeping me in the post for two years,” he added. He said, “They expressed a desire to utilise my services; I accepted and worked for them. Now they want to make some changes.”
The legal fraternity which has shocked at the sudden resignation of the AG is of the opinion that the AP government has set a wrong precedent by sending the public prosecutor to the office of the AG who is a constitutional appointee.
Citing earlier instances wherein governments asked advocates general to quit, they said the prevailing practice was that the Chief Minister, Chief Secretary or law minister requests the AG to quit the post.
It is the first time that a public prosecutor who is a statutory appointee has been used as a state emissary to convey its desire to the AG to resign from his post which is bad precedent, the legal fraternity added.
Sources close to the AP government revealed that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu desired to revamp the law officers of the state in the Hyderabad High Court and to pave the way for the process, he decided to replace the AG with his confidant.
