Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi is set to be appointed the fourteenth Attorney General (AG) for India. He was the AG for three years (2014-17) during the first term of the Modi government. He will take charge from October 1 when the incumbent KK Venugopal’s term ends on September 30.

Mukul Rohatgi is the son of former Delhi High Court judge, Justice Awadh Behari Rohatgi, who practiced under Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal, former CJI in the High Court before starting his own legal practice.

After returning to private practice in 2017, he appeared in several high profile cases. Rohatgi most recently represented Ashish Mishra, an accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri case, challenging the Allahabad High Court order denying him bail. He also represented Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan in the Cordelia cruise drugs case.

In the last few years, he represented gaming companies including Dream11 before various High Courts and the Supreme Court as states sought to impose bans and PILs flooded various Courts. He has argued for FIFS and rummy companies before the Karnataka High Court in the high profile case challenging the constitutional validity of gaming ban ordinance notified in last October. He obtained a favorable order for gaming companies from the Kerala High Court on the rummy ban imposed by the Kerala government. Rohtagi appeared for gaming unicorn Dream11 in a number of matters including an appeal by Government of India on GST applicability arising from a division bench decision of the Bombay High Court. 

Having argued for gaming companies, Rohtagi may not argue for the government as the AG in the pending petitions before the Supreme Court on account of conflict of interest.

While as a top most law officer of the country, Rohtagi’s services will benefit the country, the gaming companies will be losing the services of the country’s foremost lawyer at a crucial juncture as Supreme Court may be hearing the appeals against the decisions of Madras and Karnataka High Courts on the validity of gaming ban laws.