Chandigarh : At least 200 law officers of Punjab have submitted their resignations.
State’s advocate general Gurminder Singh confirmed the development but said that “it was part of an administrative exercise and not a political exercise”.
“No one is being asked to go. Appointments when made were done in a hurry. So, a rationalisation exercise is being carried out along with work audit,” he added.
Officials familiar with the development said that around 220 law officers in Chandigarh and 35 in Delhi have resigned from their posts. However, they will continue to hold their post till the new appointments are made.
Even as state’s AG denied this, many are seeing this exercise as part of the image makeover by the state government in the backdrop of Aam Aadmi Party’s defeat in Delhi assembly polls. “Mass replacements or resignations do not take place in the middle of the term of the government. It is unusual. Something is to be achieved out of it. The contracts renewal exercise is something, which is done at the backend,” a law officer, not wishing to be named, said.
Gurminder Singh is the third AG in the Bhagwant Mann government. Senior advocate Anmol Rattan Sidhu was first AG who resigned in July 2022. He was replaced by senior advocate Vinod Ghai, who also tendered resignation in October 2023. “Due to short tenures of AGs, appointments were done in a hurry. Hence, a rationalisation exercise was warranted,” another functionary at the AG office said, adding that besides this, some posts were also vacant.
{{/usCountry}}Gurminder Singh is the third AG in the Bhagwant Mann government. Senior advocate Anmol Rattan Sidhu was first AG who resigned in July 2022. He was replaced by senior advocate Vinod Ghai, who also tendered resignation in October 2023. “Due to short tenures of AGs, appointments were done in a hurry. Hence, a rationalisation exercise was warranted,” another functionary at the AG office said, adding that besides this, some posts were also vacant.
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