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Punjab AG’s ouster: Berry resigns as AAG in solidarity with Deol
Berry was appointed additional advocate general on November 8, even as talks of Deol’s ouster were doing the rounds. He has also remained associated with Punjab’s AG office in the past
A day after the Punjab cabinet accepted the resignation of APS Deol as the state’s advocate general, an additional advocate general (AAG) Mukesh Berry too put in his papers exhorting the state government “not to ridicule and diminish the status and dignity of the senior advocates” of the high court. Deol, a designated senior advocate, was appointed AG after Atul Nanda who resigned in view of Captain Amarinder Singh’s ouster as the chief minister in September.
Berry was appointed additional advocate general on November 8, even as talks of Deol’s ouster were doing the rounds. He has also remained associated with Punjab’s AG office in the past. “Without commenting on the decision of the Punjab government in accepting the resignation ……I hereby submit my resignation,” Berry’s resignation letter reads.
Berry and Tarun Vir Singh Lehal, son-in-law of Punjab’s deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, were appointed additional advocates general by invoking special provisions by the state government on November 8.
Many in the lawyers’ fraternity hailed his decision and came out on social media in his support. Congress MP and lawyer Manish Tewari in his tweet said that Berry has “eloquently summed up the disgust that a lot of us lawyers across the country feel at repeated subversion of constitutional offices by some members of the political class.”
“Wish such politicians who perceive apolitical constitutional functionaries as soft targets to wage their proxy warfare find a better way to do their politics,” he further tweeted.
