A day after Trinamool’s defeat, Bengal Advocate General Kishore Datta tenders his resignation

Kolkata, May 5 A day after the Trinamool Congress' defeat in the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly polls, the Advocate General of the state, Kishore Datta, tendered his resignation on Tuesday.

Datta had forwarded his resignation to the office of the West Bengal Governor, R.N. Ravi, insiders from the Lok Bhavan confirmed.

He was appointed as West Bengal’s Advocate General twice during the last 15 years of the Trinamool Congress regime since 2011.

An extremely close confidant of outgoing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Datta resigned when the state government was on the back foot due to the post-poll violence case following the 2021 Assembly elections. Then, Soumendranath Mukherjee took charge as the AG.

However, in November 2023, Mukherjee suddenly resigned from the chair, following which Datta was appointed West Bengal’s Advocate General for the second term.

Mukherjee’s resignation came amid a series of legal setbacks for the state government in the Calcutta High Court in several cases. His resignation in November 2023 coincided with the replacement of the then public prosecutor, Saswata Gopal Mukherjee, by Debasish Roy.

After he resigned from the post of West Bengal's Advocate General, Soumendranath Mukherjee told a section of the media that he had resigned without any specific reasons, and his resignation did not state any reason.

However, at that time, insiders from the state legal department confirmed that there was some pressure on him from the then state law minister, Malay Ghatak, to resign amid a series of legal setbacks faced by the state government at the Calcutta High Court.

On Monday morning, the advocates from the legal cell of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) approached the Calcutta High Court’s Chief Justice Sujoy Paul, requesting the latter’s intervention to put on hold verdicts and orders in state-related cases till the formation of the new state cabinet.

Soon after that, it was confirmed that Datta had tendered his resignation from the chair of West Bengal’s Advocate General.

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