Governor of West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankar on Tuesday confirmed the appointment of Senior Advocate SN Mookherjee as the new Advocate General of West Bengal..Mookherjee's appointment follows the exit of Kishore Datta, who resigned as AG on Tuesday, citing personal reasons..So who is the new AG of the State?.Soumendra Nath Mookherjee was born on January 4, 1961 in Cuttack, Odisha. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in the Law Tripos course - a program taught from an academic rather than a vocational perspective - from Churchill College, University of Cambridge in 1985. He also holds a B.Sc. Honours (Economics) degree from Presidency College, Kolkata..He was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn, London in 1986 and was also awarded the Brian Walters Prize in Local Government and Planning at the UK Bar Examinations. He enrolled as an advocate with the West Bengal State Bar Council on August 8, 1985 and was designated as a Senior Advocate on September 5, 2003, at the age of 42 years..He commenced his practice initially on the Original Side of the Calcutta High Court, and has also appeared before the Supreme Court of India and other High Courts across the country, as well as the erstwhile Company Law Board, the National Company Law Tribunal and the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal. Mookherjee's areas of expertise include maritime laws, company law (with special focus on shareholders’ disputes and oppression and mismanagement cases), intellectual property laws, and corporate insolvency laws - both during the Companies Act, 1956 regime and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 regime..Over the course of his career, he appeared and led arguments in several landmark cases such as Tata Sons Ltd v. Cyrus Investments Pvt Ltd, Arcelor Mittal India Pvt. Ltd v. Essar Steel India Pvt Ltd, and 63 Moons Technologies Ltd. v. Union of India.He has also appeared in several landmark oppression and mismanagement cases such as the dispute pertaining to control of Birla Corporation between the Birla and Lodha families, the disputes pertaining to various companies of the Jalan group and the shareholders’ dispute pertaining to Hind Samachar Limited.Mookherjee has led arguments in several key international and domestic arbitration cases, representing Hardy Exploration & Production (India), Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India) and 3i Infraprojects (Mauritius), amongst others..Interestingly, during a recent hearing before the Calcutta High Court, it was suggested that Mookherjee, who is now AG for the Trinamool Congress government, had affiliations to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This was brought to light by one of the judges of the High Court, Justice Kausik Chanda, who himself was connected to the party before he became a judge.Justice Chanda made a reference to this while hearing the election petition filed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee against BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari.When the matter was heard, Mookherjee and Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who were appearing for Banerjee, sought Justice Chanda's recusal citing his BJP background. Justice Chanda, however, proceeded to ask:“You lawyers also have political affiliations. You (Dr. Singhvi) are from Congress and Mr. Mookherjee has BJP background."Mookherjee said that while he and Justice Chanda go a long way back, the issue of perception is important.“We have held each other. But issue here is whether there is a perception which will be created by Your Lordship hearing the matter,” Mookherjee had said.
Governor of West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankar on Tuesday confirmed the appointment of Senior Advocate SN Mookherjee as the new Advocate General of West Bengal..Mookherjee's appointment follows the exit of Kishore Datta, who resigned as AG on Tuesday, citing personal reasons..So who is the new AG of the State?.Soumendra Nath Mookherjee was born on January 4, 1961 in Cuttack, Odisha. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in the Law Tripos course - a program taught from an academic rather than a vocational perspective - from Churchill College, University of Cambridge in 1985. He also holds a B.Sc. Honours (Economics) degree from Presidency College, Kolkata..He was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn, London in 1986 and was also awarded the Brian Walters Prize in Local Government and Planning at the UK Bar Examinations. He enrolled as an advocate with the West Bengal State Bar Council on August 8, 1985 and was designated as a Senior Advocate on September 5, 2003, at the age of 42 years..He commenced his practice initially on the Original Side of the Calcutta High Court, and has also appeared before the Supreme Court of India and other High Courts across the country, as well as the erstwhile Company Law Board, the National Company Law Tribunal and the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal. Mookherjee's areas of expertise include maritime laws, company law (with special focus on shareholders’ disputes and oppression and mismanagement cases), intellectual property laws, and corporate insolvency laws - both during the Companies Act, 1956 regime and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 regime..Over the course of his career, he appeared and led arguments in several landmark cases such as Tata Sons Ltd v. Cyrus Investments Pvt Ltd, Arcelor Mittal India Pvt. Ltd v. Essar Steel India Pvt Ltd, and 63 Moons Technologies Ltd. v. Union of India.He has also appeared in several landmark oppression and mismanagement cases such as the dispute pertaining to control of Birla Corporation between the Birla and Lodha families, the disputes pertaining to various companies of the Jalan group and the shareholders’ dispute pertaining to Hind Samachar Limited.Mookherjee has led arguments in several key international and domestic arbitration cases, representing Hardy Exploration & Production (India), Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India) and 3i Infraprojects (Mauritius), amongst others..Interestingly, during a recent hearing before the Calcutta High Court, it was suggested that Mookherjee, who is now AG for the Trinamool Congress government, had affiliations to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This was brought to light by one of the judges of the High Court, Justice Kausik Chanda, who himself was connected to the party before he became a judge.Justice Chanda made a reference to this while hearing the election petition filed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee against BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari.When the matter was heard, Mookherjee and Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who were appearing for Banerjee, sought Justice Chanda's recusal citing his BJP background. Justice Chanda, however, proceeded to ask:“You lawyers also have political affiliations. You (Dr. Singhvi) are from Congress and Mr. Mookherjee has BJP background."Mookherjee said that while he and Justice Chanda go a long way back, the issue of perception is important.“We have held each other. But issue here is whether there is a perception which will be created by Your Lordship hearing the matter,” Mookherjee had said.
