Gurminder Singh appointed Punjab Advocate General; third AG after AAP came to power

Senior Advocate Gurminder Singh was today cleared for appointment as the new Advocate General (AG) of Punjab, following the resignation of Senior Advocate Vinod Ghai from the post..The announcement was made by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann today in a tweet on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).“An important meeting of the Punjab Cabinet was called today in which the new AG was approved by the cabinet. The name of Gurminder Singh as the new AG was approved by the cabinet,” Mann said in the tweet..While Ghai resigned citing personal reasons, there were reports last month that State decided to replace him as the AG’s office was not able to defend its key decisions before the Punjab and Haryana High Court.The government recently had to withdraw the orders for dissolution of panchayats after petitions in the High Court. .Singh, 56, has been practicing before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Delhi High Court and Himachal Pradesh High Court since 1989 after obtaining his degree in law from Panjab University. He was designated a Senior Advocate of Punjab and Haryana High Court in January 2014 and his area of practice includes constitutional, commercial, tender, service, arbitration and criminal matters. Singh in the past has also served as Additional, Assistant and Deputy Advocate General of Punjab government. .With Ghai’s resignation and his replacement by Singh, it would be the fourth such change of AG in Punjab since September 2021 and third in the last 1.5 years since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to power in the State.Senior Advocate APS Deol remained Punjab’s AG for a short period between September 27 and November 12 in 2021. He was replaced by Senior Advocate DS Patwalia who also held the post only for a brief period between November 19, 2021 and March 18, 2022 before he resigned after Aam Aadmi Party came to power in the StateSenior Advocate Anmol Rattan Sidhu then remained AG till July 2022. He then resigned and Vinod Ghai was appointed.