Senior Advocates PV Balasubramaniam, T Gowthaman, R John Sathyan appointed as Tamil Nadu government counsel

The Tamil Nadu government on May 16 appointed Senior Advocates PV Balasubramaniam, T Gowthaman and R John Sathyan as counsel to represent the State before the Madras High Court.

Balasubramaniam and Gowthaman have been appointed as Counsel for the Government of Tamil Nadu in the rank of Additional Advocate General. They will represent the State before the Madras High Court and its Madurai Bench.

John Sathyan has been temporarily appointed as Counsel for the Government of Tamil Nadu on the criminal side.

These appointments were made after Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam came to power in Tamil Nadu. Senior Advocate Vijay Narayan has been appointed as the Advocate General of the State.

Sathyan's name was recommended for judgeship in 2022. However, the government has not cleared his name for elevation despite the Supreme Court collegium reiterating it twice in 2023.

The Central government rejected his name citing an Intelligence Bureau (IB) report stating that he had shared an article that was critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The report had stated that Sathyan had shared such an article published in The Quint, as well as another post portraying the suicide of a medical aspirant in 2017 as a 'political betrayal' and a 'shame of India'.

[Read AAG Notification]

[Read Criminal Side Notification]