Attorney General of India - Wikipedia Attorney General of India Attorney General for India Incumbent KK Venugopal since 30 June 2017 Abbreviation AG Residence New Delhi, India Seat N - 234 - A, Greater Kailash - I, New Delhi Appointer President of India Term length No fixed tenure Constituting instrument Article 76 of the Constitution Formation 28 January 1950 First holder M.C. Setalvad Deputy Solicitor General of India Additional Solicitors General of India This article is part of a series on Judiciary of India Law of India Administration Ministry of Justice Department of Legal Affairs Legislative Department Department of Justice Law Commission of India Civil courts Supreme Court of India Chief Justice of India Judges of the Supreme Court High Courts of India Chief Justices of High Courts of India Judges of High Courts District Courts / Additional District Judge 's Courts Civil Judge ( Sr. Division ) 's Courts Civil Judge ( Jr. Division ) 's Courts Criminal courts Supreme Court of India Chief Justice of India Judges of the Supreme Court High Courts of India Chief Justices of High Courts of India Judges of High Courts Courts of Session / Courts of Additional Sessions Judge Courts of Assistant Sessions Judge Chief Judicial Magistrate Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Judicial Magistrate of First Class / Metropolitan Magistrate Special Judicial Magistrate Judicial Magistrate of Second Class Executive Court Divisional Commissioner District Magistrate / Additional District Magistrate Sub-Divisional Magistrate Assistant Magistrate Special Executive Magistrate Legal profession Bar Council Chairman ( BCI ) - Manan Kumar Mishra Attorney General of India Solicitor General of India Additional Solicitor General of India Advocates in India All India Bar Examination Legal education Legal education in India Autonomous law schools in India List of law schools in India The Attorney General for India is the Indian government 's chief legal advisor, and its primary lawyer in the Supreme Court of India. He is appointed by the President of India under Article 76 ( 1 ) of the Constitution and holds office during the pleasure of the President. He must be a person qualified to be appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court, also must have been a judge of some high court for five years or an advocate of some high court for ten years or an eminent jurist, in the opinion of the President and must be a citizen of India. The 15th and current Attorney General is KK Venugopal. He was appointed by Pranab Mukherjee, the President of India. He was formally appointed as with effect from 30 June 2017 and shall have a tenure of 3 years. Contents 1 Powers and duties 2 Fee and allowances payable 3 Politicization of the Attorney General 4 List of Attorneys General 5 References Powers and duties The Attorney General is necessary for giving advice to the Government of India in legal matters referred to him. He also performs other legal duties assigned to him by the President. The Attorney General has the right of audience in all Courts in India as well as the right to participate in the proceedings of the Parliament, though not to vote. The Attorney General appears on behalf of Government of India in all cases ( including suits, appeals and other proceedings ) in the Supreme Court in which Government of India is concerned. He also represents the Government of India in any reference made by the President to the Supreme Court under Article 143 of the Constitution. Unlike the Attorney General of the United States, the Attorney General for India does not have any executive authority. Those functions are performed by the Law Minister of India. Also the AG is not a government servant and is not debarred from private legal practice. The Attorney General can accept briefs but can not appear against the Government. He can not defend an accused in the criminal proceedings and accept the directorship of a company without the permission of the Government. The Attorney General is assisted by a Solicitor General and four additional Solicitors General. The Attorney General is to be consulted only in legal matters of real importance and only after the Ministry of Law has been consulted. All references to the Attorney General are made by the Law Ministry. Fee and allowances payable Fee and allowances payable to the law officers ( including Attorney General for India, Solicitor General of India and the Additional Solicitors General ) of the Government of India are as under : S.No. Nomenclature of the item of work Rates of fees payable for appearance and other work ( 1 ) Suits, writ petitions, appeals and references under article 143 ₹ 16,000 / - per case per day ( 2 ) Special leave petitions and other applications ₹ 10,000 / - per case per day ( 3 ) Settling pleadings ( including affidavits ) ₹ 5,000 / - per pleading ( 4 ) Settling Statement of Case ₹ 6,000 / - per case ( 5 ) For giving opinions in statements of cases sent by the Ministry of Law ₹ 10,000 / - per case ( 6 ) For written submission before the Supreme Court, High Court, and Commissions of Inquiry or Tribunals and the like ₹ 10,000 / - per case ( 7 ) Appearance in Courts outside Delhi ₹ 40,000 / - per day per case In addition to the above fee payable for cases, a retainer fee is paid to the Attorney General for India, Solicitor General of India and the Additional Solicitors General at the rate of ₹ 50,000, ₹ 40,000 and ₹ 30,000 per month respectively. Moreover, the Attorney General for India is also paid a sumptuary allowance of ₹ 4,000 per month, except during the period of his leave. Politicization of the Attorney General Further information : Indian Emergency ( 1975 -- 77 ), Bofors scandal, Taj corridor case, 2G spectrum scam, and Indian coal mining controversy It has become a tradition that the Attorney General resigns when a new government is formed. The Attorney General is selected by the Government and acts as its advocate, and hence is not a neutral person. Nevertheless, it is a constitutional authority, and his or her opinions are subject to public scrutiny. On several occasions however, the opinions pursued by the Attorney General appear to have been extremely politicised. During some of the AG tenures, it has been felt that the attorney general has gone too far. Niren De during Indira Gandhi replied to a question by Hans Raj Khanna stating that even the right to life can be suspended during emergency. Similarly, in 2005, when the UPA government was planning a possible coalition with Mayawati, Milon K. Banerjee 's opinion absolving Mayawati in the Taj corridor case was ignored by the Supreme Court. In a direct condemnation of the government which asked the CBI to heed attorney general Milon Banerjee 's opinion and close the case against Mayawati, the Supreme Court told the agency not to go solely on the AG 's opinion and place all evidence before it. In 2009, Milon K. Banerjee 's opinion absolving Ottavio Quattrocchi in the Bofors scandal has also been viewed as `` devaluing and eroding the Attorney General 's position ''. During the UPA - II government ( 2009 -- 2014 ), the conduct of Attorney General Goolam Vahanvati was criticised in a number of cases. In 2G spectrum scam, he became the first Attorney General in India 's history who had to testify as a witness in a corruption case in a trial court. In late April 2013, in Coal-gate scandal, Vahanvati was accused of misrepresenting facts in the top most court of India. Again in the same case, Vahanvati 's role came under scrutiny after allegations of impropriety and coercion emerged from his junior law officer, Harin P. Raval, who resigned from the post of Additional Solicitor General as a result. List of Attorneys General The Attorneys General for India since independence are listed below : Attorney General Term Incumbent Prime Minister M.C. Setalvad 28 January 1950 -- 1 March 1963 Jawaharlal Nehru C.K. Daphtary 2 March 1963 -- 30 October 1968 Jawaharlal Nehru ; Lal Bahadur Shastri Niren De 1 November 1968 -- 31 March 1977 Indira Gandhi S.V. Gupte 1 April 1977 -- 8 August 1979 Morarji Desai L.N. Sinha 9 August 1979 -- 8 August 1983 Indira Gandhi K. Parasaran 9 August 1983 -- 8 December 1989 Indira Gandhi ; Rajiv Gandhi Soli Sorabjee 9 December 1989 -- 2 December 1990 V.P. Singh ; Chandra Shekhar G. Ramaswamy 3 December 1990 -- 23 November 1992 Chandra Shekhar ; P.V. Narasimha Rao Milon K. Banerji 21 November 1992 -- 8 July 1996 P.V. Narasimha Rao Ashok Desai 9 July 1996 -- 6 April 1998 H.D. Devegowda ; Inder Kumar Gujral Soli Sorabjee 7 April 1998 -- 4 June 2004 Atal Bihari Vajpayee Milon K. Banerji 5 June 2004 -- 7 June 2009 Manmohan Singh Goolam Essaji Vahanvati 8 June 2009 -- 11 June 2014 Manmohan Singh Mukul Rohatgi 19 June 2014 -- 18 June 2017 Narendra Modi K.K. Venugopal 1 July 2017 -- Narendra Modi References ^ Jump up to : `` LIST OF LAW OFFICERS ''. Ministry of Law and Justice. Retrieved 2 January 2017. Jump up ^ `` List of Law Officers of Government of India ''. Retrieved 12 June 2014. Jump up ^ `` Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi is new Attorney General ''. Zee News. Retrieved 2 June 2017. ^ Jump up to : `` Supreme Court of India -- CONSTITUTION ''. Supreme Court of India. Retrieved 28 August 2012. Jump up ^ `` Fee and allowances payable to law officers '' ( PDF ). Retrieved 11 June 2014. ^ Jump up to : `` Milon Banerjee has devalued his position : BJP ''. The Hindu. Chennai, India. 30 April 2009. Jump up ^ http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/aug/26flip.htm Jump up ^ http://www.asiantribune.com/oldsite/show_news.php?id=13395 Jump up ^ Kaushik, Krishn ( 1 May 2013 ). `` Inside Man -- The convenient opinions of Attorney General Goolam Vahanvati ''. The Caravan. Retrieved 5 August 2013. Jump up ^ `` AG deposes in 2G case, Raja calls him liar ''. 28 February 2013. Archived from the original on 30 September 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2013. Jump up ^ ( 1 ), coal-gate - attorney - general - misrepresented - facts - to - supreme - court - says - letter - bomb NDTV news report. Jump up ^ Bhatt, Abhinav ( 30 April 2013 ). `` Harin Raval resigns as Additional Solicitor General after Coal-Gate letter bomb ''. NDTV. Retrieved 14 May 2013. Jump up ^ Attorney General for Independent India Archived 25 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ http://lawmin.nic.in/la/lawofficers.htm Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Attorney_General_of_India&oldid=793880109 '' Categories : Attorneys General of India Supreme Court of India Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links Use dmy dates from September 2014 Use Indian English from June 2016 All Wikipedia articles written in Indian English Talk Contents About Wikipedia हिन्दी മലയാളം தமிழ் తెలుగు Edit links This page was last edited on 4 August 2017, at 14 : 25. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who advises the government of india on legal matters
Answer: Attorney General for India