K. K. Venugopal

Some Lesser Known Facts About K. K. Venugopal

• K. K. Venugopal was born on 6 September 1931 (Sunday) when the country was still ruled by the British. Venugopal is a renowned Indian constitutional lawyer and a senior advocate in the Supreme Court of India. On 30 June 2017, Mr. Venugopal was appointed as the 15th Attorney General of India, after Mukul Rohatgi stepped down as the Attorney General of India.

• Venugopal was born in a Nambiar (Hindu Ambalavasi caste) family, and his father, M. K. Nambiar, was a barrister. His mother’s name is Kalyani Nambiar. Venugopal and his family moved to Mangalore where he spent his childhood and did his primary education before he moved to Chennai for higher education.

• After his schooling, Venugopal attended Madras Christian College in Chennai where he pursued B.Sc. in Physics. His father was a barrister in Madras High Court. This sparked an interest in him to pursue law as a career from Raja Lakhamgouda Law College, Belgaum, and he started his career as a lawyer in Mysore in 1954.

• Soon after this, he started working under his father in the Madras High Court, and he went on to have over five decades of legal experience. In 1972, he moved to Delhi where he was appointed as a senior advocate and handled several important cases.

• Over the years, Venugopal has appeared for many high-profile cases like the Babri Masjid demolition case where he represented the BJP leaders, L K Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He was appointed the president of the Union Internationale des Avocats (International Association of Lawyers) where he served from 1996 to 1997.

• Another highlight of his career is that he was appointed by the Royal Government of Bhutan to help them draft the Constitution of Bhutan.

• On 29 June 2020, the Ministry of Law and Justice released a statement that read-
  

  the President has re-elected K. K. Venugopal, Senior Advocate as the Attorney General for India for a period of one year starting 1st July 2020.”