Nearly a month after the declaration of the state assembly election results and the subsequent change in government, the West Bengal administration has appointed senior advocate Surajit Nath Mitra as the new Advocate General (AG) of the state. The post had remained vacant since the resignation of former AG Kishore Datta.
According to an official notification issued on Friday, Mitra’s appointment comes after a series of changes in the panel of government lawyers representing the state at the Calcutta High Court. Earlier, the state government had named advocates Bilwadol Bhattacharya and Rajdeep Majumdar as Additional Advocates General.
Datta, who served as Advocate General during the previous administration, stepped down on May 5, leaving the position vacant for several weeks. His resignation led to growing speculation within legal and administrative circles regarding who would assume the state’s top legal advisory role in court proceedings.
Mitra has been practicing at the Calcutta High Court since 1983. He completed his studies in Economics and Law at the University of Calcutta between 1978 and 1982 before establishing a long-standing legal career focused primarily on civil and commercial litigation. Over the past four decades, he has appeared in several significant cases before the High Court.
In 2023, Mitra represented the Governor, who also serves as Chancellor of state universities, in a case challenging the appointment of Vice-Chancellors across various institutions.
His appointment as Advocate General — widely regarded as the chief legal advisor to the state government — comes shortly after Manoj Agarwal assumed office as Chief Secretary, marking another key administrative transition following the change in government.
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