Acharya resigns as Advocate General

This is the 3rd time that an AG has resigned from the post under BJP govt

Advocate General B V Acharya submitted his resignation to his post on Wednesday.

Acharya, who is also the Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) in the Jayalalitha case  being tried in the Special Court, resigned after he was told by the government to hold only one post. He has sent his resignation to Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda. This was Acharya’s fourth stint as the Advocate General.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Acharya said there was pressure on him to relinquish the post of the SPP, which increased once he was appointed  the Advocate General in August 2011.

“Some people felt that I should not hold two posts and a petition to the Governor had also been submitted in this regard. A public interest litigation was also filed last month stating I should not hold the posts. The BJP government recently communicated that I should resign as the SPP and even the party High Command was keen on this. So, I decided to resign as the Advocate General,” he said.

SC directive
Acharya, who was appointed by the Chief Justice as the SPP in February 2005, said his appointment had came on the directions of the Supreme Court. “This is a job entrusted to me by the Chief Justice. I do not want to leave this post, so I chose to be the SPP rather than the Advocate General,” he said.

Last month, a PIL had been filed by advocate Gangadharaiah contesting Acharya holding both the posts. This is the third time that a Advocate General (AG)  resigned from the post under the BJP government, since 2008.  Uday Holla was the first AG to resign in June 2009 citing personal reasons.

However, it is said that he was unhappy with the interference of K Divakar, the legal advisor to former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, in his functioning. The next AG, Ashok Haranahalli, resigned in August 2011 immediately after Yeddyurappa resigned from his post as the chief minister.
DHNS