Senior Advocate Saktimoy Chakraborty appointed as new Advocate General

As speculated, finally, on Monday morning Tripura's Advocate General Siddhartha Shankar Dey submitted his resignation letter to the state government and in the afternoon, the government has also appointed senior advocate Saktimoy Chakraborty as next Advocate General of Tripura.

In the afternoon, Law department through a notification, signed by Law Secretary Sanjay Bhattacharjee said that “In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of Article 165 of the Constitution of India, the Governor of Tripura is pleased to appoint Shri Saktimoy Chakraborty, senior advocate as Advocate General for the state of Tripura with immediate effect and until further order.” It is learned that the state cabinet hurriedly passed a resolution by circulation regarding the selection of Shaktimoy Chakraborty as next Advocate General of the state.

New Advocate General will hold the office of the Advocate General of Tripura after an oath taking ceremony would be administered by the Governor.

Earlier, Dey, who declined to comment about his decision to resign, said that as per procedure he submitted his resignation letter to both Chief Secretary J K Sinha and Law Secretary Sanjoy Bhattacharjee.

He said that he had earlier informed Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha over his decision to quit the post and added that he intended to resign from the post earlier but in view of five, six pending cases, his resignation was delayed by some days.

Sources, however, said that Dey quit because of "rifts and predicaments on certain legal issues with senior officials of the Tripura Law Department and senior bureaucrats".

The first BJP government in Tripura appointed Dey as Advocate General on December 29, 2020, after his predecessor Arun Kanti Bhowmik, also a former MLA, died after being affected by Covid-19-related complications.

Speaking with Northeast Herald over the possible reasons for his sudden resignation said "All songs have an end like all seasons have a changeover, just like that."

"I have had a memorable and successful tenure of four years under two successive Chief Ministers (Biplab Kumar Deb and Dr Manik Saha). It was a satisfying journey, but this is a pleasure post that depends on the conveniences of both the government and myself."

He also denied the media reports of his alleged rifts with the Law department of Tripura and with some senior officials.