Senior advocate APS Deol is Punjab advocate general
CHANDIGARH : The Punjab government on Monday appointed criminal lawyer Amar Preet Singh Deol as the advocate general (AG) of the state replacing Atul Nanda who had resigned after Captain Amarinder Singh quit as the chief minister.
Deol, 61, came into limelight recently when he secured release of former director general of police (DGP) Sumedh
Singh Saini arrested by the vigilance bureau in a 2020 criminal case. Deol had appeared for Saini and other accused in the 2015 sacrilege cases in the high court. In the past, Deol has also appeared for former CM Amarinder Singh in some criminal cases registered during SAD-BJP regime.
In 2007, he was appointed special public prosecutor in a disproportionate assets case against former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal by then
Congress government. Deol, who became a senior advocate in 2007, was in the reckoning for the AG’S post in 2017 as well when Amarinder took over as the CM. The government took more than a week to clear Deol’s name. Names of senior advocates Deepinder Singh Patwalia and Anmol Rattan Sidhu, too, were considered.
The government’s move has invited sharp criticism from a section of legal fraternity, who are of the view that technically, Deol won’t be able to appear in the high court neither in cases against Saini nor in 2015 sacrilege cases as he had appeared on the other side in the past.
BJP slams appointment Punjab BJP general secretary Subhash Sharma said with the appointment of Deol, Punjab government’s facade of securing justice in sacrilege cases seemed like a blatant lie. “The true face of the Congress government stands exposed with Deol’s appointment, who is a lawyer of former DGP Sumedh Saini in the Bebhal Kalan case,” he said.