The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) that functions under the Central Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has appointed a sitting Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of Kerala from the Indian National Congress as an Advocate to represent the Authority in Courts in Kerala.
The NHAI issued a list of Empanelled Advocates on September 7, which contained the name of Advocate Chandy Oommen, the Congress MLA from Puthuppally Constituency in Kerala. Chandy Oommen is the son of the former Chief Minister of Kerala, late Oommen Chandy.
Kerala High Court does not have a Deputy Solicitor General (DSG) or an Additional Solicitor General (ASG) to represent the Central Government since the resignation of the previous Deputy Solicitor General S. Manu on March 21, 2024 upon his elevation as a Judge of the High Court.
The same month, the additional charge of the office of the DSG for the High Court was assigned to the ASG of Madras High Court, AR L Sundaresan.
In another recent appointment, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs issued an order on July 4, 2024, stating that the President of India is pleased to appoint Manu S as a Senior Standing Counsel for the Kerala High Court to represent the Board. The said lawyer had already been elevated as a Judge of the same High Court in the month of March, 2024.
Advocate Chandy Oommen completed LLB from Delhi University and LLM in criminology from the National Law University, Delhi. He obtained an additional LLM in constitutional law from Christ University, Bengaluru in 2016.
The present panel of lawyers has been engaged by the NHAI to represent it in Court, land acquisition cases and in arbitration.
Click here to read/download NHAI notification