Bihar Advocate General P K Shahi voluntarily relinquished his constitutional post, saying the decision was entirely his own. He clarified that he had not resigned but stepped aside to enable the new BJP-led Bihar government to independently appoint government counsels.
Bihar Advocate General P K Shahi voluntarily relinquished his constitutional post and sent a letter to the state government informing it of his decision. Shahi, who began a second term as Advocate General on January 16, 2023, said the move was entirely his own and not taken at anyone else’s direction.
Shahi said while answering questions from legal reporters,
“I did not tender resignation but have relinquished the post of advocate general, paving the way for the new Bihar govt led by the Bharatiya Janata Party to take an independent decision on the appointment of govt counsels in the Patna High Court,”
During his second tenure, Shahi represented the Bihar government in several major matters. One such case was the Patna High Court’s August 1, 2023 judgment that upheld the constitutional validity of the caste survey carried out in the state.
He also appeared in a case involving political reservation for extremely backward classes (EBCs) in urban local body elections, where the High Court upheld the reservation and accepted the state’s legal submissions.
Born on July 3, 1955, Shahi studied law at Banaras Hindu University before joining the Patna High Court Bar in 1980. Over time, he gained recognition as a leading constitutional law practitioner.
In 1990, he became the youngest law officer appointed by any state government in a High Court in India when he was named Government Pleader for Bihar at the Patna High Court at the age of 35.
Later, in 2001, he was appointed standing counsel for the central government at the Patna High Court. He then became Advocate General of Bihar on November 25, 2005, and in 2006 the Patna High Court designated him a senior advocate.
Shahi entered active politics in 2010, joining the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government as a minister.
He first held the education department portfolio and later managed the environment and forest department, planning and development department, and education department in addition.
After returning to legal practice in January 2016, he was appointed amicus curiae in roughly 40 public interest litigations related to the construction of national highways in Bihar.
Several key highway projects Patna-Gaya-Dobhi, Patna-Bakhtiyarpur-Mokama, Bakhtiyarpur-Nawada-Rajauli, Patna-Ara-Bhojpur, and the Munger-Mirzachowki corridor were monitored by the Patna High Court in proceedings where Shahi assisted the court as amicus curiae.