mumbai he was briefly a judge of the bombay high court in 2008 and on wednesday the state cabinet chose him as the new advocate general the top law officer for maharashtra government the cabinets decision will be placed before the governor ch vidyasagar rao who has to issue the appointment order the bjp led state government and chief minister devendra fadnavis has promptly chosen a new ag following the appointment of rohit deo who held the post as a judge of the bombay high court this week the state cabinet has recommended to the governor senior advocate ashutosh arvind kumbhakoni 58 as its 60th ag kumbhakoni who represented the state earlier for five years as a a panel counsel was also its first associate advocate general for over three years from april 2005 before being appointed judge of bombay high court kumbhakoni said he was happy and humbled about the appointment to the key constitutional post and told toi tha he would do his best as the states first law officer last december the high court had on a public interest litigation filed by congress leader sanjay dutt rapped the state for a ninemonth delay in appointing a full time aga science graduate who studied law from ils law college pune kumbhakoni hails from a family of lawyers he practised law for a decade in solapur since the early 1980s largely in cooperative and civil courts before moving to mumbai where he started practice at the high court in 199293 he soon made a name for himself in the field of laws relating to education revenue civil administrative and constitutional issues he assisted the court as an amicus curiae friend of court in many complex matters of public importance and has been appearing as special counsel for state tooapart from being a busy counsel he also spared time for conducting camps to educate women and agriculturists on their legal rights with the help of local legal aid committees in solapur lawyers have other hobbies too and kumbhakonis were music and photography he plays an uncommon instrument the accordion and was in various courts other that judicial ones in college days such as the badminton court apart from being a lead player of football and hockey in collegein 2008 after six months as additional judge of the hc kumbhakoni had resigned over issues related to seniority kumbhakoni had taken the oath as judge under protest and said he had not drawn a single days salary nor taken leave or moved to judges residence allotted to hima bench of justices abhay oka and anuja prabhudessai had earlier last year in response to dutts petition on the inordinate delay in appointing an ag after the resignation last march by then ag shrihari aney expressed its displeasure over the states tardiness last december the state finally made additional and acting ag deo as the full time ag deo was sworn in as one of the 14 new judges of bombay hc on