Madras High Court concerned over delay in appointing law officers
As per sub-section five of CRPC, the government should select the advocates for the appointments only from that list.
Madurai: Criticising the Tamil Nadu government for its lack of concern over appointment of law officers in the districts courts in the state, Justice R Mahadevan doubted the functioning of the government in this matter.
“When it comes to a question over the appointment of public prosecutors, we are doubtful whether the government is functioning or not,” the Judge observed while hearing a petition which alleged violation of regulations by the state government in the law officers’ appointments in Kanyakumari district down south.
Ashok Padmaraj, an advocate from Kanyakumari in his petition field before the court stated that as per the provision of section 24 (4) of CRPC, the district collector (The District Magistrate) in consultation with the sessions judge would prepare a panel of names of persons who were in his/her opinion fit to be appointed as public prosecutors or additional public prosecutors.
As per sub-section five of CRPC, the government should select the advocates for the appointments only from that list. In the case of Kanyakumari, the district collector in consultation with the sessions judge had short-listed advocates including the petitioner for the posts and recommended it to the government few months back, he said.
However, the government did not select the advocates from the list submitted by the district collector (The District Magistrate) and the sessions judge. The petitioner claimed his name was rejected because he did not have any political backing. Hence, the advocate sought the court to pass appropriate orders to stay the appointment of law officers.
After hearing the petitioner, the Justice Mahadevan observed that while the High court lacks sufficient public prosecutors to deal with the cases, the law officers, who are presently in the job, lack commitment. For instance, the law officers appointed for TN housing board and municipal corporations do not even appear in the cases, said the judge and added that the government also does not give extensions to talented public prosecutors.
After making this observation, the judge directed the advocate general of Tamil Nadu government to appear in person on November 22 before the Madurai bench.