Hyderabad: A division bench of the Telangana High Court has directed the state government to issue appointment orders to the 151 candidates who had been selected to the post of additional public prosecutors for the criminal courts within a week and report compliance by January 7.
The order was issued by the bench of Chief Justice SC Sharma and Justice Tukaramji. The court took a serious note of the complaint that 50 per cent of the sanctioned APP posts in the state remained vacant due to lack of recruitment for several years.
This was causing hindrance to quick disposal of criminal cases, the court noted after it took up a suo motu PIL.
Even after court directions in the past, the state government was moving the proceedings at snail’s pace as for the recruitments. The court had asked principal secretary to Home to appear before it if the recruitment process was not geared up. It was only after the court fixed a deadline to fill the posts that the government initiated the recruitment process. Yet, the appointment letters were not issued to the selected candidates.
Srikanth Reddy, government pleader representing the state, informed the court that the selection process for 151 APPs has concluded and the process of checking the antecedents of the selected candidates has begun. The verifications of 30 per cent of the candidates was complete, he said, and sought time to complete the process, after which “the appointment orders will be issued.”
The court directed the government to issue appointment letters in one week’s time and file compliance reports. Further hearing was adjourned to January 7.
