Role of a public prosecutor

"Public Prosecutors are the agents of the Attorney General and represents the interest of the general public in the criminal justice system. the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Shiv Kumar v. Hukum Chand and Anr. 1998 Cr.L.R. (SC) 689 to submit that the role of Public Prosecutor is entirely different than the role of a lawyer engaged for and by a party and by the very nature of the peculiar duties, the conduct of prosecution cannot be handled over to a counsel engaged by the complainant. Learned Counsel also referred to the decision of this Court in Madho Singh and Anr. v. State of Kajasthan and Ors. 2002(1) Cr.L.R. (Raj.) 498 to contend that a lawyer who was counsel for the complainant could not have been appointed as Public Prosecutor and for appointment of SpecialPublic Prosecutor, special reasons have to be assigned. Learned Counsel 20. Therefore, the Special Public Prosecutor under Section 15 of the Act is equivalent and akin to the Public Prosecutor under Section 24 of the Code (and not the Special Public Prosecutoras envisaged by Section 24(8) of the Code); and that is why a Public Prosecutor already appointed could be ""Specified"" as Special Public Prosecutor under Section 15 of the Act. Being an officer of the court, the prosecutor is believed to represent the public interest and as such not to seek conviction of a party by hook or crook. The prosecutor is supposed to lead evidence favourable to the accused for the benefit of the court, not conceal it to secure a conviction. It is also believed that in a case of withdrawal of prosecution, if the prosecutor makes an independent decision to withdraw a case then the court should accept this and permit withdrawal under section 321 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). Section 24 of the CrPC provides for appointment of public prosecutors in the High Courts and the district by the central government or state government. Subsection 3 lays down that for every district, the state government shall appoint a public prosecutor and may also appoint one or more additional public prosecutors for the district. Subsection 4 requires the district magistrate to prepare a panel of names of persons considered fit for such appointment, in consultation with the sessions judge. Subsection 5 contains an embargo against appointment of any person as the public prosecutor or additional public prosecutor in the district by the state government unless his name appears in the panel prepared under subsection 4. Subsection 6 provides for such appointment wherein a state has a local cadre of prosecuting officers, but if no suitable person is available in such cadre, then the appointment has to be made from the panel prepared under subsection 4. Subsection 4 says that a person shall be eligible for such appointment only after he has been in practice as an advocate for not less than seven years. Section 25 deals with the appointment of an assistant public prosecutor in the district for conducting prosecution in the courts of magistrate. In the case of a public prosecutor also known as district government counsel (criminal) there can be no doubt about the statutory element attached to such appointment by virtue of this provision in the CrPC 1973. 

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isha bhardwaj

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