(News) HC notice to UPSC over shortage of prosecutors

HC notice to UPSC over shortage of prosecutors

Unhappy with the shortage of public prosecutors in the capital, the Delhi high court on Wednesday asked the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to explain why vacancies remain unfilled.

"For every magistrate court there should be one PP. When one prosecutor has to handle more than three courts, how will he manage?'' a bench of justices Dipak Misra and Manmohan observed while issuing notice to UPSC.

The judges said that a "country governed by rule of law can't tolerate apathetic attitude of lack of PPs in courts'' while hearing a case it took up suo moto on delayed trials in the capital.

Earlier, HC had expressed concern at the "woefully inadequate'' working conditions of PP's employed by the government for courts in Delhi and noted that lack of adequate number of trained PPs is the main reason for the increasing pendency of cases and prisoners languishing in jails as undertrials.

On its part, the government had admitted that more than 50 posts of additional PPs are vacant against the sanctioned strength of 120 and no step has been taken to fill the vacancies.

HC had then asked the principal secretary (home) and the law secretary of Delhi government to visit and inspect the working conditions of PPs in various courts of the city. Deputing the two senior officials, HC had asked the duo to visit the five district court complexes to assess their working condition.

HC had taken suo motu cognizance of a letter from a lawyer, Manish Khanna, informing it of several inmates languishing in jail, facing trial in petty cases, for more than half the period of sentence prescribed under the law. Khanna relied on information extracted through RTI queries in Tihar jail.

Courtesy: The Times of India