The Uttarakhand High Court has registered a Suo Motu Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on acute shortage of Public Prosecution Officers in the State Judiciary and issued notice to senior officials of the state government.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Ramesh Chandra Khulbe took Suo Motu cognizance on the basis of the letter dated 20.12.2022 received from the District Judge, Dehradun regarding acute shortage of Prosecutors in the District Court at Dehradun, which is impeding the progress of the criminal cases pending in the said district.
The letter from the District and Sessions Judge, Dehradun states that in the said district, the total pendency is of 1,16,643 as on 30.11.2022. Out of these, 1,05,062 cases are criminal cases, which include 88 pending inquiries in the Juvenile Justice Board.
This constitutes 90% of the total pendency in the district.
It is pointed out that due to the acute shortage of Public Prosecutors, which are essential for the progress of criminal cases, the progress in the criminal cases is suffering. It is also pointed out that there are 24 Civil Courts in the district with magisterial powers.
At present, there are 15 Courts in the district, the total pendency of criminal cases being 45,999/-. The remaining 9 Civil Courts with magisterial powers are not able to be allocated criminal cases on account of sufficient number of Prosecutors not being available. Due to the shortage of the Prosecutors, the existing Prosecutors are having to look-after work in more than one Court.
Obviously, they cannot be present in more than one Court at same time, which is affecting the progress of the cases. The Communication also states that the District and Sessions Judge has constantly been drawing attention of the District Administration towards the aforesaid issue. In this regard, the Minutes of the meetings of the Monitoring Cell held on 29.10.2021 and 28.05.2022 have been placed on record.
The said aspect was also highlighted in the recent meeting of the Monitoring Cell held on 30.09.2022. In fact, it is pointed out that there is an urgent need to increase the number of Prosecutors and Assistant Prosecutors in Civil Courts of District-Dehradun. The District and Sessions Judge states that at least thirty more Prosecutors / Assistant Prosecutors are needed for magisterial Courts in District-Dehradun.
The District and Sessions Judge, Dehradun has also placed before us the Communication dated 03.11.2022 sent by the Director (Law) to the Director (Prosecution) for enhancement of the posts of Senior Prosecutor, Prosecutor and Assistant Prosecutor by 1, 2 and 17 respectively.
The lack of sufficient number of Prosecutors in the District Judiciary is bound to lead delay in disposal of criminal cases. In many of these cases, the accused are incarcerated. The delay in progress of cases due to the aforesaid cause seriously impinges upon their rights and liberty protected under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The delay in progress of criminal cases also leads to other problems, like delay in recording of evidence and destruction of evidence with passage of time , observed ther High Court.
The High Court therefore, issued notice to the following:-
(1) The Chief Secretary, State of Uttarakhand.
(2) The Principal Secretary (Home), State of Uttarakhand.
(3) The Director (Prosecution), State of Uttarakhand.
(4) Uttarakhand Public Service Commission, District Haridwar.
Further, the High court directed the respondents to file the status report indicating the number of the sanctioned posts of Prosecutors, Assistant Prosecutors, etc. in each district; the number of Prosecutors and Assistant Prosecutors presently working; the number of vacancies presently existing in the districts, and; assessment of the number of additional posts required to be sanctioned shall also be indicated in the status report, to be filed in the form of an affidavit before the next date.
The matter is listed for January 10 for further hearing.