After High Court Nudge, Karnataka Govt. Takes Steps For Filling Public Prosecutor Vacancies In State

A division bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum in its order noted,

"Additional government advocates on the basis of instructions submit that substantial compliance has been made. 19 out of 24 vacant public prosecutors posts have been appointed. In the post of Senior assistant public prosecutor, 28 out of 58 public prosecutors are appointed. So far as appointment of assistant public prosecutors is concerned the examinations are being conducted by NLSIU and the said examination process will be completed within four weeks."

It added,

"It is submitted that for the remaining post of public prosecutors and senior assistant public prosecutors the suitable candidate are not available due to which all posts were not filled. However, the exercise would be conducted again and vacant posts would be filled."

The information was provided during the hearing of a suo-motu petition initiated by the High Court in the year 2019, to fill in all the vacant posts of Public Prosecutors, Senior Assistant Public Prosecutors and Assistant Public Prosecutors across the State.

The state government had in July filed a chart before the court showing the number of vacancies of prosecutors in the state.

It was informed that out of 189 regular posts of Public Prosecutors, 168 are filled and 21 posts are vacant. Further, 28 posts of Public Prosecutors are on deputation; 25 posts are filled in.

Regarding the post of Senior Assistant Public Prosecutors, of the 123 posts only 65 were filled in. Deputation posts of Senior Assistant Public Prosecutors are 28, out of which only 5 posts are filled.

Regarding 401 Assistant Public Prosecutors' posts, only 151 posts regularly filled in and 242 other posts filled on contract basis. Process for direct recruitment has been initiated only in respect of 205 vacant posts.

Earlier, the court had observed, "Under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, every accused has a Right to have a speedy trial. If the trials are delayed due to non-availability of the prosecutors, there will be a violation of fundamental rights of the accused under Article 21 of the Constitution of India."

It had added, "Failure of the State to appoint Prosecutors has adversely affected the administration of justice as far as criminal matters are concerned. We must note here that the total pendency of criminal cases in the trial courts in the State is 8,10,730 out of which 61,867 criminal cases are more than five years old and 10,650 criminal cases are more than10 years old."

The court has now directed the state government to file a compliance report in four weeks time.

Case Title: High Court of Karnataka v. State of Karnataka

Case No: WP 48130/2019