Weak lobbying of government lawyers .. Supreme Court gave state governments knowledge of nepotism

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed deep concern over the tendency of the states on the tendency to appoint government lawyers and public prosecutors on political basis in the High Court. Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R. Mahadevan’s bench said that nepotism and favoriteism should not be made the basis of appointments on such important positions. This decision is a message for all state governments that the appointment of Assistant Government Prosecutor (AGPS) and Assistant Public Prosecutor (APPS) in the High Court should be on merit basis only. It is the duty of the state government to investigate the merit, his/her legal efficiency, his/her background and his/her honesty of the appointed person. The Supreme Court made this comment during a criminal appeal in Punjab and Haryana High Court. ) Seeing the weak lobbying of, the accused was punished. The court was shocked to see that the High Court overturned the trial court’s decision in a revision petition, which is legally illegal. A person acquitted through a revision petition cannot be convicted. The court was more surprised to see that the Public Prosecutor in the High Court demanded death sentence to the accused instead of telling this legal error, while the state government had not filed any appeal against the acquittal.

The bench expressed regret that this is the condition of the level of public prosecutors in the High Court. The court said that the public prosecutor is a public officer. Under the Criminal Procedure Code (CRPC), he/she has been assigned some special rights and duties. The public prosecutor is not a part of any investigating agency, but is an independent officer. The public prosecutor should maintain honesty and fairness of prosecution of crime in the judicial system. In this case, the Supreme Court ordered the Haryana government to give Rs 5-5 lakh as compensation to the three appellants, who were wrongly convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for murder.