Appoint Competent Advocates As Public Prosecutors, Kerala HC Tells Government [Read Judgment]

Failure to appoint competent persons amounts to miscarriage of justice, remarked the High Court of Kerala while asking the Government to ensure that competent Advocates are appointed as Government Pleaders and Public Prosecutors at District levels.

In most of the cases we find that the Prosecution is not being conducted properly and even the basic knowledge which are necessary to conduct a criminal prosecution is lacking, purely on account of inexperience and lack of competence, said a division bench comprising of Justice AM Shaffique and Justice N. Anilkumar.

The bench made this observation while setting aside a conviction in a murder case where the accused belonged to Communist Party of India (Marxist). The deceased was the Mandalam Kunnamkadu ward President of Bharatheeya Janatha Party. While allowing the appeal, the bench said that the accused are entitled to benefit of doubt.

The court said that certain fundamental principles are ignored or rather unattended by the Prosecutor as well as by the Court in this case. In this case, the opinion of Doctor who conducted post-mortem was not recorded in evidence. Also, even without declaring some witnesses hostile, they were cross-examined, but their previous statements were not marked in evidence. The bench observed:

"The Government should while appointing Prosecutors, especially for conducting serious criminal cases, competent persons are to be appointed taking into consideration their expertise in the field. In most of the cases we find that the Prosecution is not being conducted properly and even the basic knowledge which are necessary to conduct a criminal prosecution is lacking, purely on account of inexperience and lack of competence. The Government has to take serious note of the aforesaid factors while appointing Public Prosecutors/Government Pleaders at District levels, dehors the political affiliations. Failure to appoint competent persons amounts to miscarriage of justice. It is for the Government to ensure that competent Advocates are appointed as Government Pleaders and their work has to be constantly monitored to ensure that interest of the State as well as the public at large is not jeopardized" 

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