Public Prosecutors.
- (1) For every High Court, the Central Government or the State Government shall,
after consultation with the High Court, appoint a Public Prosecutor and may also appoint
one or more Additional Public Prosecutors, for conducting in such Court, any prosecution,
appeal or other proceeding on behalf of the Central Government or the State Government,
as the case may be:
Provided that for National Capital Territory of Delhi, the Central Government shall,
after consultation with the High Court of Delhi, appoint the Public Prosecutor or Additional
Public Prosecutors for the purposes of this sub-section.
(2) The Central Government may appoint one or more Public Prosecutors for the
purpose of conducting any case in any district or local area.
(3) For every district, the State Government shall appoint a Public Prosecutor and may
also appoint one or more Additional Public Prosecutors for the district:
Provided that the Public Prosecutor or Additional Public Prosecutor appointed for
one district may be appointed also to be a Public Prosecutor or an Additional Public
Prosecutor, as the case may be, for another district.
(4) The District Magistrate shall, in consultation with the Sessions Judge, prepare a
panel of names of persons, who are, in his opinion fit to be appointed as Public Prosecutors
or Additional Public Prosecutors for the district.
(5) No person shall be appointed by the State Government as the Public Prosecutor or
Additional Public Prosecutor for the district unless his name appears in the panel of names
prepared by the District Magistrate under sub-section (4).
(6) Notwithstanding anything in sub-section (5), where in a State there exists a
regular Cadre of Prosecuting Officers, the State Government shall appoint a Public
Prosecutor or an Additional Public Prosecutor only from among the persons constituting
such Cadre:
Provided that where, in the opinion of the State Government, no suitable person is
available in such Cadre for such appointment, that Government may appoint a person as
Public Prosecutor or Additional Public Prosecutor, as the case may be, from the panel of
names prepared by the District Magistrate under sub-section (4).
Explanation.—For the purposes of this sub-section,—
(a) “regular Cadre of Prosecuting Officers” means a Cadre of Prosecuting Officers
which includes therein the post of Public Prosecutor, by whatever name called, and
which provides for promotion of Assistant Public Prosecutors, by whatever name
called, to that post;
(b) “Prosecuting Officer” means a person, by whatever name called, appointed
to perform the functions of a Public Prosecutor, Special Public Prosecutor, Additional
Public Prosecutor or Assistant Public Prosecutor under this Sanhita.
(7) A person shall be eligible to be appointed as a Public Prosecutor or an Additional
Public Prosecutor under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) or sub-section (3) or sub-section (6),
only if he has been in practice as an advocate for not less than seven years.
(8) The Central Government or the State Government may appoint, for the purposes
of any case or class of cases, a person who has been in practice as an advocate for not less
than ten years as a Special Public Prosecutor:
Provided that the Court may permit the victim to engage an advocate of his choice to
assist the prosecution under this sub-section.
(9) For the purposes of sub-section (7) and sub-section (8), the period during which
a person has been in practice as an advocate, or has rendered (whether before or after the
commencement of this Sanhita) service as a Public Prosecutor or as an Additional Public
Prosecutor or Assistant Public Prosecutor or other Prosecuting Officer, by whatever name
called, shall be deemed to be the period during which such person has been in practice as
an advocate.
Read also Section 17 of THE BHARATIYA NAGARIK SURAKSHA SANHITA, 2023 – BNSS
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