The Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Act, 1978, has substituted a new provision, Section 24, for the same section of the principal Act.
The new section provides that 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. [Section 24 (1)]
The Central Government may appoint one or more Public Prosecutors for the purpose of conducting any case or class of cases in any district, or local area. 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. [Section 24 (2-3)].
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ADVERTISEMENTS:
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 [Section 24 (4)].
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 the aforesaid provisions, viz., and sub-section (4) above. [Section 24 (5)]
Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (5) above 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) above [Section 24 (6)].
ADVERTISEMENTS:
A person shall be eligible to be appointed as a Public Prosecutor or Additional Public Prosecutor under sub-section (1), sub-section (2), sub-section (3) or sub-section (6), only if he has been in practice as an advocate for not less than seven years. 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.
For the aforesaid purposes, the period during which a person has been in practice as a pleader, or has rendered (whether before or after the commencement of this Code), 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. [Section 24 (7-9)}.
Assistant Public Prosecutors:
The State Government shall appoint in every district one or more Assistant Public Prosecutors for conducting prosecutions in the courts of Magistrate. [Section 25 (1)]. The Central Government may appoint one or more Assistant Public Prosecutors for the purpose of conducting any case or class of cases in the courts of Magistrates. [Section 25 (1-A)]
Save as otherwise provided in sub-section (3), no police officer shall be eligible to be appointed as an Assistant Public Prosecutor. [Section 25 (2)]. Where no Assistant Public Prosecutor is available for the purposes of any particular case, the District Magistrate may appoint any other person to be the Assistant Public Prosecutor in charge of that case, provided that a police officer shall not be appointed—(a) if he has taken any part in the investigation into the offence with respect to which the accused is being prosecuted, or (b) if he is below the rank of Inspector. [Section 25 (3)]