Delhi High Court forms committee to monitor requirement and recruitment of public prosecutors

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday constituted a monitoring committee to periodically review the recruitment and requirement of public prosecutors and additional public prosecutors in the trial courts of Delhi..A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Mini Pushkarna said that the Committee will have Delhi government’s secretaries of Home, Law and Justice, Finance as well as Director, Directorate of Prosecution, Senior Advocate Rajiv K Virmani (amicus curiae in the case) and a representative of the Delhi High Court as its members.The Committee has been tasked with conducting periodic reviews of requirements of prosecutors in the trial courts and making recommendations to the Delhi government with respect to vacancies of prosecutors.It has also been asked to submit a report to the Delhi High Court in February when the matter will be taken up next..The Court passed the directions while hearing a batch of petitions on issues related to recruitment, appointment and working of public prosecutors in the national capital. One of the petitions is a suo motu case initiated by the High Court and has been pending since the year 2009..During the hearing, acting Chief Justice Manmohan highlighted that there is an urgent need to recruit more prosecutors as cases are piling up in trial courts and judges are waiting in their chambers because public prosecutors are being shared between many courts.Senior Advocate Virmani, who is assisting the court as amicus curiae, told the Court that despite repeated orders, there is no system in place to ensure that an adequate number of prosecutors are available.He submitted that each time the number of courts are increased, a proposal must be sent to increase the number of public prosecutors accordingly so that they are appointed as soon as possible.