Delhi High Court orders Dress allowance, office space and more for public prosecutors

The Delhi High Court recently passed a series of directions to address various concerns of public prosecutors (PPs) in Delhi [Court on its own motion v State]..A Division Bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain ordered the government and the Principal District & Sessions Judges of all districts of Delhi to provide appropriate technological facilities and infrastructure to public prosecutors including office space to PPs."Principal District & Sessions Judges of all districts of Delhi shall, if not already, provide requisite office space to Public Prosecutors posted in their respective districts. The space for office and creating e-library may be identified and approval be sought from of respective Building Maintenance & Construction Committee (BMCC), High Court of Delhi," the Court ordered.The Court also ordered that PPs be given dress allowance of ₹10,000 every year."This Court cannot be oblivious of the fact that public prosecutors are required to appear in the Court in robes and are required to wear the prescribed robe, including the black coat throughout the year and, therefore, it will be in the fitness of things if they are also granted dress allowance in the same manner. Accordingly, we order that Public Prosecutors be given dress allowance @ ₹10,000 per annum w.e.f. from date of the present order," the Court directed.The Court further noted that PPs are receiving ₹80,000 for the purchase of laptops and tablets but the said amount is given every five years by treating the life of such devices as 5 years. The Court ordered that the same be treated as 4 years instead of 5."As on date, Public Prosecutors are getting Rs. 80,000/-, in all, for purchasing of laptop and tablet which amount seems to be quite sufficient for enabling them for doing their office work with the help of these technological devices. 17. However, the prescribed life of such technological devices should be the same i.e. four years instead of five years as has been prescribed for Executive and Judicial Officers," the Court ordered.The Bench also requested the Delhi government to consider giving incentives to facilitate PPs to obtain higher degree of qualification."We request GNCTD to consider such request regarding grant of incentive, either in lumpsum or by way of three advance increments, and to pass appropriate orders in this regard within six weeks from today. Before passing any order, it would give opportunity of hearing to DPWA [Delhi Prosecutors Welfare Association],” the Court ordered.The High Court also requested the government to consider prosecutors' requests for security and further said they are entitled to allowance of ₹1.25 lakh for camp office once in 5 years..The Bench passed the following directions as well:.Prosecutors would follow the calendar prescribed for Delhi District Courts. However, during summer vacations, the Delhi government's calendar would be applied. This arrangement will remain until the government determines whether the prosecution department can be treated as vacation department or not and if, during this period, any other duty can be assigned to these prosecutors. Government to consider security requests of prosecutors keeping in mind that similar provisions exist for people serving in other agencies. The Court said that since judicial officers are also prone to such threats, the government shall consider whether allowance or any alternate arrangement like providing PSO can be made for them.Delhi government to create digital libraries for public prosecutors in every district. These libraries should be equipped with computers, printers, hi-speed broadband and other infrastructure. They should also have subscriptions to prominent e-journals and e-legal software.Principal District & Sessions Judges of all districts of Delhi should provide requisite office space to public prosecutors posted in their respective districts.Exercise regarding cadre review of prosecutors which is already underway must be completed in six weeks.Public prosecutors will also be entitled to a camp office allowance of ₹1.25 lakh once every five years. .The Bench clarified that these directions will apply to prosecutors of the rank of Assistant Public Prosecutors and above.The directions were passed by the court in a suo motu writ petition concerned delay in filing appeals. The petition was initiated in 2017. Later, the Delhi Prosecutors Welfare Association (DPWA) sought intervention in the matter and raised their grievances..Senior Advocate Ramesh Gupta along with advocates Ashish Dixit, Shailendra Singh, Harsh Choudhary, Ishaan Jain and KR Dogra appeared for DPWA.Delhi government was represented by Additional Standing Counsel Sanjeev Bhandari as well as advocates Spriha Bhandari, Charu Sharma, Arijit Sharma and Vaibhav Vats..[Read Order]