Abject incompetence of prosecution: Kerala High Court initiates suo motu case to deal with appointment of Public Prosecutors

The Kerala High Court has initiated a suo motu case to address the issue of appointment of public prosecutors after it noted with dismay, the "abject incompetence" displayed by the prosecution in a murder case and a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012..A Division Bench of Justices K Vinod Chandran and Ziyad Rahman AA said that while the appointment of public prosecutors is the prerogative of the government, the same is subject to consultation with the concerned Sessions Judge and should be confined to a panel prepared by the District Magistrate."The nature of the consultation is explicit from the decisions of the Supreme Court and this Court (Kerala High Court). The District Magistrate cannot himself cherry pick the advocates to be appointed as Prosecutors at the instance of and based on political affiliations," the Court made it clear.However, the Court noted that the District Magistrates often don't have much information regarding the competence of the advocates who apply."In practice, we are informed that, when applications are called and the Sessions Judge prunes it on the basis of the competency as displayed in the courts, invariably the District Magistrates seek the entire applications to be send to them for preparation of the panel. We perfectly understand that the preparation of the panel is the duty enjoined upon the District Magistrate, who often does not have any clue as to the competence of a particular advocate," the Court said.On several occasions, the Court had made its apprehensions regarding the same known to the Director General of Prosecution (DGP)..While the DGP informed the Bench that the issue is being addressed at the highest levels of the government, the Court deemed it fit that any measures taken in this regard must be informed to the Court and therefore, proceeded to register a case suo motu."The DGP informed us that the same is engaging the attention of the prosecution wing of the State and concerns have been addressed to the highest echelons of the Government. We take note of the above submission but are of the opinion that the measures taken should be informed to this Court and for that purpose we initiate a suo motu Writ Petition," it stated..Recently the same Bench had dealt with a matter where a temple priest had appealed his conviction under the POCSO Act for repeatedly raping a child who was under his guardianship. However, as the prosecution did not sufficiently prove the age of the child at the time of the crime, the offences under the POCSO Act had to set aside and the accused was sentenced only for offences under Section 376(1) of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to life imprisonment.The Court had, in that order indicated its intention to take up the matter of repeated lapses on the part of Public Prosecutors as a suo motu case. In the order initiating suo motu case, the Court besides recording the prosecution's failure in the POCSO case also adverted to a case of murder of a taxi driver in which the prosecution failed to elicit the exact confession statement from the investigating officer and also did not attempt to establish that the car recovered in the case was the one which stolen from the driver after the murder. .[Read Order]