APPs not getting promotions

The issue becomes serious as the State was on the verge of being hauled up for contempt of court recently for not complying with a Supreme Court order passed in April, 1995, asking for the constitution of a separate cadre of assistant public prosecutors, freeing them from control of the police department. This had been resolved by then Chief Secretary, Dinesh Afzalpurkar, by filing an affidavit in SC assuring that the posts would be created and filled within six months.

“The affidavit was accepted by SC in September 1997, but the Maharashtra Government has still not acted on the commitment,” said Vishwanath Pai, senior advocate and former president of the Pune Bar Association. This has meant that employees on the verge of retirement have been uncertain about their fate.

Twenty-six assistant public prosecutors, including three from Pune, were, on paper, promoted to the ranks of assistant directors of public prosecution and additional public prosecutors, on June 26, 1998, but have still not received any intimation about where they would be posted or what their duties will be. This, despite the fact that had the retirement age not been extended, two of the officers would have retired on July 31 and another on August 30.

Assistant public prosecutors spend their careers handling small cases at lower courts on fixed salaries, without any avenues for promotion or any freedom because they come under the police department.

“Over the past two months the number of additional public prosecutors in the district court has come down from 24 to 18 and this means delayed proceedings and additional burden on existing APPs. Cases which were disposed of within a week now stretch for months because public prosecutors have to handle more than one trial in a day, which is not always possible,” says Pai.