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HC asks State Govt to create cadre

By Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Sept 30 - The Gauhati High Court observed that the State shall seriously take up the issue of creating a cadre of prosecutors at the earliest in order to streamline the criminal justice administration.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice (acting) K Sreedhar Rao and Justice PK Saikia while observing that in Assam there is no regular cadre of public prosecutor or additional public prosecutor, directed that the State shall take a decision to create the post of prosecutors.

�The public prosecutor and additional public prosecutors are appointed on contractual basis with a meagre remuneration and the prevalent situation does not seem to have better and effective control over the contractual public prosecutor. A low paid prosecutor may not have so much devotion to duty, besides there is no satisfactory method for assessing the merit of the person, who is appointed as prosecutor on contractual basis,� the division bench opined.

In WP(C) No 4299/2006, the court had earlier directed the State Government to create a regular cadre of public prosecutors and additional public prosecutor for conducting the criminal cases. There are about 354 courts functioning with criminal powers in Assam and each court is required to have an independent prosecutor.

The court observed that the investigating officer should have the benefit of consulting the public prosecutor on legal aspects before filing the final report. Advocate General AC Buragohain has been directed to report to the court about the Government�s decision by October 6.

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