IMPORTANT POINT
The significance of the DPP's autonomy and the specific qualifications required for the appointment to the office of DPP.

ORDER :

Petitioner, a public spirited person and a lawyer by avocation, is invoking the PIL jurisdiction of this court seeking a writ of Quo Warranto for voiding the appointment of 4th respondent herein (on in-charge basi) to the office of the ‘Director of Prosecution & Government litigation’ since August 2019.

(II) Learned counsel for the petitioner in support of the petition prayer makes the following submission :

(a) The office of the Director of Prosecution is a public office which has been established by the State Government as provided under Sec.25A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973; the appointment to this office can be made by the State Government only if the candidate has been a practising advocate for not less than ten years as provided under sub-section (2) of Sec.25A; this requirement has not been satisfied in the case of 4th respondent herein.

(b) The appointment of a person having requisite qualification as prescribed by law, can be made to the office in question only with the concurrence of the Chief Justice of High Court as provided under sub-section (2) of Sec.25A of the Code; in the instant case, no such concurrence has been obtained.

(c) Appointment or placement of an official by way of in-charge arrangement cannot be made to the office in question, since several statutory & substantive functions have to be discharged by the incumbent. In any event, continuation of the present incumbent for an unreasonably long period of four & a half years is unjustified.

(III) After service of notice, the first respondent has entered appearance through its learned Panel Counsel; the other respondents are represented by the learned Additional Government Advocate, who has this day filed the Statement of Objections in open court. Learned Additional Government Advocate makes submission in justification of the impugned appointment contending that :

(a) It is not a regular appointment to the office in question and therefore requirement of Sec.25A need not be complied with, the 4th respondent having been posted to officiate only on in-charge basis vide order dated 05.08.2019 in terms of Rule 68 of KCSR.

(b) Since eligible Deputy Directors in the department at the relevant time were not available, the 4th respondent has been placed in the office by way of in-charge arrangement to abhor the vaccum. Initially it was for a period of six months and the same has been continued periodically ‘till a suitable person is appointed’.

(c) One Smt.Anjana Chauhan had filed Application No.20294/2022 inter alia challenging seniority & denial of promotion; the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal vide order dated 16.08.2022 had directed consideration of her case for promotion. However, in Smt. Anjali Devi’s W.P.No.202305/2022, the Kalaburagi Bench of this Court vide orders dated 18 & 19 October, 2022 had ‘directed the State Government not to take any decision in the departmental promotion committee proceedings …to the post of Director of Prosecution …’. The said petition is dismissed only on 29.11.2023.

(d) Now steps are being taken for making regular appointment to the said post as per the extant C & R Rules which prescribe selection & promotion from the eligible candidates in the cadre of Deputy Director. A letter is sent to the Department of Prosecution on 12.02.2024 seeking necessary documents to fill up the post by promotion.

So contending, learned Additional Government Advocate seeks dismissal of the writ petition.

(IV) Having heard the learned counsel for the parties and having perused the petition papers, we are inclined to grant indulgence in the matter as under and for the following reasons :

(A) AS TO THE DIRECTORATE OF PUBLIC PROSECUTION, ITS PURPOSE & FUNCTIONS:

(a) In England, during the 19th century, there was considerable agitation for the establishment of a Public Prosecutor’s office on the American and Continental Models, and that resulted into the creation of the office of Director of Public Prosecutions in 1879. The DPP is the head