H. L. GOKHALE, J.

( 1 ) THIS writ petition invoking Articles 14 and 226 of the Constitution of India seeks to challenge the Notification dated 1st June, 2004 issued by respondent Nos. 1 and 2 appointing respondent No. 8 as the public Prosecutor for the District of Pune for a period of 3 years. The notification is sought to be challenged as being in breach of section 24 of the code of Criminal Procedure which contains the provision for the appointment of public Prosecutors in the Districts under sub-sections (3), (4) and (5) thereof.

( 2 ) THE petitioner has been working as a Law Officer for the State in Pune district right from 1986. Presently, she is working as Additional Public prosecutor. Respondent No. 1 to this petition is the State of Maharashtra, respondent No. 2 is the Principal Secretary, Law and Judiciary Department, respondent No. 3 is the Minister for Law and Justice, respondent No. 4 is the minister for State of Law and respondent No. 5 is the Advocate General. Respondent Nos. 6 and 7 are the then Cabinet Minister of Law and Judiciary and the Minister for State, Law and Judiciary, respectively when the impugned notification was issued. Respondent No. 9 to the petition is the District magistrate and Collector of Pune.

( 3 ) BEFORE we deal with the submissions of the petitioner as well as that of the State of Maharashtra and respondent No. 8, it will be desirable to refer to the relevant provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure ("cr. P. C. " for short ). As stated above, we are concerned with section 24 of Criminal Procedure Code. This section, as existing in the Central Statute after the amendment with effect from 18-12-1978, reads as follows :- "24. Public Prosecutors.- (1) For every High Court, the Central government or the State Government shall, after consultation with the high Court, appoint a Public Prosecutor and may also appoint one or more Additional Public Prosecutors, for conducting in such court, any prosecution, appeal or other proceeding on behalf of the Central government or State Government, as the case may be. (2) The Central Government may appoint one or more Public prosecutors, for the purpose of conducting any case or class of cases in any district, or local area. (3) For every district, the State Government shall appoint a Public prosecutor and may also appoint one or more Additional Public prosecutors for the district: provided that the Public Prosecutor or Additional Public Prosecutor appointed for one district may be appointed also to be a Public prosecutor or an Additional Public Prosecutor, as the case may be, for another district. (4) The District Magistrate shall, in consultation with the Sessions Judge, prepare a panel of names of persons, who are, in his opinion fit to be appointed as Public Prosecutor or Additional Public Prosecutors for the district. (5) No person shall be appointed by the State Government as the Public prosecutor or Additional Public Prosecutor for the district unless his name appears in the panel of names prepared by the District Magistrate under sub-section (4 ). (6) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (5), where in a state there exists a regular Cadre of Prosecuting Officers, the State government shall appoint a Public Prosecutor or an Additional Public prosecutor only from among the persons constituting such Cadre; provided that where, in the opinion of the State Government, no suitable person is available in such Cadre for such appointment that government may appoint a person as Public Prosecutor or Additional public Prosecutor, as the case may be, from the panel of names prepared by the District Magistrate under sub-section (4 ). (7) A person shall be eligible to be appointed as a Public Prosecutor or an additional Public Prosecutor under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) or sub-section (3) or sub-section (6), only if he has been in practice as an advocate for not less than seven years. (8) The Central Government or the State Governm