HC takes note of nexus between public prosecutors, politicians

SHIMLA: : The High Court of Himachal Pradesh today took a serious note of hobnobbing of public prosecutors with some politicians to procure and secure orders of transfer of their convenience. The court ordered that, henceforth, no public prosecutor, assistant district attorney and district attorney shall be transferred on the basis of the DO notes and their transfers shall be effected strictly in accordance with the Comprehensive Guidelines, 2013, for regulating the transfers of the employees, that too, only by the administrative authority.

A division bench comprising justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and justice Chander Bhusan Barowalia passed these orders on a petition filed by Tarsem Kumar, a public prosecutor.

According to the petitioner, a local MLA from Nagrota Bagwan issued a DO Note on March 15, 2022, for the transfer of the petitioner at the “behest” of Shikha Rana. In the case, both the petitioner as also the private respondent are public prosecutors and have at different times procured DO Notes from the local MLA for securing their transfers. The defence of private respondent Shikha Rana is that the petitioner himself was transferred from Nurpur to Dalhousie in 2018, but he managed to get his transfer cancelled through DO Note by the local MLA. It has been further averred that the petitioner himself managed his transfer thereafter from ADA office Nurpur to ADA office Kangra, on January 15, 2020, on the basis of three DO Notes given by MLA Rakesh Pathania, who himself was booked under FIR No.110/13 u/s 452, 147, 149, 353, 332, 506 IPC and 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, pending adjudication before the court of the judicial magistrate first class, Nurpur. The petitioner being in charge of the prosecution case at that time, procured the DO note from Pathania, who himself was undergoing trial in the said court.

The court observed that it has specifically come on record that a criminal case is pending against one of the MLAs, who issued a DO Note in favour of the respondent in that very court where the respondent has been posted. The court wondered whether with these falling standards can the public repose any trust or confidence in the prosecutor as being fair and impartial as against the standards as are expected of a public prosecutor.

Since both the petitioner as also the private respondent are beneficiaries of the DO Notes, the court has ordered to transfer and post them out of district Kangra. The court further observed that since both the petitioner as well as a private respondent have feigned ignorance regarding the working and ethics of the department, it gives an impression that probably such public prosecutors, who are now being inducted into service, are not at all aware of the status they hold and the conduct and behaviour that is expected of them by virtue of their office alone.

The court has ordered that all the public prosecutors inducted in service over the last 15 years, irrespective of their ranks as assistant public prosecutors or public prosecutors, should undergo a refresher course designed, laying special emphasis on ethics, morality and conduct expected of a public prosecutor, in the Himachal Pradesh Judicial Academy, Shimla.