The Jammu and Kashmir Government today terminated the services of six non-performing public prosecutors who failed to ensure conviction in criminal cases.
Minister for Law and Justice Abdul Haq Khan ordered the disengagement of six public prosecutors (PPs) with an immediate effect for non-performance during a meeting to review the disposal of criminal cases here.
Khan expressed his concern over the government losing a large number of court cases and poor rate of conviction in criminal cases.
“Despite giving every facility to public prosecutors, they fail to win cases for the government. But this needs to be changed. From now on, we will review the performance of every public prosecutor and if we feel they are not giving results, we will remove them,” Khan said.
The J&K Government also constituted a state-level monitoring committee headed by the advocate general of the state and police zone-level committees, headed by deputy inspector general of police of the concerned zone, to monitor the performance of PPs and prosecuting officers (POs).
The minister said the continuance of a PP or PO shall be decided on the basis of the reports of the monitoring committee about their performance.
To avoid an adverse court order against the government, he asked the officials to file replies and responses of their departments in a time-bound manner.
The minister directed the district litigation officers to monitor and coordinate criminal and civil court cases in their respective districts. He also asked them to send periodic reports to the department of law and justice about the performance of PPs and POs.
“Everything will be now performance-based for officers. We won’t just remove public prosecutors, we will recommend cancellation of licences of non-performing government lawyers too,” he said.
Over the poor rate of convictions in criminal cases, Khan stressed upon all PPs and POs to improve their record and ensure a better rate of conviction.
“The increasing crime rate will be checked only if the guilty are brought to justice and a strong deterrent message is given to all that one has to bear the consequences of his actions,” Khan said.
While reviewing the status of prosecution cases of each district, he directed all PPs and POs to do their homework properly and improve the conviction ratio.
The minister said that he would hold district-wise review meetings to streamline the working of the department.
Six public prosecutors shown the door for failing to perform
