Delhi prosecutors challenge their peanuts salary & harrowing work-life balance before Delhi HC The Delhi Prosecutors Welfare Association (DPWA) has intervened in a writ petition filed in the Delhi high court for providing speedy justice, and have asked for an upward revision in Delhis public prosecutors pay scales in the sixth pay commission, and for the payment of arrears of such revised pay to Delhis public prosecutors (PP). The DPWA points out that in fixing the current Rs 4600 pay grade for public prosecutors in Delh, the government has ignored that only a lawyer with three years of experience can become a PP, and in doing so it has equated PPs with fresh law graduates. The DPWA has also pointed out that the pay grades of PPs in a number of states are significantly higher than those in Delhi, whereas Delhi is one of the most costly cities in the world and has crime rate higher than the all India average, causing the workload on Delhis PPs to be heavier. The application asserts that PPs in Delhi have the following kind of work day, and about 90 per cent of them retire after only one promotion: Assistant Public Prosecutor :9.00/9.30 AM: reach office/ court premises brush up with that day’s work and proceed to the Court at 10.00 AM for the various cases fixed for that day conduct the evidences, argue the cases, assists court in framing of charges, recording of statement of accused under section 313 Cr.P.C., appearance in criminal cases, remand, bail work, Miscellaneous applications etc. Participate plea-bargaining, Scrutinize challans after completion of investigation in state cases, opinion work for various departments, prepare Acquittal report, discharge report, give opinion whether case is fit for Appeal and Revision or not, attend evening court, supervise the work of Naib court, check records of Naib Court, leave court after court/office hours at 5.00 PM. Work at home after court Hour:- After reaching home, prepare final arguments, argument on charge and argument of Miscellaneous application fixed for next day, go through statements of witnesses to come in court on the next day, search case laws and read commentaries on legal points for the work of next day. 11.00-11.30 P.M. call it a Day Work on Holidays also :-Even Sundays and other public holidays including National Holidays are working days because of preparation for the cases fixed for the next day. Public Prosecutor has to perform his official duty in court of Duty MM on Holiday. Additional Public Prosecutor : Similar working hours however, the gravity and magnitude of the offences and cases triable by Sessions Court is of more importance. The duties are of higher responsibility. The PPs have been put in the general pool of government servants for the purposes of government accomodation, with the result that only three or four assistant public prosecutors have got an accomodation from the government in the last 15 years, states the intervention application. The application states that 40 per cent to 60 per cent of a PPs salary gets spent on renting an accomodation in Delhi. It asked for an entry level pay grade of Rs 5,400 with a pay band of Rs 15,600 to Rs 39,100 which goes up with experience to, eventually, Rs 10,000 pay grade with a pay band of Rs 37,000 to Rs 67,000 for over 20 years of experience. Additionally, the DPWA has also asked for: a health allowance for PPs in Delhi on the ground that Delhi being the most polluted city in the world results in PPs having to work under tremendous stress in court The house rent allowance given to PPs to have annual 10 per cent increments since rents also increase by 10 per cent each year Increase in the robe allowance from the current Rs 3,000 in five years to Rs 5,000 annually, and to increase the washing [clothes] allowance from the current Rs 100 per month. An allowance to maintain a law library at the PPs residences, a risk allowance, a special incentive allowance and a non-practicing allowance The original writ petition Manish Kumar V State of NCT of Delhi was filed seeking a direction to make note of the arguing time of counsels in court, to keep track of judicial time.The last hearing in that writ was held on 21 July, during which the role of PPs was also mentioned and the court observed that PPs in Delhi work in adverse circumstances. On the next hearing in the writ, on 15 October, the DPWA appeared in court through advocate Ashish Dixit and sought to intervene. On Dixit’s note submitted to the court, Justice Bhat observed that the state can’t “pay such low salaried and expect competent people to join services”, that the pay commission had given “impractical” recommendations, suo motu issued notice to the Delhi high court’s additional solicitor general Sanjay Jain asking him to appear in the matter: The judge, according to Dixit, said: I as a judge have no hesitation in saying that pay commission headed by SC judge has given impractical recommendations... If you give peanuts to prosecutors they will leave after sometime and may be this is what you [state] want” Dixit will file the DPWA’s intervention application on 27 October.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 10:23:04 +0000
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