{"id":120527,"date":"2021-07-22T20:51:44","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T15:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=120527"},"modified":"2021-07-22T20:53:27","modified_gmt":"2021-07-22T15:23:27","slug":"prosecutor-not-persecutor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/prosecutor-not-persecutor\/","title":{"rendered":"Prosecutor, not persecutor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/Home\/ShareArticle?OrgId=G5B8PRNQJ.1&amp;imageview=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Hindu<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance<\/strong>: This article highlights the role of <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">public prosecutors in ensuring a fair justice system.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Synopsis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The public prosecutor has an ethical obligation to balance the interests of the victims, the accused, and society. His\/her conduct shouldn\u2019t be of a persecutor aiming to persistently harass the accused.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Background<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Father Swamy\u2019s arrest under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) has highlighted issues related to police power, pretrial detention, and draconian anti-terror legislation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the <\/span><b>role of prosecutors <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">towards under-trial detentions has been largely ignored.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Role of public prosecutor in criminal justice system:<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Public prosecutors are <\/span><b>influential at every stage of a trial<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and<\/span><b> impact the degree of justice awarded to the accused<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They decide what offences the accused person should be charged with, whether to seek pretrial custody and what sentence to ask for.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The prosecutor played a significant role in ensuring that the bail plea of Father swamy doesn\u2019t get accepted by giving sufficient evidence against him.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Further, he argued that the court must give precedence to the interest of the community\/society over Father Swamy&#8217;s right to liberty.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Public prosecutors also have <\/span><b>a role in narrative building<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Since they present the state\u2019s case in criminal trials, they build narratives of criminality and criminalisation. They play a key role in translating criminal \u201claw on the books\u201d to criminal \u201claw in action.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Such narratives are especially crucial in cases involving alleged terrorist activities and \u201canti-nationals\u201d, where the issue of security of the state becomes important for an ordinary citizen.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Further, their<\/span><b> opinions have built a culture supporting undertrail detentions.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Currently, two third prisoners in Indian jails are undertrials.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Judgements on their conduct:<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Sheo Nandan Paswan v. State of Bihar (1986)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The SC said that they <\/span><b>need not be extremely concerned about the outcome of the case. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They act as officers of the court and are obliged to ensure that the accused person is not unfairly treated.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Jitendra Kumar v. State (1999)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The Delhi HC said that the prosecutor cannot assume the role of a persecutor. It is no part of his duty to secure conviction at all costs.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Public Prosecutor should act <\/span><b>fairly and impartially and must be conscious of the rights<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the accused.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Way Ahead<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The public prosecutors represent the public and are not mere mouthpieces for law enforcement agencies. They <\/span><b>have an ethical obligation to seek justice <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">balancing the interests of the victims of crime, society, and those accused of crimes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Thus, public prosecutors who support criminal justice reform can be a powerful force for altering the culture of undertrial detention<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: The Hindu\u00a0 Relevance: This article highlights the role of public prosecutors in ensuring a fair justice system. Synopsis: The public prosecutor has an ethical obligation to balance the interests of the victims, the accused, and society. His\/her conduct shouldn\u2019t be of a persecutor aiming to persistently harass the accused. Background: Father Swamy\u2019s arrest under&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/prosecutor-not-persecutor\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Prosecutor, not persecutor<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10322,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212],"class_list":["post-120527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120527\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}