Who Are Prosecuting Officer

Prosecuting officers are legal professionals who represent the government or state in criminal cases. Their primary role is to bring charges against individuals accused of committing crimes and to present the evidence against these individuals in court.

Let’s have a look at the definition of Public Prosecutor given by the Indian Law. Section 2(u) of the Code of Criminal Procedure defines Public Prosecutor. “A person who is appointed under Section 24 of Cr.P.C and it also includes any person who is acting under the directions of Public Prosecutor.” Section 24(1) of Cr.P.C states that, 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 Prosecutor, 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.

Assistant Public Prosecutors Section 25 of Cr.P.C states that the Assistant Public Prosecutors is appointed in the district for the purpose of conducting prosecution in Magistrate Court. The court may appoint one or more Assistant Public Prosecutors for the purpose of conducting a case. If there are no Assistant Public Prosecutors then District Magistrate may appoint any other person to act as the Assistant Public Prosecutors.

Career as an Assistant Public Prosecuting Officer

This post is known as by various names in different states across India. Like In Haryana they are known as Assistant District Attorney (ADA), in MP this post is known as ADPO, APP in Delhi, APO in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar etc. The opportunity to become an Assistant Public Prosecuting Officer is offered by different states and various government agencies like CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), NIA (National Investigation Agency) etc. The procedure followed by hiring authorities like Public Service Commission’s of various states or High Courts or Union Public Service Commission, is recruitment through conducting examination and interview.

Examination Procedure

The Assistant Public Prosecuting Officer exam is conducted in three stages Preliminary, Mains and Interview. Although there is an exception to this procedure, in some cases the recruitment can be done by conducting only 2 stages of the examination i.e. Preliminary & interview or just by conducting interview as a screening test.

Eligibility & Qualifications for APP (Assistant Public Prosecuting Officer)

Education:

A degree in Law (3 years or 5 years) from a recognized University.

Age:

The age criterion varies from state to state.
For Example- Delhi has prescribed 30 years as maximum age limit to appear for the examination whereas Haryana has 42 as maximum age limit.

Note:

Qualifications are relaxable at the discretion of the Union Public Service Commission in the case of candidates otherwise well qualified.