KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday directed the Kollam, Malappuram and Wayanad district judges to make a fresh assessment of the credential of the persons selected for the post of Special Public Prosecutor for conducting Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) cases.
A Division Bench comprising Justice P R Ramachandra Menon and Justice Devan Ramachandran issued the order on a batch of petitions challenging the appointment . The state government had appointed G Subothran, M G Sindhu and Aisha P Jamal for the post in Kollam, Wayanad and Malappuram respectively.
In the case of Kollam district, the records reveal that the district judge concerned could not assess his merits and the district judge had recommended at least two other persons as being good.
While in Wayanad, the state had appointed M G Sindhu, who is involved in a crime. The records of the District Collector shows that her name was included in the crime records pending before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Sulthan Bathery. In Malappuram, there were no adverse entries as such against the candidate. However, even going by her own declaration, she has only seven years and seven months of practice as an advocate, when the Act stipulates the minimum qualification as seven years.
The court directed the District Collectors to send all the files with respect to the three candidates to district judges concerned for a fresh assessment. After the process, if they are found not fit to continue as SPPs, then the Collectors will place it before the state government to issue orders removing the three persons. The state will be obligated to appoint other suitable persons from the panel prepared by the Collectors.
The court made it clear that the District Collectors concerned and the state government should treat the directions as being peremptory in nature and comply with the directions.