Public Prosecutor - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition public-prosecutor

Definition :

Public prosecutor, means a Public Prosecutor or an Additional Public Prosecutor or a Special Public Prosecutor appointed under s. 28 and includes any person acting under the directions of the Public Prosecutor. [Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 (15 of 2002), s. 2(1)(e)]

Means any person appointed under s. 24, and includes any person acting under the directions of a Public Prosecutor. [ Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), s. 2 (u)]

The 'Public Prosecutor' is the counsel for the government for conducting prosecution on behalf of the State Government or the Central Govern-ment as the case may be. He is an officer and like every advocate practicing before court, he owes an obligation to the court to be fair and just, Sheonandan Paswan v. State of Bihar, AIR 1987 SC 877: (1987) 1 SCC 288: (1987) 1 SCR 702.

The King, in whose name criminal are prosecuted, because all offences are said to be against the King's peace, his Crown and dignity. By the (English) Prosecution of Offences Act, 1879, an officer called the' Director of Public Prosecutions' may be appointed with six assistants, and such an officer (the late J.B. Maule, Esq., Q.C.), with one assistant, was appointed shortly after the commencement of the Act in 1880; but the Prosecution of Offences Act, 1884, revoked all appointments made under the Act of 1879, and constituted the Solicitor to the Treasury Director of Public Prosecutions. This fusion of offices, however, was subsequently done away with by the Prosecution of Offences Act, 1908 (8 Edw. 7, c. 3). By the Act of 1884 (47 & 48 Vict. c. 58), s. 3, the chief officer of every police district becomes bound to give information from time to time to such Director with respect to indictable offences alleged to have been committed within his district.

Public purpose, acquisition of land for connecting two temples by road is considered to be a public purpose, Bajirao T. Kote v. State of Maharashtra, 1995 (2) SCC 442.

Bringing grazing land under cultivation to augment food output is public purpose. It is also a public purpose to allot land to a landless member of the backward class for his personal cultivation, Samadhiyala Gram Panchayat, Bhavnagar v. State of Gujarat, AIR 1985 Guj 105.

Public purpose, has been used in its generic sense of including any purpose in which even a fraction of the community may be interested or by which it may be benefited, Jaishi Ram Goel v. State of Punjab, AIR 1962 Punj 177.

Public purpose, has to be construed according to the spirit of the time in which particular legislation is enacted, State of Bihar v. Kameshwar Singh, AIR 1952 SC 252.

Public purpose, include the purpose in which the general interest of the society as opposed to the particular interest of the individual is directly and vitally concerned, Srinivasa Co-operative House Building Society Ltd. v. Madam Gurumurthy Sastry, 1994 (4) SCC 675.

Public purpose, includes a planned development of any holding or aired, or the continuation of a scheme or a project which ensures the general welfare of the public. [The West Bengal Thika Tenancy (Acquisition and Regulation Act, 2001, s. 2(12)]

Public purpose, involves in it an element of general interest of the community and whatever furthers the general interest must be regarded as a public purpose, Arnold Rodricks v. State of Maharashtra, AIR 1966 SC 1788.

Public purpose, is not capable of a precise definition and has not a rigid meaning. It can only be defined by a process of judicial inclusion and exclusion. In other words, the definition of the expression is elastic and takes its colour from the statute in which it occurs, the concept varying with the time and state of society and its needs. The point to be determined in each case is whether the acquisition is in the general interest of the community as distinguished form the private interest of an individual, State of Bihar v. Kameshwar Singh, AIR 1952 SC 252.

Public purpose, is whatever furthers the general interests of the community as opposed to the particular interest of the individual, State of Bihar v. Kameshwar Singh, AIR 1952 SC 252.

Public purpose, may not necessarily be as purpose of the Union. The expression cannot extend to purpose with which Union is not at all concerned, Seth Munna Lal v. Union of India, (1970) 72 Punj LR (D) 61.

Public purpose, or public business has for its objective the promotion of the public health, safety, morals, general welfare, security, prosperity, and contentment of all the inhabitants or residents within a given political division, as, for example, a state, the sovereign powers of which are exercised to promote such public purpose or public business, Black's Law Dictionary, 5th Edn.

The State can impose compulsory service for the public purpose. [Constitution of India, Art. 23(2)]

Public purposes, have been defined to mean such 'purpose' of the administration of the Government of the country, Words & Phrases Legally Defined, IInd Edn., p. 228.