SPP waiting for honorarium for past 8 months

Aurangabad, Nov 6:

In all, 368 special public prosecutors (SPP) in the state, including 18 from the Aurangabad district, who appear in the judicial magistrate (first class) courts for the government, have not received the honorarium for the past eight months.

The public prosecutors at the sessions’ court, Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal, and High Court are appointed by the Law and Justice department and the public prosecutors at the judicial magistrate (first class) and chief judicial magistrate courts by the state home ministry. They are given regular honorarium/salaries. When the police arrest the criminals, they have to be produced before the judicial magistrate court. The SSPs appear before the court on behalf of the government and request for the police custody of the criminals. Moreover, as per the section 25 (3) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC), the SPPs appointed for presenting the government side should be paid the fixed honorarium. Since March, the hearings only on the important cases were held due to the Corona crisis. During the Corona period for the past eight months, they appeared before the court for the government. However, they have not received the honorarium since March due to lack of funds. Hence, the SPPs have demanded that the honorarium should be released by the government soon.