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Punjab and Haryana High Court Advocate sends Legal Notice to Haryana Govt against injustice meted to practicing Advocates due to their complete deprivation from appointment to post of Deputy Director of Prosecution (DDP) contrary to provision in BNSS, 2023
On 31 Dec 2025, Haryana Govt promoted 22 District Attorneys (DAs) straightway as Deputy Director of Prosecution (DDP) by even surpassing them over posts of Assistant Director of Prosecution (ADP) resulting in their massive pay hike It has been over one & half years since Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sahita (BNSS), 2023 came into force i.e. with effect from 1 July 2024. Pertinent that BNSS, 2023 is successor to erstwhile Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973.
Advocate pleaded that now, Section 20 of BNSS, 2023 which deals with establishment of Directorate of Prosecution in every State also mentions eligibility for appointment to posts of Director, Deputy Director and Assistant Director of Prosecution. It has been laid down that a person shall be eligible to be appointed as a Director of Prosecution (DoP) or Deputy Director of Prosecution (DDP), if he has been in practice as an Advocate for not less than fifteen years or is or has been a Sessions Judge.
Further it has been provided that a person shall be eligible to be appointed as Assistant Director of Prosecution (ADP), if he has been in practice as an Advocate for not less than seven years or has been a Magistrate of the first class.
Meanwhile, the Home Department of Haryana Government on 18 Dec 2025 amended its Haryana State Prosecution Department Legal Services (Group A) Rules, 2013 and made provision for appointment to post of DDP by way of Promotion from those who have worked as ADP for a period of not less than two years.
Now since before implementation of BNSS, 2023 there was also no post of ADP, hence it has been further provided in aforementioned amended Service Rules that if no ADP with requisite experience is available, being newly created post, then the post may be filled up on seniority-cum-merit basis from amongst District Attorney(DA), having combined experience of 15 years as a member of the Haryana Prosecution Department (Group A) Legal Service and/or Haryana Prosecution Department (Group B) Legal Service and an Advocate as per the requirement of section 20(2) read with section 18(9) of BNSS, 2023.
Further, it has also been provided that posts of DDP can also be filled by transfer or deputation of an officer already in regular service on an equivalent post in Prosecution Department of any State Government or the Government of India.
Be that as it may, since for appointment to the posts of DDP, suitable Advocates who are however in private practice for 15 or more years have been completely deprived/ousted from being considered for appointment to posts of DDP and even ADP ( for which practicing Advocates with minimum 7 years of practice are eligible) due to their non-inclusion in Dec, 2025 amended Service Rules, hence amidst the same, Hemant Kumar, an Advocate at Punjab & Haryana High Court (P/1260/2006) has recently sent a Legal Notice to the Haryana Government in this regard as a mark of protest against the injustice meted out to private practicing Advocates.
Pertinent that on 31 Dec 2025, Home Department of Haryana Government promoted total 22 District Attorneys (DAs) viz. Suman Bansal, Sohan Singh, Legha Deepak Ranjeet, Satish Kumar, Anand Mann, Sunil Kumar, Satyender Kumar, Rajesh Kumar Chaudhary, Dharmender Rana, Manoj Kumar, Deepak Boora, Harpal Singh, Anita, Rajesh Kumar, Parvez, Sumer Singh, Hitender Singh, Narender Singh, Manjeet Singh, Ashwani Kumar Chaudhary, Suresh Kumar and Parul Chauhan straightway to the post of DDP by even surpassing them over predecessor post of ADP, for which as per recently amended Service Rules, DAs with three years of service can be promoted.
Consequently, all 22 DAs have got exorbitant/massive Pay hike as their Functional Pay Level (FPL)-12 (Rs. 78,800- 1,97,200) have been increased to FPL-14 (Rs.1,23,100- 2,09,600) by jumping FPL-13 ( Rs.88,400- 2,02,600)
Hemant legally asserted that since as per Section 20(2)(a) of BNSS, 2023 a person shall be eligible to be appointed as a DDP, if he has been in practice as an Advocate for not less than fifteen years or is or has been a Sessions Judge, hence all the aforementioned 22 DAs legally cannot be appointed as DDP in the State of Haryana merely by mode/route of Promotion since it is inadmissible/not permissible under ibid provisions of BNSS, 2023.
Further, even if the appropriate Rules viz. Haryana State Prosecution Department Legal Services (Group A) Rules, 2013 have been amended by the Haryana Government of in Dec, 2025 for facilitating the promotion of DAs to the posts of DDP on seniority-cum-merit basis, still it is not legally tenable because if the provision of a duly enacted law/statute i.e. Section 20(2)(a) of BNSS, 2023 in this case clearly stipulates that a person shall be eligible to be appointed as DDP, if he has been in practice as an Advocate for not less than fifteen years or is or has been a Sessions Judge, hence in view of this, how the District Attorneys ( who are actually and essentially duly designated Government Pleaders under CPC,1908 and Public Prosecutors under BNSS, 2023 (earlier under erstwhile CrPC, 1973) and who are regularly appointed and serving Group A officers of Haryana Government can be promoted and appointed to the post of DDP especially when there is no statutory liberty/scope for making such sort of deviation available the State Government not only under Section 20(2)(a) but even under entire/whole Section 20 of BNSS, 2023.
As the duly enacted law/statute i.e. Section 20(2)(a) of BNSS, 2023 which is enacted by Parliament of India, only Advocates (purportedly individual practicing Advocates and not regularly appointed and serving Government Advocates) with not less than fifteen years of practice or a person who is or has been a Sessions Judge can be appointed as DDP.
As far as the question that if minimum 15 years experience as Government Advocates ( read as Government Pleaders/Public Prosecutors) possessed by District Attorneys also makes them eligible for appointment to the post of DDP, Hemant asserted that he is of the considered opinion that in view of Constitution Bench judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Re: Rejanish KV Vs. K Deepa and others ( D/- 9 October 2025) ( which was however regarding counting pre-appointment minimum seven years Bar experience of persons who are currently working/serving as Subordinate Judges/Judicial Officers for being eligible to compete for posts of Additional District and Sessions Judge under Direct Bar/Advocates Quota), such District Attorneys can at the most be considered eligible for being considered as prospective candidates in an Open Recruitment/Selection Process to be undertaken for filling up posts of DDP but they cannot have wholly-solely right to be directly appointed to the post of DDP merely on the basis of seniority-cum-merit basis.
Be that as it may, Hemant has finally asserted in his Legal Notice that if the aforementioned 22 DAs who have been recently promoted to the post of DDP are not reverted to their erstwhile posts and also if 22 or else all 24 newly created/duly sanctioned posts of DDP are not filled up in strict and meticulous compliance of Section 20(2)(a) of BNSS, 2023 i.e. by an Open Recruitment/Selection i.e. by inviting applications from all eligible Advocates (with minimum 15 years of practice) as well as serving/ex-Sessions Judges, then the Advocate reserves right to take recourse to all available legal remedies available in the matter by invoking Writ Jurisdiction of Hon’ble Punjab & Haryana High Court including by way of instituting Public Interest Litigation (PIL).