The Kerala High Court has approved the State government’s draft circular on the guidelines to appoint public prosecutors in district courts, while directing that the opinion of the district judge should be given primacy while preparing the panel of candidates.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Syam Kumar V.M. passed the order while disposing of two public interest litigations seeking guidelines for the appointment of government pleaders and public prosecutors.

The Bench approved the draft circular after directing that the expression “due regard” be replaced with “due primacy”, thereby giving primacy to the opinion of the district judge in the preparation of the panel for appointing public prosecutors.