Major Functionaries under the Code of Criminal Procedure

There are five major functionaries under CrPC

1. Police
2. Prosecutors
3. Court
4. Defense Council
5. Prison Authority and Correctional Services

In this particular article, you’ll be reading about the above-mentioned functionaries, their roles and functions.

POLICE

It is the duty of the central and state governments to provide for the police setup and their organizations. But both the governments have failed in the reorganization of the police setups according to the needs and the changing society. Later in the case of  Prakash Singh vs. Union of India (2006) in which the Supreme Court laid down guidelines for the reorganization of the police.

Role of Police under CrPC

• The role of police starts with writing the information about the crime and registering it as an FIR.
• Either before or after registering FIR, the police have a duty to reach the scene of offense for the purpose of a preliminary investigation, protection of the crime scene, the arrest of the accused or the suspect.
• Duty to take the offense to the cognizance of the court.
• On the arrest of the accused/suspect, it is the duty to produce before the court within 24 hours.
• Duty to investigate into the offense and file the charge-sheet before the court.
• Duty to assist the prosecution and the court in the administration of justice.

PROSECUTOR

This word is defined under S-2 of CrPC it means the prosecutor is an officer appointed by the appropriate government to prosecute the offense in a case. Section 24&25 of CrPC deals with the appointment of prosecutor and their duties.

The appointment shall be by the central/state government, through a recruitment agency, directorate of prosecutions. This agency is the governing body for the prosecutors for the purpose of appointments, transfers, regulating, etc. this directorate is a statutory and is empowered u/s 25(A) of CrPC initiated by the criminal law amendment act 2005.

Kinds of Recruitment of The Prosecutors

There are two kinds of the recruitment process;

• Thorough Exam

There are certain kinds of prosecutors appointed through a recruitment test conducted and appointed at the lower judiciary i.e. in the court of judicial magistrates. The public prosecutors in the lower judiciary are called as assistant public prosecutors Grade I and Grade II (government servants).

• Term Based

There are prosecutors who are appointed in the middle level of the judiciary at the session court/addition courts of sessions and an assistant court of sessions. The appointment of the prosecutors shall be from a panel of advocates prepared by the district collector. The term of the office for such public prosecutors shall be 4-5 years.

COURTS

The setup and organization of criminal courts in India are of 2 types on the basis of the nature of the area i.e. District and Metropolitan areas.

In District

The criminal courts and their setup in district areas in at 3 levels:-

1. At the lower level of the judiciary the courts are called, courts of Judicial Magistrate which are of 3 types:-

• Judicial magistrate first class
• Judicial magistrate second class
• Special magistrate court

2. At the middle level of the judiciary, sessions are the unit and each district may be considered as one session or sessions may consist of two or more districts, the courts at the sessions level includes:-

• Court of sessions(principal court of sessions)
• Additional courts of sessions
• Assistant courts of sessions
• Special courts (designated courts)

3. At the higher level of the judiciary, there are 2 important courts having criminal jurisdiction i.e. high court and Supreme Court.

Though high court and Supreme Court are vested with the jurisdiction in criminal cases, they are only courts of appellate jurisdiction.

Metropolitan areas

The courts at the session’s level are referred and called metropolitan courts and they are of 2 types:-

1. Metropolitan session courts
2. Metropolitan magistrate courts

Chief Judicial Magistrate/Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Supervisory authority or administrative authority of all the magistrate in sessions/division or metropolitan areas.

DEFENSE COUNSEL

In India, we follow the Anglo-Saxon system also called adversarial, under which the state shall be represented by the prosecution and be accused by a defense counsel at is choice and cost. Where the accused is unable to engage a lawyer for his defense counsel for the accused at the cost of the state. Such defense counsel is called a state brief (S-304 CrPC).

PRISON AUTHORITIES AND CORRECTIONAL SERVICES

After the trial and arguments in the criminal cases, it is the time to deliver the judgment by the court the two possibilities of the judgment in a criminal case are correction or acquittal. On the proof of guilt of committing the crime, the accused is liable to be corrected and sentenced with imprisonment or for the default of payment of fine imprison the offender will be sent to the prison. The prison administration authority shall be according to the prison act 1881.