UNION OF INDIA Vs. OKORAKE EMMANUEL CHUKWUNONYERE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Rule. Learned Counsel for respondent No.1 in the respective petitions waive notice. The matters were taken up for final hearing forthwith, by consent.

(2.) Both these petitions involve common questions, and are, therefore, being disposed of together.

(3.) The principal question that arises for consideration in these petitions is: Whether by efflux of time specified in the subject Notification issued by the Government of India inter alia in exercise of powers conferred under Section 24(8) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as the Code , for the sake of brevity), the appointment of the concerned Special Public Prosecutors to conduct the trial, in respective special cases, wherein they had already entered appearance when the tenure specified in the notification was subsisting, being offences punishable under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (hereinafter referred to as the NDPS Act , for the sake of brevity), would come to an end, as a result of which, their continuation as Special Public Prosecutors even in those criminal cases is without authority of law