BANGALORE: After having successfully conducted a case over 11 years, a public prosecutor, now retired, finds himself on the wrong side of the State machinery.

The Government, instead of paying his fee of about Rs. 1 lakh, merely doled out Rs. 16,050 citing technical grounds. The retired prosecutor H.M. Thimmarayappa's case does not seem to be the only one. Several others in his position said they had been made to sweat it out to get their fee claims settled.

A frustrated Mr. Thimmarayappa has written to Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy seeking his intervention and settle the issue.

Mr. Thimmarayappa, in his letter to the Chief Minister, said he had claimed Rs. 94,950 as fee for successfully handling a murder case. But the Home Department on March 1 cleared a mere Rs. 16, 050 as payment stating that the court order sheet did not mention that the prosecutor was present in court on 204 occasions (129 adjournments and 75 hearings).

The retired prosecutor said the government officials who had processed his claim had no idea how Sessions Court worked. "Normally, the judge who writes the proceedings in the order sheet is not concerned to mention the presence of prosecutor on every date. It's usually the bench clerk who mentions his presence, but sometimes even that is omitted," he said.

He said that in his 25 years of service, during which he appeared because Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) in several cases, never absented himself from court.

The fee charged by him was in accordance with the remuneration mentioned in the order appointing him as the SPP, he said.

Mr. Thimmarayappa's grouse pertained to a case before the Second Additional Sessions Judge (Bangalore Rural) in which he was appointed as SPP in 1995. After 11 years and passage through eight judges, the accused was sentenced to life imprisonment. The judgement order recognised and acclaimed the services rendered by Mr. Thimmarayappa as the SPP.

Despite this, the Home Department "hastily" issued the order disallowing 83 per cent of his claim.

The officials who issued the order had taken their job casually "and perhaps when I wrote to your good self as well as the Home Minister pointing the delay in the disposal of my claim," Mr. Thimmarayappa said. He said that an earlier claim of Rs. 36,900 was pending payment.

"The problem gets worse after the person's retirement. It's really hard to get the claims settled. Only a few persevere, while most give up," a senior prosecutor told The Hindu .

Another prosecutor, who dealt with many high-profile cases, said one of his claims for Rs. 4 lakh made in 1984 was settled only in 1992.

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