IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION

WRIT PETITION No. OF 2011

(Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India)

IN THE MATTER OF:

Articles 14, 21 and 32 of the Constitution of India; and

AND IN THE MATTER OF:

Rule 3(3)(ii)(iii) of the All India Services Conduct Rule 1968

AND IN THE MATTER OF:

Implementation of the recommendations of the following:

i. Committee on Civil Service Reform (Hota Committee) on Civil

Service Reform,

ii. Second Administrative Reforms Commission, Central Staffing

Scheme,

iii. Committee on Prevention of Corruption (Santhanam Committee

Report),

iv. Economic Administration Reforms Commission (Jha Commission)

IN THE MATTER OF:

1. T.S.R. Subramanian

Former Cabinet Secretary to the Government of India, „Guru Kripa‟, 74, Sector 15 A, NOIDA - 201 301

2. Dr. Abid Hussain

Former Ambassador of India to United States of America 237, Sector 15 A, NOIDA - 201 301

2

3. T. S. Krishna Murthy Former Chief Election Commissioner

Flat No.9, Gokul Tower (Next to Mookambika Complex) No.7, Sir C.P. Ramaswamy Road, Alwarpet, Chennai - 600 018

4. N. Gopalaswami

Former Chief Election

Commissioner of India, Flat no.5, 'Leo Madhuram', 39, Giri Road, T.Nagar, Chennai - 600 017

5. Ved Prakash Marwah

Former Governor of Manipur, Mizoram and Jharkhand, A-2 Hira Mahal, 44 Amrita Shergill Marg, New Delhi – 110003

6. Bhure Lal Former Secretary to

the Government of India, Former Chairman of the Environment Pollution (Prevention) Control Authority (EPCA) 67, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi – 110003

7. N.C. Saxena Member, National Advisory Commission 68 Friends Colony West, New Delhi – 110065

8. Jagdish Chandra Pant

Former Secretary to the Government of India Ministry of Health & Family Welfare Shraddha Kunj, 159/I Vasant Vihar, Dehradun – 248006

9. Surendra Narain Mathur

Former Managing Director, Indian Railway Finance Corporation 706, „Nanda‟, Kaushambi

3

Apartments, Sahibabad (Dist. Ghaziabad) – 201010

10. Arvind Varma

Former Secretary, Ministry of Chemicals and Petroleum, Government of India K 67 A, Hauz Khas Enclave, New Delhi – 110016

11. Prem Narain Mittal Former Member (Investigation) Central Board of Direct Taxes A-56, Retreat Apartments, 20, I. P. Extension, Delhi-110092

12. Keki Daruwalla

Former Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on International Affairs 79 Mount Kailash, SFS Apartments, New Delhi -110065

13. R.L. Narayan Former High Commissioner

to Canada D-71, I.F.S. Apartments, Mayur Vihar, Phase – I, Delhi – 110 091

14. Ajay Prasad

Former Secretary, Civil Aviation, Government of India C-622, Ground Floor,

New Friends Colony, New Delhi-110025

15. Sharad Chandra Behar Former Chief Secretary,

Madhya Pradesh E-4 /12, Arera Colony, Bhopal – 462016

4

16. Nirmala Buch Former Secretary to the Government of India Ministry of Rural Development E-4/17, Arera Colony, Bhopal – 462016

17. Arundhati Ghose

Former Ambassador to United Nations Offices in Geneva

and to the Conference on Disarmament C 1903 Palam Vihar, Gurgaon - 122017

18. Amitabh Chandra

Former Principal Secretary, Medical Education & Drugs Department, Government of Maharashtra C 601 Blossom Boulevard, South Main Road, Koregaon Park, Pune - 411 001

19. Nripendra Misra Former Chairperson, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India A-222(FF), New Friends Colony, New Delhi -110065

20. Sivaramakrishnan S. Natarajan

Former Chairman, Ordinance Factory Board & Director General, Ordinance Factories, Ministry of Defence, Department of Defence Production

C - 3, Ramaswamy Apartments, 41, Warren Road,

Mylapore, Chennai - 600 004 21. Joginder Singh Former Director, Central Bureau of Investigation

123-124, Now Sansad Vihar, CGHS, Sector 22, Plot No. 4, Dwarka, New Delhi -110077

5

22. Bahukutumbi Raman

Former Additional Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India A-2/3, Bharathi Dasan Colony, K.K. Nagar, Chennai – 600078

23. B. K. Ratnakar Rao I.P.S. Former Secretary (Security),

Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India 425, 10th Main, Banashankari II Stage, Bangalore – 560070

24. Arun Bhagat

Former Director Intelligence Bureau, Government of India D-84, Gulmohar Park, New Delhi-110049

25. Sushil Tripathi

Former Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India 27, Sector 15 A, Noida – 201 301

26. Rajinder Jit Khurana

Former Chairman, Joint Intelligence Committee, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India Former Secretary to the

Government of India E-1/202, Arera Colony, Bhopal – 462016

27. Krishna V. Rajan

Former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India B-73, IFS Apartments, Mayur Vihar, Phase-1, Delhi-110091

6

28. Rakesh K. Mittal Former Social Welfare Commissioner, Uttar Pradesh 1/14, Vishwas Khand, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow – 226010

29. Amar Nath Ram

Former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India

D-73, IFS Apartments, Mayur Vihar Phase-1, Delhi-110091

30. Raj K. Bhargava Former Home Secretary, Government of India C-390, Defence Colony, New Delhi 110024

31. Kewal Ram Bhati

Former Vice Chairman Uttarakhand Public Services Tribunal, Dehradun 25, Navyug Enclave, Indirapuram III, GMS Marg, Dehradun

32. Dr. S. Chakravarthy

Former Member, Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practice Commission, Government of India 6-3-864/2/B, Sadat Manzil, Begumpet, Hyderabad 500016

33. Shailaja Chandra

Former Chairperson,

Public Grievances Commission and Appellate Authority under Delhi Right to Information Act, 2001, Government of NCT of Delhi F 6/3 Vasant Vihar, New Delhi - 110057

34. Francis Thomas Raphael Colaso

Former Director General of Police, Karnataka 3, Gitanjali Apartments, 16, Moyenville Road, Langford Town, Bangalore - 560025

7

35. Ravindra Gupta

Former Secretary Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises H-50, Sector 39, NOIDA - 201301

36. Siddharth Kak

Former Member Customs Central Board of Excise and Customs (Spl. Secretary)

Sector-27, District Gautam Budh Nagar, Noida - 201301

37. Ajit Kumar

Former Finance Secretary, Government of India A-13, IFS Apartments, Mayur Vihar Phase-1, Delhi-110091

38. Dr. Jagdish Khattar

E – 16, Sector – 40, Noida – 201 301, Former Joint Secretary, Ministry of Steel, Government of India Chairman and Managing Director, Carnation Auto India Pvt. Ltd. Studio 205, IHDP, Plot No. 7, Sec. 127, Noida-201301

39. Mano Ranjan

Former Secretary, Ministry of Steel, Government of India

C-62, GF, Sector 14, Noida - 201 301

40. Pravin Chandra Sharma Former Member

Board of Revenue Uttar Pradesh Former Chairman, Uttar Pradesh State Roads Corporation B-35, Sector C, Aliganj, Lucknow 226024

8

41. H.H. Vishwanathan Former High Commissioner of India to Nigeria

J 041, Windsor Park, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad -201014

42. Sarita Prasad

Former Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India C-622, Ground Floor,

New Friends Colony, New Delhi-110025 43. N.K. Sabharwal

Former Director, Cooperation for Development Bureau for Asia and the Pacific at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) 85-M, Greater Kailash-I, New Delhi 110048

44. Varghese Alexander Valiaparampil Former Adviser Transport,

Planning Commission of India Bethel Bhavan, Chettimukku, Maramon (Kerala) - 689549

45. P. Venkatarama Venkatakrishnan

Former Chairman, Pollution Control Board, Chennai Former Member, Central Administrative Tribunal 2D, Front Block, Sri Sai Subodaya Apartments, 66 East Coast Road, Tiruvanmiyur, Chennai-600041

46. K. Aggarwal Former Principal Advisor, Planning Commission, Government of India 281, Tower 4, Supreme Enclave, Mayur Vihar Phase –I, Delhi-110091

47. Kamal Nain Bakshi

Former Ambassador of India to Italy A-24, IFS Apartments, Mayur Vihar-1, Delhi-110091

9

48. Bhagirath Lal Das Former Secretary, Department of Steel, Government of India 1102, Vindhyachal, Kaushambi, Ghaziabad - 201010

49. Jai Paul Gupta

Former Financial Commissioner, Punjab H.No. 81, Sector 19-A,

Chandigarh - 160019 50. Swatantra V. S. Juneja

Former Special Secretary, Ministry of Finance Former Director General, Asian Development Bank, Manila Founder Member Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations 214, Sector 15A, Noida – 201 301

51. D.V.Kapur

Former Secretary to the Government of India Ministries of Power, Heavy Industry and Chemicals & Petrochemicals 405 Aradhana Apts., Sector-13 R K Puram, New Delhi-110066

52. Bishambar Makhija

Former Principal Advisor, Planning Commission, Government of India 307, Shalaka, Mah. Karve Road,

Mumbai 400021. 53. Ravindra Mathur

Former Secretary to the Government of India Former Chief Secretary, Uttar Pradesh B-2/1, Vipul Khand, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow – 226010

54. Mahesh Prasad

Former Chairman Indian Trade Promotion Organisation 20, Sector 14A, Noida – 201 301

10

55. L.V. Saptharishi

Former Secretary to the Government of India Former Election Observer, Chapra parliamentary Constituency in Bihar for General Elections 2004 M-88, Greater Kailash -II, New Delhi – 110048

56. Ram Updesh Singh Former Chairman, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Former Vigilance Commissioner 1, Aniket IAS Colony, Kidwaipuri, Patna-800001

57. Ishwar. C Srivastava

Former Chairman & Managing Director, Rajasthan Minerals Development Corporation, Jaipur

President, Transparency International (Rajasthan Chapter)

4-Ka, 26, Jawahar Nagar, Jaipur - 302004

58. Dr. Gopalan Sundaram

Former Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India A 601, “Dugar Apartments” Keshav Perumal Puram, Greenways Road, Chennai - 600028

59. R.P. Agrawal Former Secretary, Higher Education,

Government of India 31, Greenwoods Society Phase II, Sector Omega I, Pocket P-II,

Greater Noida – 201308 60. Anil Baijal

Former Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India E-524, Greater Kailash, Part II, New Delhi, 110048

11

61. Kulbir Singh Former Chief Administrative Officer,

Northern Railway (Ministry of Railways) 64, Jacaranda Marg, DLF City, Phase II, Gurgaon – 122002

62. Dipak Chatterjee

Former Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, Government of India

Former Ambassador of India to European Union, Belgium & Luxembourg A-001 Belvedere Tower, DLF Phase-2, Gurgaon 122002

63. Arun Bongirwar

Former Chief Secretary, Maharashtra Former Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust 10A, Nyay Sagar, Near Guru Nanak Hospital, Kalanagar, Bandra East, Mumbai 400051

64. Deepak Dasgupta

Former Chairman, National Highways Authority of India C-604, Central Park, DLF Golf Course Road, Sector - 42, Gurgaon - 122002

65. D.S. Bagga

Former Chief Secretary

Government of Uttar Pradesh 46-B, Green View Apartments, Sector 15-A, Noida – 201 301

66. Harsh Gupta

Former Chief Secretary, Himachal Pradesh 2910/ C-1, Sushant Lok, Phase-1, Gurgaon 122009

12

67. S.K. Arora Former Ambassador of India to Iran 13, Sector 15A, Noida – 201 301

68. D.R. Kaarthikeyan

Former Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation Former Director General

of the National Human Rights Commission Former Special Director General, Central Reserve Police Force 102, Anand Lok, New Delhi - 110049

69. Kura Ram Lakhanpal

Former Chief Secretary, Punjab Address - House No - 638, Sector - 16 D, Chandigarh – 160016

70. Mr. Jagmohan L. Bajaj

Former Chairman UP Electricity Regulatory Commission 184, Sector 15A, Noida – 201 301

71. B.S. Sial

Former Director General of Police, NSG 198, Sector 15A, Noida – 201 301

72. Raghubar Dayal

Former Managing Director, Container Corporation of India

B-100, Defence Colony, New Delhi-110024 73. Manohar Subrahmanyam Former Joint Secretary Department of Food, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Government of India C-77 Indira Nagar,

Lucknow 226016

13

74. P.P.Khanna Former Development Commissioner, Small Scale Industries, Government of India 213, Sector 15-A, NOIDA - 201 301

75. N.N. Vasudev

Former Vice-Chairman Railway Claims Tribunal 338B, Sector 15A, Noida – 201 301

76. Proloy Bagchi Former Additional Secretary,

Department of Posts and Telegraphs, Government of India

1, Chinar Lake, Ridge Apartments, Ridge Road, Idgah Hill, Bhopal – 462 001.

77. Mr. Vijay Kumar

Former Secretary Ministry of External Affairs 7, Sector 15A, Noida – 201 301

78. Dr. S. Narayan Former Secretary to

the Prime Minister Former Chief Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister 64, ABM Avenue, Chennai – 28 79. S. Regunathan Former Chief Secretary,

Government of Delhi A-61, Gulmohar Park, New Delhi – 110047 80. Surendra Singh Pangtey Former Administrative Member, Board of Revenue, Lucknow

25 F, Neembuwala, Garhi Cantt. Dehradun 248003

81. Anand Sarup

Former Chairman, National Book Trust of India

Former Education Secretary, Government of India

14

15D, Golf View Apartments, Saket, New Delhi-110017 82. Surjit Kishore Das

Former Chief Secretary, Uttarakhand 66, New Moti Bagh,

New Delhi – 110023 83. Bhalachandra N. Bhagwat

Secretary, Ministry Human

Resource Development, Government of India 8, Priya, Worli Sea-Face,

Mumbai - 4000 30 ..Petitioners Versus

1. Union of India

Through the Cabinet Secretary Cabinet Secretariat Rashtrapati Bhavan New Delhi - 110004

2. State of Andhra Pradesh Through the Chief Secretary Government of Andhra Pradesh C-Block, Secretariat, Hyderabad -500022

3. State of Arunachal Pradesh Through the Chief Secretary Government of Arunachal Pradesh Banquet Hall, Niti Vihar, Itanagar – 791 111

4. State of Assam Through the Chief Secretary

Government of Assam Assam Secretariat (Civil), Block – C, 3rd Floor, Dispur, Guwahati – 781 006

5. State of Bihar Through the Chief Secretary Government of Bihar Main Secretariat, Patna, 800015

15

6. State of Chattisgarh Through the Chief Secretary Government of Chattisgarh DKS Bhawan, Mantralaya, Raipur - 492001

7. State of Goa Through the Chief Secretary Government of Goa Secretariat, Porvorim,

Goa – 403521

8. State of Gujarat Through the Chief Secretary Government of Gujarat New Sachivalaya, Gandhinagar - 382 010

9. State of Haryana Through the Chief Secretary Government of Haryana Room No. 4, 4th Floor Haryana Civil Secretariat, Sector-1, Chandigarh - 160001

10. State of Himachal Pradesh Through the Chief Secretary Government of Himachal Pradesh HP Secretariat, Shimla - 171002

11. State of Jammu & Kashmir Through the Chief Secretary Government of Jammu & Kashmir R. No. 2/7, 2nd, Floor Main Building,

Civil Secretariat, Jammu, 180001

12. State of Jharkhand Through the Chief Secretary Government of Jharkhand Project Building, Dhurwa Post Office, Ranchi – 834004

16

13. State of Karnataka Through the Chief Secretary Government of Karnataka Room no. 320, 3rd Floor, Vidhan Soudha, Bangalore - 560001

14 State of Kerala Through the Chief Secretary

Government of Kerala Government Secretariat, Thiruvananthapuram - 695001

15. State of Madhya Pradesh Through the Chief Secretary Government of Madhya Pradesh Mantralaya, Vallabh Bhawan, Bhopal – 462004

16. State of Maharashtra Through the Chief Secretary Government of Maharashtra Mantralaya, Mumbai 400032

17. State of Manipur Through the Chief Secretary Government of Manipur Old Secretariat, South Block, Imphal – 795001 (Manipur)

18. State of Meghalaya Through the Chief Secretary Government of Meghalaya Meghalaya Civil Secretariat,

Shillong - 793001

19. State of Mizoram Through the Chief Secretary Government of Mizoram New Secretariat Complex, Aizawl, 796001

20. State of Nagaland Through the Chief Secretary Government of Nagaland Nagaland Civil Secretariat, Kohima - 797004

17

21. State of Orissa Through the Chief Secretary Government of Orissa Orissa Secretariat, Bhubaneswar – 751001

22. State of Punjab

Through the Chief Secretary Government of Punjab Punjab Civil Secretariat, Sector - 1 Chandigarh-160017

23. State of Rajasthan Through the Chief Secretary Government of Rajasthan Government Secretariat, Jaipur-302005

24. State of Sikkim Through the Chief Secretary Government of Sikkim Gangtok, Sikkim -737101

25. State of Tamil Nadu Through the Chief Secretary Government of Tamil Nadu Secretariat, Fort St. George, Chennai, Chennai-600009

26. State of Tripura Through the Chief Secretary Government of Tripura New Secretariat Complex, Post Office Kunjavan, Agaratala-799006

27. State of Uttarakhand

Through the Chief Secretary Government of Uttarakhand Uttarakhand Secretariat, 4, Subhash Road, Secretariat, Dehradun-248001

28. State of Uttar Pradesh Through the Chief Secretary Government of Uttar Pradesh Lal Bahadur Shastri Bhawan, Secretariat, Lucknow-226001

18

29. State of West Bengal Through the Chief Secretary Government of West Bengal Secretariat, Writers Building, Kolkata-700001

30. Union Territory of Andaman

& Nicobar Through the Chief Secretary Andaman & Nicobar (UT) Administration Secretariat, Port Blair - 744101

31. Union Territory of Chandigarh Through the Advisor to the Administrator (Chandigarh) UT Secretariat, Sector 9, Chandigarh -160009

32. Union Territory of Daman & Diu Through the Administrator Daman and Diu (UT) Administrator Secretariat, Moti Daman, Secretariat, 396220

33. Union Territory of Dadra & Nagar Haveli Through the Administrator Dadra & Nagar Haveli (UT) Secretariat, Silvassa- 396230

34. National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi Through the Chief Secretary Government of NCT Delhi, Delhi Secretariat, I.P. Estate, New Delhi- 110002

35. Union Territory of Lakshadweep Through the Administrator Union Territory of Lakshadweep Kavaratti, Lakshadweep - 682555

19

36. Union Territory of Puducherry Through the Chief Secretary Puducherry Administration Chief Secretariat, 1, Beach Road, U.T. of Puducherry,

Puducherry- 605001 ...Respondents

WRIT PETITION UNDER ARTICLE 32

OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA

TO

THE HON‟BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA AND HIS HON‟BLE

COMPANION JUSTICES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

THE HUMBLE PETITION OF THE PETITIONER ABOVE NAMED MOST RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH: 1. The Petitioners herein, are citizens of India are preferring the

present writ petition, which is by way of public interest litigation

are senior civil servants who have retired after attaining the

senior-most ranks of the higher Civil Services. They are,

amongst others, a Cabinet Secretary, a Governor, Chief Election

Commissioners, Chief Secretaries to various State Governments,

Secretaries to the Government of India, Ambassadors and High

Commissioners, Heads of Police / Paramilitary forces/

Investigative Agencies at the Centre and in the States, Heads of

Departments, Commissions and Tribunals, Advisors to the

Government of India and have served at senior levels in various

20

international organizations, including the United Nations. The

Petitioners have all served in the civil services for long periods of

time and between them have more than two thousand five

hundred man–years of hands-on experience of public

administration. They have thus acquired intimate knowledge of

the capabilities, strengths and weaknesses of the administrative

machine. Further, they represent officers who entered service

over a twenty - two year time span (ranging from the 1950 to

the 1972 batches) and have thus witnessed both the evolution

as well as the deterioration in the standards of the civil services.

They seek no personal gain or benefit from this Petition, but

instead, as insiders hope to use the insights gained through long

years of experience to suggest effective measures of systemic

administrative reform.

2. That it is widely acknowledged, including by the Government of

India, that poor implementation and weak oversight have

distorted and reduced the effectiveness of Government policies

and programmes. Thus, the Second Administrative Reforms

Commission (ARC) acknowledged that “governance is admittedly

the weak link in our quest for prosperity and equity. Elimination

of corruption is not only a moral imperative but an economic

necessity for a nation aspiring to catch up with the rest of the

world. Improved governance in the form of non-expropriation,

contract enforcement, and decrease in bureaucratic delays and

corruption can raise the GDP growth rate significantly” (Second

21

ARC, Fourth Report on Ethics in Governance). The Tenth Five

Year Plan noted that “people‟s welfare is largely determined by

the efficiency of public delivery mechanisms. The best plan

cannot compensate for poor implementation; accountability and

efficiency in all our public institutions is the key to unlocking the

potential of our country and to sustained social development.”

3. That weak governance has adversely impacted performance and

resulted in unacceptably poor outcomes in a large number of

critically important sectors. While the official estimates of

poverty in India range from 28% (Planning Commission), to

37.2% (Suresh Tendulkar Committee), to at least 50% (NC

Saxena Committee), to as high as 77% (Sengupta Committee),

it is clear that well over a quarter of our population still lives

below the poverty line. The persistence of large-scale poverty

and illiteracy, the lack of employment, shelter, clean drinking

water, basic sanitation and health care, food and nutrition, are

all manifestations of serious failures of national governance.

Despite its high growth rate, India scores poorly in virtually all

international rankings of countries based on indices of social

development (India ranked 134 out of 182 countries surveyed in

the UNDP‟s widely recognized annual Human Development Index

for 2009). On the other hand, there is little doubt that clean and

efficient governance within the democratic framework would

transform the social, economic and political life of our people

and build a strong, prosperous and vibrant nation.

22

4. That since the implementation of Government policies and

programmes is the responsibility of the permanent civil service,

the lacunae and fault lines in this regard can be traced back

directly to the civil servant. While proximate causes can always

be identified for under-performance in individual sectors, the

consistent failure to achieve targets, across the board and over

time, clearly indicates that the basic problem underpinning each

failure lies in implementation arising out of poor governance.

Any attempt to improve administration must therefore

necessarily focus on the micro–issue of civil service reform,

which in turn affects all aspects of service delivery and

implementation. The Petitioners are of the opinion that

addressing this fundamental issue will directly and significantly

improve the quality of delivery and implementation of

Government policies and programmes and thus the quality of

governance in general.

5. That the Petitioners further submit on the basis of credible

Government documents in the public domain, that poor

governance has been the main cause of these poor outcomes.

As the tenth five year plan states: “Successful implementation of

development programmes requires adequate funds, an

appropriate policy framework, the formulation of suitable plans

and an effective delivery machinery. However, past experiences

23

suggest that availability of funds is no panacea for tackling the

problems of poverty, backwardness and low human development

in India. Funds may be necessary, but they are not a sufficient

condition; the determining factor seems to be the capability of

the funding Ministries/State Governments to formulate viable

schemes and of the delivery system to implement these schemes

on the ground. There are serious deficiencies in both respects

and they can be regarded broadly as due to „poor governance‟”.

6. That structurally, public administration in the country is

compromised by (a) corruption within the administration, (b) a

„spoils system‟, previously recognized by this Hon‟ble Court, that

has meant an irresolute system of tenure, transfers and

promotions, (c) political interference and pressure on civil

servants, leading to wrongful decisions manifestly not in the

public interest and engendering both corruption and the „spoils

system‟; and finally, (d) the non-implementation of consistently

recommended reforms for institutional change. These

interlocking phenomena have been repeatedly addressed by

numerous Government-appointed committees, as being primarily

responsible for the poor state of governance in India. There is

an urgent need to make the civil servant accountable, sensitive

and responsive; if this is achieved, there will be across-the-

spectrum benefits. Since the civil servant at all levels, from the

village to the block/thana to the tehsil, district, and state

secretariat is directly in touch with the citizen, an improvement

24

in the quality of his/her output will surely positively impact the

overall quality of governance. It is imperative to address the

micro-causes which have rendered the civil servant apathetic,

callous, ineffective and corrupt. There is an urgent need to usher

reforms on the above lines.

7. That the Union Government as well as the State Governments

have set up numerous Committees which have studied and

made recommendations with regard to administrative and civil

service reforms. All these Committees have concurred on the

need to protect the civil servant from extraneous pressures and

make him/her independent so that he/she can render his/her

considered advice freely and frankly, without fear or favour.

Although many of the recommendations of these Committees

have been broadly similar, they have not been accepted or

implemented. In this context, the Second Administrative Reforms

Commission (2006-2008) noted that

“it is ironical that there has been no sincere attempt

to restructure the Civil Service although more than

six hundred Committees and Commissions have

looked into different aspects of public administration

in the country…The Indian reform effort has been

unfailingly conservative, with limited impact…Civil

service reform in India has neither enhanced the

efficiency nor the accountability of the Civil Service

in any meaningful manner.”

25

8. That in 1997, the Conference of Chief Ministers of States,

convened by the Government of India to consider ways of

improving performance and integrity of the public service, had

recommended that the existing rules and regulations should be

amended within six months to enable exemplary prosecution and

removal of corrupt officials and the weeding out of staff of

doubtful integrity and that at the same time, a suitable

mechanism should be worked out to reward employees who do

good work. Since then, the Central Fifth Pay Commission (1997),

the Geethakrishnan Commission on Expenditure Reforms (2001),

the Surinder Nath Committee on Performance Evaluation (2003),

the P.C. Hota Committee on Civil Service Reform (2004) and the

Second Administrative Reforms Commission (2006-08) have all

produced voluminous Reports and recommendations on the

subject.

9. That these Reports contain many valuable recommendations.

While recommendations, especially those relating to emergent

operational matters have indeed been accepted by the

Government, the core recommendations, which have been

studied, discussed and commended for implementation by

successive Commissions and Committees have not been acted

upon in letter and spirit. Were this to be done, the Petitioners

are confident that there would be a substantial improvement in

the quality of governance in India.

26

10. That the Hota Committee and the Santhanam Committee have

recognized corruption as a major problem in the civil services.

That much of the deterioration in the standards of probity and

accountability within the civil service can be traced to the

practice of issuing and acting on verbal instructions or oral

orders which are not recorded. It should be made incumbent on

every civil servant to formally record all such instructions /

directions / orders / suggestions pertaining to the discharge of

his/her official duties which he/she receives, not only from

his/her administrative superiors but also from political

authorities, legislators, commercial and business interests and

other persons / quarters having interest or wielding influence.

The Santhanam Committee (1962) has specifically recommended

that “…there should be a system of keeping some sort of record

all interviews granted to accredited representatives…”. Rule 3(3)

of the All India Services Rules 1968 specifically mandates that

the direction “of the official superior shall ordinarily be in writing.

Where the issue of oral direction becomes unavoidable, the

official superior shall confirm it in writing immediately

thereafter”. This practice needs to be expanded and a written

record kept of all orders, instructions, directions and

suggestions from whichever quarters they emanate to ensure

accountability in the functioning of civil servants. True copy of

the relevant extracts of Santhanam Committee Report dated nil,

1963 is annexed herewith as Annexure P-1 (Page Nos. 51 to

27

76 ). True copy of the relevant extracts of All India Services

Rules 1968 is annexed herewith as Annexure P-2 (Page Nos.

77). True copy of the relevant extracts of Hota Committee

Report dated nil, July 2004 is annexed herewith as Annexure

P-3 (Page Nos. 78 to 93 ).

11. That the preservation of the integrity, fearlessness and

independence of the civil servant is an essential condition of the

parliamentary system of Government. While the formulation of

Government policy is the legitimate task of the Minister, the Civil

Servant is expected to advise him/her freely, frankly and

fearlessly at the stage of policy formulation. The Minister in turn

should not interfere in purely service matters such as postings

and transfers and should avoid any departures from the

approved policies to accommodate individual cases as a result of

political or other considerations.

12. That at present, the system of transfers, postings, promotions,

disciplinary and other personnel matters pertaining to the higher

civil services are ad-hoc and non-transparent. Transfers are

often used as instruments of reward and punishment, with

officials being frequently transferred on the whims and caprices,

as well as the personal needs, of local politicians and other

vested interests. Officers, especially those in the All India

Services serving in State Governments, have no stability or

security of tenure. Changes of Government invariably lead to

28

new rounds of transfers as the incoming group of political

leaders seeks to reward supporters and put its "own" staff in key

positions. Moreover, the „transfer industry‟ is backed by

entrenched and powerful vested interests, as frequent transfers

generate huge amounts of black money for corrupt officials and

politicians, both directly and indirectly.

13. That all Commissions and Committees dealing with

administrative reform have stressed the need for transfers at all

levels to be handled in a non-political, non-partisan, open and

transparent manner. A rational transfer policy should eliminate

the „transfer industry‟, do away with politicized transfers, curb

the overall incidence of transfers, remove uncertainty and imbibe

officers with a certain security of tenure in every post and should

be seen as being fair, objective and leading to career

development. The key element and indeed, the only effective

solution, is a guaranteed minimum and fixed tenure for officers

of the higher civil services. The Hota Committee had identified

the absence of a fixed tenure of officials as one of the most

important reasons for tardy implementation of government

policies and programmes, lack of accountability, waste of public

money and large-scale corruption. “Good administration is not

possible without continuity and intelligent administration is not

possible without local knowledge.” The Economic Administration

Reforms Commission (Jha Commission, 1986) also

recommended fixed tenure for civil servants, especially for the

29

appointments at the senior level. True copy of the relevant

portion from the Jha Commission dated nil 1986 is annexed

herewith as Annexure P-4 (Page Nos. 94 - 95).

14. That the Central Staffing Scheme of the Government of India

provides for a stipulated tenure for all officers on deputation to

the Government of India. The periods of tenure have been

prescribed for different levels; 3 years for Under Secretaries, 4

years for Deputy Secretaries, 5 years for Directors and Joint

Secretaries, and 3 years from the date of appointment as

Additional Secretary, subject to a minimum of 5 years and

maximum of 7 years of combined tenure as Joint Secretary /

Additional Secretary. While there is no fixed tenure for

Secretaries in general, the Cabinet Secretary, Foreign Secretary,

Home Secretary, Defence Secretary and the Directors of IB and

RAW have a minimum tenure of 2 years each. True copy of the

relevant extract from the Central Staffing Scheme dated nil,

1996 is annexed herewith as Annexure P-5(Page Nos. 96 -

98).

15. That the Conference of Chief Ministers (1997) had observed that

frequent and arbitrary transfer of public servants affects the

ability of the system to deliver services effectively to the people.

It recommended the constitution of Civil Services Boards in

different States presided over by the respective Chief Secretaries

to assist the political executive and streamline the policy of

30

transfers and promotions based on identifiable criteria.

Subsequently, some States have set up Civil Services or

Establishment Boards with the Chief Secretary as the Chairman

and other senior officials of the State as Members. However, as

the Hota Committee has observed, these Boards set up by

executive order in different States have failed to inspire

confidence as, more often than not, they have merely formalized

the wishes of their Chief Ministers in matters of transfer of

officials. Therefore the Petitioners seek direction for

establishment of such independent, neutral Civil Services Boards,

particularly for the States, which will be able to function without

outside interference, keeping in view the paramount importance

of preserving the integrity, fearlessness and independence of the

civil servant. Direct political control or direction in the

management of transfers, postings, promotions, inquiries,

disciplinary proceedings, rewards and punishments has adversely

affected the morale, capability, efficacy and morality of the civil

services. These matters need to be de-politicized and entrusted

to independent Civil Service Boards, which will closely monitor

and ensure accountability at all stages; regulate transfers in a

transparent and rational manner; protect the honest civil

servant; and identify and recommend punishments for those

who betray the public trust. This can best be achieved by

including in the Board retired civil servants and outside

individuals of eminence and unimpeachable integrity. While the

31

Board will function in an advisory capacity to the Chief Minister,

its recommendations should normally be binding; if they are not

accepted, a detailed order should be recorded and presented to

the concerned Legislature. True copy of the statement adopted

at the Conference of Chief Ministers on Effective and Responsive

Administration held on 24 May, 1997 is annexed herewith as

Annexure P-6 (Page Nos. 99 to 103).

16. That the Hota Committee was firmly of the view that the Civil

Services Board / Establishment Board, both in the States and at

the Centre, should be made statutory in character by enacting a

Civil Services Act. That when there is a move to prematurely

transfer an officer, a summary administrative inquiry should be

held to ascertain if the transfer is justified as a matter of public

policy. This should be conducted expeditiously by an officer

designated by the Civil Services Board. On receipt of the report,

the Civil Services Board shall advise the Chief Minister regarding

the justification for the transfer. Ordinarily the Chief Minister is

expected to agree with the recommendations of the Board as

transfer is a routine administrative matter. However, if he/she

does not do so, he/she shall be required to record his/her

reasons in writing. An Annual Report on all premature transfers

shall be laid before the State Legislature. As Hota Committee

report states “We are conscious that we are recommending a

statutory barrier to frequent transfer of senior officials but the

32

matter has come to such a pass that it requires a statutory

remedy.”

17. That the Petitioners are of the view that there should be an

independent, high-powered and statutory Civil Services Board in

each State which should process all proposals of postings and

transfers. The recommendations of such a board must normally

be binding on the Government. If, for any reason, the

Government decides not to implement the recommendations, it

must pass a self-contained order on the subject and place a

statement before the Legislature. The Board may be chaired by

the Chief Secretary with senior retired officers, and other

eminent persons as members. Secretary (Services) of the

General Administration Department may serve as the Secretary

of the Board. The Secretary and the Head of the Department of

each Department may be permanent invitees at the meetings of

the Board at which their proposals are considered. The transfer

policy should ensure that an officer has a fixed term of 3 to 5

years, depending on his/her seniority, and is thus assured of

stability of tenure.

18. That at least for higher ranks of the civil services e.g. Chief

Secretary and Director General of Police (DGP), postings may be

made contractual for a fixed period, and officers be monetarily

compensated if they are removed before the period of the

contract without their consent or explanation. Whenever the

33

Cabinet Secretary or Chief Secretary or DGP is proposed to be

shifted peremptorily before completion of his/her term and/or

retirement, a statement giving reasons should be recorded on

the file and placed on the table of the legislature/parliament.

19. That the powers of transfers of all Class II officers should be

with the Head of Department and not assumed, as is currently

the case in many State Governments, by Secretariat

Departments acting at the behest of their Ministers. Government

should deal with transfers of only (Head of Departments) HODs

and Additional HODs, or at the most of Class I officers. The

Government‟s role is policy making and objective impact

assessment and to ensure that the transfer policy as laid down is

followed in the field offices. That the Petitioners request this

Hon‟ble Court to issue a direction to the Union Government to

introduce a rational and transparent policy on transfers,

appointments, promotions and other personnel matters and to

make it binding on the State Governments. In addition to the

constitution of an independent Civil Services Board, the policy

should stipulate that transfer should not be ordered as

punishment; if an employee is found remiss in his/her duties, he

/she should be proceeded against departmentally.

20. That the implementation of civil service reforms and institution

of a rational and transparent policy on transfers would go a long

way in insulating civil servants from wrongful and extra-legal

34

pressure from the political establishment. In addition, an effort

should be made to imbibe civil servants with the core values of

integrity, objectivity, merit and excellence which form the basic

framework of the permanent civil service. In this context, both

the Hota Committee and the Second Administrative Reforms

Commission had recommended that this could best be done by

Statute through the adoption of a comprehensive Civil Services

Act which would allow the Legislature to unambiguously

articulate the core principles and standards of public service,

ethical values and culture expected of the Civil Service. A similar

recommendation has been given by the Fifth Central Pay

Commission. True copy of the relevant extract 10th Report of the

Second Administrative Reforms Commission dated nil is annexed

herewith as Annexure P-7(Page Nos. 104 - 119).

21. That the Petitioners propose some immediate specific measures

as a starting point:-

a. The management of transfers, postings, inquiries, the

process of promotion, reward, punishment, and

disciplinary matters relating to civil servants needs to be

de-politicized. All the above functions need to be entrusted

to an independent Civil Service Board or Commission, both

at the Centre and in the States. Direct political control or

direction in these matters has played havoc on the morale,

capability, efficacy and morality of the civil services. The

proposed Board/ Commission will also closely monitor

accountability at all stages, which is an imperative for

good governance. The proposed Board / Commission

35

should be independent of direct influence from the

political machinery. Towards this, it should comprise of,

apart from senior serving officials, retired civil servants of

impeccable integrity

[based on recommendations by the Hota Committee, 2004

(para 5.09, para 5.11, Main Recommendations No.38); the

2nd Administrative Reforms Commission, 2008 (10th

Report, para 9.8); the statement adopted at the

Conference of Chief Ministers on Effective and Responsive

Administration, 1997];

b. All civil servants at all levels need to be given a fixed

tenure of minimum three years in each post, to foster

freedom and independence in action (consistent with

accountability and performance). Any premature transfer

should specifically be authorized by the Civil Service

Board/ Commission, on specific circumstances to be

brought out in writing

[based on recommendations by Jha Commission 1986

(para 7.2); Central Staffing Scheme 1996 (para 17.01,

para 17.02, para 17.03, para 17.12), the 2nd

Administrative Reforms Commission, 2008 (10th Report,

para 8.7, para 9.8, para 17.5); Hota Committee Report,

2004 (Main Recommendations No.39)];

c. Much of the deterioration in the standards of probity and

accountability within the civil service can be traced to the

practice of issuing and acting on verbal instructions or oral

orders which are not recorded. It should be made

incumbent on every civil servant to formally record all

such instructions / directions / orders / suggestions which

he/she receives, not only from his/her direct

administrative superiors but also from political authorities,

legislators, commercial and business interests and other

36

persons / quarters having interest, wielding influence or

purporting to represent those in authority. This should be

made obligatory by amending service rules or through

legislation

[based on the principles recognised by Rule 3(3)(ii)(iii) of

the All India Services Conduct Rule 1968 and as implicitly

recognized by the Santhanam Committee Report, 1962

(section 6, sub-para 33[iii])].

22. That the Petitioners aver that the proposals stated above are

unexceptionable in principle; these are normally taken for

granted in a well-functioning democracy. These very

recommendations have been made in one form or another by

successive administrative reforms commissions/ committees. The

proposal to establish a Civil Service Board reportedly is under the

consideration of the Central Government, in respect of the

Centre. It is not only essential to get this implemented in the

Centre at an early date, but also create similar mechanisms in

each State. These Boards / Commissions should be made fully

independent, and allowed to function freely, without external

interference - independent membership of knowledgeable,

experienced persons in such bodies is a sine qua non.

23. That the recommendation on stability of tenure has been

recommended by successive committees which have gone into

administrative reforms. The proposal relating to formal recording

of oral instructions from higher authorities is already implicitly

37

accepted under Rule 3(3)(ii)(iii) of the All India Services Conduct

Rule 1968, which read:

“3(3) (ii) The direction of the official superior shall

ordinarily be in writing. Where the issue of oral direction

becomes unavoidable, the official superior shall confirm it

in writing immediately thereafter.

(iii) A member of the Service who has received oral

direction from his official superior shall seek confirmation

of the same in writing, as early as possible and in such

case, it shall be the duty of the official superior to confirm

the direction in writing.”

The existing provision relates to oral instructions/ directions

from direct official superior; the present proposal, taking

current practices into account, merely extends the concept to

cover informal control mechanisms which currently subvert

the process of good administration.

24. That the Petitioners have approached the current Cabinet

Secretary, Secretary Personnel, the Chief Vigilance

Commissioner, as well as Law Minister to highlight these issues

and the response received from them has been a series of

proposed cosmetic measures without any time bound

commitment. Therefore the Petitioners are approaching this

Hon‟ble Court as the last resort. True copies of the letters dated

17.5.2010, 30.6.2010, 25.8.2010 between Petitioner No.1 and

Cabinet Secretary, Government of India is annexed herewith as

38

Annexure P-8(Colly) (Page Nos. 120 - 142 ). True copies

of the letters dated 17.5.2010, 09.7.2010, 25.8.2010 between

Petitioner No.1 and Secretary Personnel, Government of India is

annexed herewith as Annexure P-9(Colly) Page Nos. 143-

169 ). True copy of the letters dated 17.5.2010 and 2.8.2010

between Petitioner No.1 and Chief Vigilance Commissioner

(CVC), Government of India is annexed herewith as Annexure

P-10(Colly). (Page Nos. 170 - 183 ). True copy of the letters

dated 17.5.2010 and 24.5.2010 between the Petitioner No.1 and

Union Law Minister, Government of India is annexed herewith as

Annexure P-11 (Colly) (Page Nos. 184 - 194 )

25. That the Cabinet Secretary and the Secretary Personnel in their

responses have mentioned the proposed „Civil Services

Standards, Performance and Accountability Bill 2010‟ which

envisages the establishment of Central Civil Services Authority as

recommended by the Second Administrative Reforms

Commission (2nd ARC). However, there is no time-bound

commitment about the implementation of these proposals. It is

not clear whether this proposed law provides for the

establishment of an independent Civil Services Authority at the

State level.

26. That it is imperative that such an independent Authority has to

be established in each State, where the need is much greater

than at the Centre. Indeed the Authority needs to have full

39

control over all matters relating to transfer, postings, inquiries

and all service matters of officers at all levels, except the senior

most level.

27. That the Cabinet Secretary has indicated that the Union

Government has issued notifications to providing two years

minimum tenure for all IAS Cadre posts in respect of only 13

States which have agreed with this proposal. The Cabinet

Secretary expresses the limitation faced by the Union in

implementing these reforms at the State level. He states: “since

State Governments control administrations within their

jurisdiction in a federal polity, the Government of India can only

play an advisory role. We have been endeavouring to persuade

the States to ensure the stability of tenure for officers with

mixed results. While in some States there is positive forward

movement, other States have not been enthusiastic.”

28. That various Committee Reports have highlighted the fact that

the civil servants are enticed or coerced to meet the private

needs of the politician. This malaise is even more strongly

prevalent in the States, than in the Centre; the field officers

being more vulnerable than the secretariat officials. Unless the

reforms are implemented at the State level any step by the

Union would be purely cosmetic, and would not contribute to

stemming the continuing steep decline in governance standards.

The Government of India will have to ensure minimum tenure,

40

not just in the Centre but also more importantly, in the States.

This is a key necessity, to loosen the day-to-day control

exercised by the politicians on the implementation decision-

making process of the field officials, without which governance

will not improve. Unless the Centre finds a viable solution in this

regard, much of the exercise will be superficial, and lacking in

substance. This recommendation is at least 50 years old, and

has been repeated by almost every reform

Commission/Committee.

29. That the Petitioners are of the view that these steps will go a

long way in creating confidence in the public mind that the

government is indeed committed to eradicating corruption.

30. That no other petition has been filed in any High Court or this

Hon‟ble Court challenging the resolution and the order impugned

herein.

31. That the Petitioner files the present Writ Petition on the following

amongst other grounds which are without prejudice to one

another and to the submissions already made herein above.

GROUNDS

i. For that the gravity of problems arising from poor governance

and non-implementation of reforms is enormous, as has been

demonstrated by the Petitioners, being experienced persons in

various sectors of public administration and governance in this

41

country, through the documents placed on record and

submissions made above, underscoring the need for reform of

governance in key areas.

ii. For that the submissions contained hereinabove and the

documents annexed herewith provide a workable blueprint for

achieving significant strides in administrative reform and

improvement in governance.

iii. For that the following recommendations have already been

recognized in principle and recommended by various committees

established by the Government:

creation of an independent Civil Service Board or

Commission, both at the Centre and in each State.

[based on recommendations by the Hota Committee,

2004 (para 5.09, para 5.11, Main Recommendations

No.38); the 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission,

2008 (10th Report, para 9.8); the statement adopted

at the Conference of Chief Ministers on Effective and

Responsive Administration, 1997];

fixed tenure for civil servants ensuring stability.

[based on recommendations by Jha Commission 1986

(para 7.2); Central Staffing Scheme 1996 (para 17.01,

para 17.02, para 17.03, para 17.12), the 2nd

Administrative Reforms Commission, 2008 (10th

Report, para 8.7, para 9.8, para 17.5); Hota Committee

Report, 2004 (Main Recommendations No.39)];

requirement by every civil servant to formally record all

such instructions / directions / orders / suggestions

42

which he receives, not only from his administrative

superiors but also from political authorities, legislators,

commercial and business interests and other persons /

quarters having interest, wielding influence or

purporting to represent those in authority.

[based on the principles recognised by Rule 3(3)(ii)(iii)

of the All India Services Conduct Rule 1968 and as

implicitly recognized by the Santhanam Committee

Report, 1962 (section 6, sub-para 33[iii])].

iv. For that the prayers sought in the present Petition essentially

seek implementation of previous judgments of this Hon‟ble Court

and recommendations made by high-powered Committees set

up to examine the problems in areas of governance, and are as

such within the powers of this Hon‟ble Court.

v. For that the Petitioners have sought to identify significant

recommendations made repeatedly by different Commissions/

Committees with regard to each of these elements and highlight

the most necessary, urgent and achievable measures of

administrative reform.

vi. For that this Hon'ble Court has previously taken cognizance of

the imperative need for good governance. This Hon‟ble Court

has declared in Dev Dutt v Union of India (2008) 8 SCC 725 that

transparency in public administration and good governance are

new components of natural justice. Further, in State of Bihar v

Upendra Narayan Singh, (2009) 5 SCC 65, this Hon‟ble Court has

recognized and proceeded against the phenomenon of the „spoils

43

system‟ in the context of public employment, especially within

the domain of the Public Service Commissions.

vii. For that this Honorable court in Prakash Singh v Union of India

(2006) 8 SCC 1, took cognizance of the phenomenon of the non-

implementation of recommendations of Commissions. The Court

noted that given the urgent need for the preservation and

strengthening of the rule of law, various commissions and

committees had made the same or similar recommendations,

and that total uncertainty as to when police reforms would be

introduced, and given that they had not been implemented,

framed guidelines that would stay in place till appropriate

legislation was passed.

viii. For that the petitioners seek that this Hon‟ble Court direct the

implementation of specific recommendations of the Hota

Committee, the Santhanam Committee and the Second

Administrative Reforms Report, Conference of Chief Ministers,

and the Economic Administration Reforms Commission, which

would thereby entail much needed and recommended reforms in

the context of public administration.

ix. For that Article 32 read with Article 142 of the Constitution

empowers this Honorable Court to issue such directions, as may

be necessary to do complete justice.

44

x. For that this Hon‟ble Court has issued mandamus through

guidelines where no statutory framework exists. In Vineet Narain

v. Union of India (1998) 1 SCC 226 it was observed

“ it is the duty of the executive to fill the vacuum by

executive orders because its field is coterminous with that of

the legislature, and where there is inaction even by the

executive, for whatever reason, the judiciary must step in, in

exercise of its constitutional obligations under the aforesaid

provisions to provide a solution till such time as the

legislature acts to perform its role by enacting proper

legislation to cover the field.” (pr.52)

xi. For that this Hon‟ble Court has issued similar guidelines in

several cases where there was no statutory framework. In

Lakshmi Kant Pandey v. Union of India, (1984) 2 SCC 244

guidelines for adoption of minor children by foreigners were laid

down. In Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan, (1997) 6 SCC 241

guidelines were laid down to set up a mechanism to address the

issue of sexual harassment at the workplace. In Vineet Narain v.

Union of India, (1998) 1 SCC 226 directions were issued to

ensure the independence of the Vigilance Commission. In Erach

Sam Kanga v. Union of India WP No.2632 of 1978 a Constitution

Bench laid down certain guidelines relating to the Emigration

Act. This Hon‟ble Court issued guidelines to maintain the

independence of judiciary in K. Veeraswami v. Union of India,

(1991) 3 SCC. In Union Carbide Corporation v. Union of India,

(1991) 4 SCC 584 guidelines were issued for disbursement of

45

amounts in compensation. In Delhi Judicial Service Assn. v. State

of Gujarat, (1991) 4 SCC 406 guidelines were laid down to be

followed in case of arrest and detention of a Judicial Officer. In

Common Cause v. Union of India, (1996) 1 SCC 753 directions

were issued for revamping the system of blood banks in the

country. This Hon‟ble Court in Supreme Court Advocates-on-

Record Association v. Union of India; (1993) 4 SCC 441 laid

down guidelines and norms for the appointment and transfer of

High Court judges. In Vishwa Jagriti Mission v. Central

Government, (2001) 6 SCC 577 guidelines were laid down to

curb ragging in educational institutions. Recently, in Destruction

of Public & Private Properties v. State of A.P., (2009) 5 SCC 212

detailed guidelines were issued to assess damage to public

property during demonstrations and for the effective

implementation of the Prevention of Destruction and Loss of

Property Act. In 2010 this Hon‟ble Court directed the Central

Government to set up an Armed Forces Grievances Redressal

Commission to look into grievances by serving or former

members of Armed Forces or their widows or family members

and also to frame and recommend the Central Government a

scheme for proper rehabilitation of ex-armed forces personnel

who retired at a relatively young age. This Hon‟ble Court laid

down in detail the composition, term, and seat of this

Commission.

46

xii. For that these reforms need to be implemented with urgency at

the State level as the malaise of political intervention in the

functioning of civil servants is more strongly prevalent in the

States and there is a need to insulate the civil servants from all

political influences.

xiii. For that the Cabinet Secretary has highlighted the limitations

faced by the Union to implement these reforms at the State

level. Unless the reforms are implemented at the State level any

step by the Union would be purely cosmetic, and would not

contribute to stemming the continuing steep decline in

governance standards. This Hon‟ble Court may direct the

implementation of these specific recommendations at the State

level.

xiv. For that there is a well-documented connection between an

efficient, responsive and sensitized system of governance and

the quality of life of citizens on various parameters, including

education, health, income levels, economic and political

accountability.

xv. For that the civil service is the principal instrument of

governance and implementation of various policies and

programmes and that the distinction between the role of elected

representatives and the political establishment in framing laws

and policies and that of the permanent civil service in

47

implementing them has become blurred and distorted in

practice.

xvi. For that the current situation and practices have severe adverse

effects on the quality of governance. Bad governance impacts

the quality of life which has been recognised to be a part of the

right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

xvii. For that poor governance results in the restriction and denial of

the Rights of citizens, including Fundamental Rights and those

envisaged under the Directive Principles of State Policy.

xviii. For that the space for arbitrariness in governmental action which

impacts the functioning of the bureaucracy violates Article 14.

And that fairness and transparency in the context of public

administration is integral to the equality demands of equality as

protected by the Constitution.

xix. For that reform in the governance and administration would

directly strengthen the fundamental rights of the people and in

large measure achieve the vision set forth in the Directive

Principles of State Policy that are meant to guide and inform the

process of governance.

PRAYER

In the premises set forth above, the Petitioner prays that this Hon‟ble

Court may be pleased to:

48

i. Issue a writ in the nature of mandamus or any other

appropriate writ, order or direction requiring the Respondents

to create an independent Civil Service Board or Commission,

both at the Centre and the State based on recommendations

by the Hota Committee, 2004 (para 5.09, para 5.11, Main

Recommendations No.38); the 2nd Administrative Reforms

Commission, 2008 (10th Report, para 9.8); the statement

adopted at the Conference of Chief Ministers on Effective and

Responsive Administration, 1997;

ii. Issue a writ in the nature of mandamus or any other

appropriate writ, order or direction requiring the Respondents

to fix tenure for civil servants ensuring stability based on

recommendations by Jha Commission 1986 (para 7.2);

Central Staffing Scheme 1996 (para 17.01, para 17.02, para

17.03, para 17.12), the 2nd Administrative Reforms

Commission, 2008 (10th Report, para 8.7, para 9.8, para

17.5); Hota Committee Report, 2004 (Main Recommendations

No.39);

iii. Issue a writ in the nature of mandamus or any other

appropriate writ, order or direction requiring the Respondents

to mandate that every civil servant formally record all such

instructions / directions / orders / suggestions which he/she

receives, not only from his/her administrative superiors but

also from political authorities, legislators, commercial and

49

business interests and other persons / quarters having

interest, wielding influence or purporting to represent those

in authority based on the principles recognised by Rule

3(3)(ii)(iii) of the All India Services Conduct Rule 1968 and as

implicitly recognized by the Santhanam Committee Report,

1962 (section 6, sub-para 33[iii])

iv. Pass any other or such further order or orders as may be

deemed fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the

present case.

DRAWN BY: MENAKA GURUSWAMY

FILED BY

NIKHIL NAYYAR ADVOCATE FOR THE PETITIONER

DRAWN ON: 1.2.2011 FILED ON: .2.2011.

50

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION

WRIT PETITION (CIVIL) NO. OF 2011

T.S.R. Subramanian & Others ..Petitioners

Versus Union of India & Others .. Respondents

AFFIDAVIT

I, .T.S.R. Subramanian s/o T.S. Sitapati, aged 72 years, resident

of “Gurukripa”, 74, Sector 15-A, NOIDA-201301, presently at New

Delhi do hereby solemnly affirm and state as under:

1. That I am Petitioner No.1 and as such am conversant with the

facts and circumstances of the case and am competent to swear

to this affidavit.

2. That the contents of the List of Dates from pages B to T and

those of paras 1-7, 11-12 and 21-30 of the writ petition are facts

true to my knowledge, and those of paras 8-10 and 13-20 are

based on information which I believe it to be true and correct

and those of para 31 are grounds are based on legal advice

received and believed to be true and correct.

3. That the annexures filed along with Writ Petition are true copies

of their respective originals.

DEPONENT

VERIFICATION

Verified at New Delhi on this 2nd day of February 2011 that the

contents of the present affidavit are true and correct and nothing

material has been concealed therefrom.

DEPONENT

51

ANNEXURE P-1

RELEVANT EXTRACT FROM SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS AND

RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE PREVENTION OF

CORRUPTION, 1962 (K. SANTHANAM COMMITTEE)

Section 4:

1. The existing rules governing the conduct of Government

servants did not make any radical changes in the rules that were

in force prior to the commencement of the Constitution with the

result that in respect of many matters the rules were either

silent or inadequate.

2. The rules pertaining to integrity should be uniform.

3. The more important changes recommended are:

(1) A duty has been cast on Government servants holding

supervisory posts to keep a watchful eye on the integrity of the

staff working under them.

(2) Every Government servant should take full responsibility for his

actions and orders, except where he acts under the directions of

his official superior.

(3) The conduct expected of every Government servant in case of

conflict between public duty and private interest has been clearly

stated in Rule 3(A) which brings out some of the points that

were hitherto implied but left unsaid.

52

(4) Rule 10 deals with the question of receipt of gifts and states the

position more precisely and also liberalizes the existing rules so

as to prevent too much interference in private life. The financial

limits have been suitably modified.

(5) Government servants should submit periodically a complete

statement of their assets and liabilities instead of the annual

immovable property statements which have been found to serve

no useful purpose. In these periodical statements the value of

movable property except articles of daily use, like clothes,

utensils, crockery and books should be stated including the value

of jewellery.

4. The need for continuance of the exemptions granted in 1959 to

industrial employees drawing a pay of Rs. 5001- or less and

holding non-gazetted posts may be re-examined and in the

meantime the exemptions may continue to be in force.

5. The rules may apply to Government servants appointed to any

civil service or post in connection with the affairs of the Union.

6. While the manner of promulgation of the rules is a matter of

detail any modification or liberalization of the rules should be

made only in consultation with the Central Vigilance

Commission and with the concurrence of the Ministry of

Home Affairs.

53

Section 5

7. The Constitutional protection given to Government servants by

Article 311 which limits the doctrine of pleasure was first given

only by the Government of India Act, 1935.

8. Judicial interpretation of Article 311 of the Constitution has

resulted in making disciplinary proceedings highly involved.

9. The latest amendment of Article 311 has not improved the

position. It would not be an unreasonable classification to treat

disciplinary proceedings involving charges of bribery, corruption

and lack of integrity as a separate category and to provide for a

simplified procedure. Article 314 should not come in the way of

dealing effectively with members of the former Secretary of

States Services. In such cases the jurisdiction of courts should

be limited.

Another clause somewhat on the following lines may be added

as Clause (4) to Article 311:-

"Notwithstanding anything contained in Parts 111, IV, VI

and XIV of the Constitution, Parliament may, by law,

regulate all matters relating to maintenance of integrity

and honesty in the services and posts under the Union and

States,

including the jurisdiction of Courts in respect of such

matters".

54

The power to legislate in this behalf should be added as an

item in List I of Schedule VII of the Constitution.

10. In view of the Constitutional requirements and judicial

pronouncements it is not possible to radically simplify the

procedure unless the Constitution is suitably amended.

11. The more important of the recommendations contained in the

interim report dated August 23, 1963 (Annexure IV) are:-

(i) There should be only one set of Discipline and Appeal Rules in

respect of Government servants serving in connection with the

affairs of the Union or appointed by the Union Government.

The definition of the term “Government servant” has

therefore been enlarged to include members of the All India

Services;

(ii) The President may impose any of the prescribed penalties and

institute disciplinary proceedings against any Government

servant including a member of the All-India Service (Rule 8) or

direct a disciplinary authority to institute such proceedings [Rule

9(1)];

(iii) The Central Government may institute proceedings against a

member of an All-India Service if the circumstances of the case

are such that the Central Government is satisfied that it would

55

be in public interest to institute such proceedings provided that

before doing so the Central Government shall consult the State

Government;

(iv) The power to institute departmental proceedings has been given

to the President, specified disciplinary authorities and such other

authorities as may be empowered by the President by general or

special order. (This last recommendation was made in view of

the recommendation of the Committee that the Directorate of

Vigilance of the Central Vigilance Commission should have the

power to determine the nature of disciplinary proceedings to be

initiated and to initiate, conduct and complete such proceedings.

Though in the scheme of the Central Vigilance Commission, as

accepted by the Government, the power to

initiate, conduct and complete such proceedings has not been

given to the Central Vigilance Commission, the provisions made

in the rules may be allowed to stand).

(v) The penalties of withholding or withdrawing in full or in part the

pension which can now be imposed under Civil Services

Regulation 351(A) and Rule 8 of the All India Services (Death-

cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958 have been included in the

categories of penalties prescribed under Discipline and Appeal

Rules and the procedure for imposing such penalties has been

made part of the

Discipline and Appeal Rules.

56

(vi) The requirement of the accused officer submitting a written

statement of defence after the framing of charges has been

dispensed with.

(vii) The rules relating to suspension, regulation of the period of

absence from duty after reinstatement of an officer who had

been dismissed, removed or suspended provide for removal of

certain difficulties that have arisen out of some recent

pronouncements of the courts.

(viii) The requirement of submitting an appeal or a memorial through

the authority which passed the order which is subject matter of

the appeal or memorial has been dispensed with to minimize

delay.

12. The Government should have the power to compulsorily retire a

Government servant who has completed 25 years of qualifying

service or has attained 50 years of age without giving any

reason and without any liability for special compensation. There

should be a committee with the Central Vigilance Commissioner

as the Chairman and two Secretaries to Government as

members to review the cases of all gazetted officers who are

due to complete 25 years of qualifying service or to attain 50

gears of age during the ensuing year and recommend the names

of the officers who are to be compulsorily retired.

57

There should be one or more committees, State-wise or

Department-wise, as may be convenient, with a nominee of the

Central Vigilance Commissioner as the Chairman of each

Committee to review such cases in regard to non-gazetted

employees and make appropriate recommendations.

13. The Central Government should have the power to take action

under Rule 17 (as amended in May 19'63) and Rule 20 of the All

India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules; 1958,

after consultation with the State Government concerned.

Section 6:

14. Preventive measures, administrative, legal, social, economic and

educative, should be carefully planned and effectively

implemented.

15. A systematic and thorough review of the laws, rules, procedures

and practices should be undertaken for the purpose of listing (a)

discretionary powers (b) levels at which such powers are

exercised (c) the manner of exercise of such powers (d) the

control exercised within the hierarchy over the exercise of such

powers (e) the points at which citizens come into contact with

the Ministry/Department and the purposes for which they do so.

16. A thorough study should be made in respect of each Ministry/

Department/undertaking of the extent, the possible scope and

58

modes of corruption, preventive and the remedial measures

prescribed, if any, and their effectiveness. Such studies should

be started on a priority basis in respect of each

Ministry/Department/undertaking and the Central Vigilance

Commission should also pay attention to this important piece of

work for which purpose Government may provide the necessary

staff and other facilities.

17. Serious thought should be given as to how trade associations or

their representatives could be associated in the matter of

granting licenses and allocation of scarce goods. Membership of

a recognized trade organization should be a necessary condition

of eligibility for obtaining a license or a permit. The organization

should screen the capacity of the applicants, their past

performance and conduct and make recommendations to the

licensing authority. These organizations may also be usefully

associated in investigating modes of misuse and mis-utilisation

of goods obtained under license and modes of manipulation of

prescribed rules, procedures and forms for obtaining undeserved

advantage.

18. Administrative delay must be reduced to the utmost extent

possible and firm action should be taken to eliminate all such

causes of delays as provide scope for corrupt practices.

(a) Each Ministry/Department/undertaking should immediately

undertake a review of all existing procedures and practices to

59

find out the cause of delay, the points at which delay occurs and

to devise suitable steps to minimise thepossibility of delay.

(b) Time-limits should be prescribed, if not already done, for dealing

with receipts, files etc., and these should be strictly enforced.

Superior officers should consider it their responsibility to find out

whether in any particular matter there has been any avoidable

delay and call the persons responsible for the delay to account.

(c) All notings at the level lower than that of Under Secretaries

should be avoided. The responsibility of the Section should be

only that of putting up previous papers and precedents. This

procedure should be strictly observed in Ministries/Departments

which have to deal with the grant of licenses or permits of

various kinds.

(d) The levels at which substantive decision could be taken should

be prescribed and any attempt to involve as many as possible

should be discouraged and dealt with severely, if found to be

persisted in.

19. In all those fields where Government interferes to regulate and

control there is scope for abuse. It would be desirable for each

Ministry/Department to undertake a review of the regulatory

functions which are its responsibility and also examine whether

all of them are necessary and whether the manner of discharge

60

of those functions and of the exercise of powers of control are

capable of improvement.

20. Discretionary powers are exercised by different categories of

Government servants all of whom are not endowed with a high

sense of dedication and integrity in equal measure. While it

would not be possible to completely eliminate discretion it should

be possible to devise a system of administration which would

reduce to the minimum, even if there is a seeming loss of

perfection, the need for exercise of personal discretion

consistently with efficiency and speedy disposal of public

business. Various methods of control devised in the more

advanced countries should be studied and a suitable system of

control should be devised keeping in view the difficulties that

may arise on account of the vastness of our country and the

basic principles which are enshrined in our Constitution and

jurisprudence.

21. As many of the citizens of our country who have to seek the help

of the administration in many matters are not equipped or

trained, they find it necessary to seek the assistance of touts

and intermediaries. A serious attempt should be made to

educate the citizens in regard to such matters and also make

suitable arrangements which would provide an easy access to

administration without the intervention of touts and

intermediaries.

61

22. It may be worthwhile in the country‟s interest to examine

whether the categories of officials who have to exercise

considerable discretion in matters relating to taxation, issue of

valuable permits and licenses, or otherwise deal with matters

which require high degree of integrity, should not be given

special attention regarding status and emoluments. Undue

economy in the number of officers is not desirable. It would be

worthwhile to review the proportion of direct recruits and

promotees in the various services as there is a general belief (we

do not fully endorse any sweeping generalization on this point)

that the standard of integrity of direct recruits is comparatively

higher.

23. Housing and medical facilities for the Government servant and

his family and facilities for the education of his children should

be provided. Till such time as Government is able to construct

the required accommodation houses should be requisitioned or

taken on lease and let to the Government servants.

Accommodation should, to the extent possible, be in colonies.

24. Informal codes of conduct for different categories of

Government servants working in Ministries/Departments dealing

with the economic affairs of the country and which spend large

sums of monies on construction and purchases should be

compiled regarding participation in entertainment and availing

themselves of other facilities from those who may have or are

62

likely to have official dealings with them. The example must be

set by superior officers.

25. Every officer of superior status under whom a number of

Gazetted officers are working directly should take steps to

ascertain personally whether there is any reason to doubt or

suspect the integrity of any of these officers.

26. Some of the other preventive measures are:-

(i) Great care should be exercised in selecting officers for

appointment to high administrative posts. Only those whose

integrity is above board should be appointed to these posts.

(ii) At the time of making selections from Non-Gazetted to Gazetted

ranks for the first time all those whose integrity is doubtful

should be eliminated.

(iii) Every officer whose duty is to sponsor a name for promotion

should be required to record a certificate that he had seen the

record of service of the Government servant! and he is satisfied

that the Government servant is a man of integrity.

(iv) Exigencies of public service require grant of extension or re-

employment of Government servants who have attained the age

of' superannuation and are about to retire or retired. Such

servants are also employed in the public sector undertakings.

We recommend that an essential condition for the grant of

63

extension or re-employment should be that the person

concerned has had a good reputation for integrity and honesty.

If this condition is not fulfilled the person concerned should not

be considered eligible for grant of extension or re-employment.

(v) A good deal of harm is done by vague talk about Corruption.

This can be reduced only if there are agencies which a person

with a genuine complaint can approach for redress, with the

assurance that he will be fully protected and that prompt and

adequate action will be taken where found justified. The Central

Vigilance Commission and the Vigilance organization should be

able to meet this need in matters relating to complaints of

corruption, harassment. etc. It is essential that bona fide

complainants should be protected from harassment or

victimization. The Ministry of Home Affairs should consider itself

as having a special responsibility in this regard.

(vi) Enquiry-cum-Reception Offices should be established in all

Ministries/ Departments which deal with licenses/ permits and to

which members of the public frequently go. All visitors should

enter their names and the purpose of their visit in a register to

be kept at the Reception Office.

(vii) Steps should be taken to prevent sale of information. One of the

causes of this type of corruption is the undue secrecy maintained

in regard to all types of matters in respect of which it is not

64

necessary to do so. A clear distinction should be made as to

what information should be treated as “secret” and what should

be made freely available to the public. Any member of the public

who wants to have information of the latter category should be

able to approach some specified officer in each

Ministry/Department/undertaking for that purpose and get what

he wants.

27. Difficulties are experienced in obtaining the necessary forms

required to be submitted for obtaining licenses/permits etc.

Arrangements should be made for easy supply of forms whether

free or on payment.

28. There is a column in the annual confidential report regarding

every public servant where the superior officer has to comment

on his integrity. In cases where the reporting officer is not in a

position to make a positive report about integrity he should leave

the column blank and submit a secret report if he has reasons to

doubt the integrity of the officer on whom he is reporting stating

the reasons for his suspicions, The Government or the heads of

Department who receive such secret reports should take suitable

steps to find out the correctness or otherwise of the report.

29. There should be a complete ban against Government servants

accepting private commercial and industrial employment for two

years after retirement. Reasons have been given in the interim

report dated 20ih December, 1963 (Annexure V).

65

30. The existence of large amounts of unaccounted black money is a

major source of corruption.

31. There is no justification to treat income-tax returns and

assessments as secret. Publication of such returns and

assessments would have a salutary effect on those persons in

business and professions who are inclined to take advantage of

secrecy provisions to evade income-tax.

32. To buy and sell properties at prices much greater than those

recorded in the conveyance deeds has become a common

method of cheating the Central Government of income-tax and

other taxes and the State Government of the stamp duty and a

convenient method of transferring black money. If, in some

manner, the Central and State Governments, or some special

corporations set up for the purpose can be empowered to step

in and acquire such properties at the stated value, or even at a

small premium when it is considered that the properties have

been deliberately under-valued, it will strike a blow against black

money. The habit of charging “pugri” or “premium” for renting

houses and flats is a similar source of corruption for which some

drastic steps have to be taken.

33. (i) No official should have any dealings with a person claiming to

act on behalf of, a business or industrial house or an individual

unless he is properly accredited, and is approved by the

Department, etc. concerned. Such a procedure will keep out

66

persons with unsavoury antecedents or reputation. There

should, of course, be no restriction on the proprietor or

manager, etc. of the firm or the applicant himself approaching

the authorities.

(ii) Even the accredited representatives should not be allowed to

see officers below a specified level-the level being specified in

each organization after taking into consideration the functions of

the organization, the volume and nature of the work to be

attended to, and the structure of the organization. However,

care should be taken to limit permissible contacts to levels at

which the chances of corruption are considered to be small. This

would often mean that no contact would be permitted at the

level of subordinate officers.

(iii) There should be a system of keeping some sort of record of

all interviews granted to accredited representatives.

(iv) There should be a fairly senior officer designated in each

Department to which an applicant etc. may go if his case is

being unreasonably delayed. It is necessary that a proper

procedure should be devised in consultation with the Central

Vigilance Commission for accrediting arid approval by the

Department. Before granting approval the antecedents of the

person proposed to be accredited should, if possible, be verified.

In any case no person who is not definitely employed by an

67

established undertaking, who will be responsible for his contact

and actions, should be approved.

34. Officers belonging to prescribed categories who have to deal

with these representatives should maintain a regular diary of all

interviews and discussions with the registered representatives

whether it takes place in the office or at home. The general

practice should be that such interviews should be in the office

and if it takes place at home, reasons should be recorded. Any

business or discussion which is not so recorded should be

deemed to be irregular conduct, of which serious notice should

be taken by the superiors.

35. Companies and businessmen should be obliged to keep detailed

accounts of the expenditure in their expense account. Whenever

an income-tax officer feels that amounts have been spent for

entertaining high officials, or other purposes for which

satisfactory explanation is not forthcoming, it should be his duty

to refer the matter to the Chief Vigilance Officers in the

department concerned. If there is any legal difficulty for passing

on such information, under the present law, it should be

removed.

36. It will be desirable to create a special cell in the Home Ministry

consisting of representatives from All India Radio, Press

Information Bureau and the Films Division to evolve effective

propaganda and publicity measures. Representatives of the

68

press may also be associated. The general principles to be

followed are: -

There should be no publicity at the time of investigation or

during departmental inquiry, but effective and widespread

publicity to cases resulting in dismissal, removal or compulsory

retirement. should be given. In cases of prosecutions before

courts, important cases will in the ordinary course be given

publicity by the press. What is required is to ensure that true

facts and arguments are available to those who edit the cases.

The Cell proposed should offer to provide the necessary

assistance. A periodical summary, say once in three months, of

important cases dealt with either by departmental inquiries or

prosecutions in courts should be supplied to the press. It may

also be hoped that the report of the Vigilance Commission which

will be placed before Parliament will attract wide publicity.

Section 7

37. The Indian Penal Code does not deal in any satisfactory manner

with acts which may be described as social offences having

regard to the special circumstances under which they are

committed, and which have now become a dominant feature of

certain powerful sections of modern society. Such offences may

broadly be classified into:-

(1) Offences calculated to prevent or obstruct the economic

development of the country and endanger its economic health;

(2) Evasion and avoidance of taxes lawfully imposed:

69

(3) Misuse of their position by public servants in making of contracts

and disposal of public property, issue of licenses and permits

and similar other matters;

(4) Delivery by individuals and industrial and commercial

undertakings of goods not' in accordance with agreed

specifications in fulfillment of contracts entered into with public

authorities;

(5) Profiteering, black-marketing and hoarding;

(6) Adulteration of foodstuffs and drugs;

(7) Theft and misappropriation of public property and funds; and

(8) Trafficking in licenses, permits etc.

38. Some of these offences have been made punishable by special

enactments. It is desirable to add a new chapter to the Indian

Penal Code bringing together all the offences in such special

enactments and supplementing them with new provisions so that

all social offences will find a prominent place in the general

criminal law of the country. Government may consider whether

this work should be undertaken by a special legal committee or

referred to the Law Commission.

39. Section 21 of the Indian Penal Code should be amended as

stated below:

(i) The words „public servant‟ should be defined to mean „every

person in the service or pay of the Government, a local authority

or a Corporation established by a Central or State Act, or a

70

Government Company as defined in Section 617 of the

Companies Act, 1956 and/or who is remunerated by fees or

commission for the performance of any public duty.

(iii) Every Minister including Ministers of State, Deputy Ministers

and Parliamentary Secretaries holding such office in the Union or

State Governments.

(iii) The words „engaged in any trade or industry‟ may be deleted

from the twelfth clause of Section 22 of the Indian Penal Code.

(iv) Any person entrusted with adjudicatory functions in the

course of enforcement of any law for the time being in force. (A

revised draft incorporating the above amendments is given.)

40. Offering of bribe or attempt to offer bribe should be made a

substantive offence and not merely an abetment as at present

by adding a new Section in the terms suggested as Section

161A.

41. Offences under Chapter IX of the Indian Penal Code should be

made non-bailable.

42. The presumptions enunciated in Sections 4(1) and 4(2) of the

Prevention of Corruption Act should be made available in respect

of Sections 5(1) and 5(2).

(The Committee is suggesting extensive amendments to Section

5),

71

43 (i) The words „in the discharge of his duty‟ should be deleted

from Section 5 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

(ii) Possession of assets by a public servant disproportionate to

his known sources of income for which he cannot satisfactorily

account should be brought within the definition of criminal

misconduct and treated as a substantive offence.

(iii) Habitual corrupting of public servants or abetment of such

conduct should be made a substantive offence by the addition of

a new sub-section.

A draft of Section 5 incorporating the above suggestions is

given.

44. Section 5A of the Prevention of Corruption Act may be amended

so as to authorize all Police Establishment and such officers of

similar rank of the Anti-Corruption agencies of the State

Governments to be specified by the respective State

Governments by general or special orders to make investigations

without obtaining the permission of a Magistrate.

45. Section 4(p) of the Criminal Procedure Code or Section 5 of the

Delhi Police Establishment Act may be amended to include

Officers of the Special Police Establishment of the rank of a sub-

Inspector, an Inspector and a Deputy Superintendent of Police

within the definition of „an officer in charge of a Police Station‟ so

that they may be able to exercise, in the discharge of their

functions, in any area in a State any of the powers which an

72

officer in charge of a Police Station can exercise under the Code

of Criminal Procedure.

46. Section 94 of the Criminal Procedure Code and Section 5 of the

Bankers‟ Book (Evidence) Act should be suitably amended to

enable the Officers of the Special Police Establishment and/or of

the State Anti-Corruption agencies and/or any other officer

notified in this behalf by general or special order by the Central

or State Government, as the case may be, to obtain certified

copies of the accounts and of all other documents relevant to

the entries in the books of accounts relating to any person in

respect of whom an inquiry or an investigation is being made

whether under the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure

or any other law or rule for the time being in force or in any

other manner whatever.

47. Section 222(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure may suitably

be amended so as to cover offences under Section 5(l) (c) of the

Prevention of Corruption Act and dishonest misappropriation of

movable property other than money.

48. Sub-section (6) of Section 251A may be amended to make it

obligatory for the accused to file a list of witnesses and

documents he proposes to rely upon in his defence immediately

after the charge is framed. There is, however. no objection if

73

such a list is furnished at a subsequent stage but on the closing

of the evidence for the prosecution.

49. A proviso may be added to sub-section (1A) of Section 344 of

the Code of Criminal Procedure to provide that adjournment or

postponement of trial or inquiry need not be granted or made

only on the ground that a party to the proceedings intends to

take up in revision before a higher Court the legality, propriety

or correctness of an order passed by the Court.

50. A proviso may be added to Sections 435 to 439 to provide that

higher courts may not grant stay of proceedings without giving a

reasonable opportunity to the opposite party to show cause

against grant of stay and to require that reasons should be

recorded to show that it is not necessary in justice to stay the

proceedings.

51. Section 435 of the Criminal Procedure Code may be amended to

provide that the records of the lower court should not be

requisitioned without hearing the opposite party or in cases

where the purpose could be served by the filing of certified

copies.

52. Section 492 of the Criminal Procedure Code should be amended

to empower the Central Government to appoint Public

Prosecutors, in any case, or in any specified class of cases.

74

53. Section 540 A(2) may be amended to enable the court, in its

discretion, to proceed with the trial or inquiry and to record

evidence even in the absence of the accused subject to the right

of the accused to recall the witnesses for cross-examination.

54 Section 198B of the Criminal Procedure Code may be amended

by-

(i) deleting subsection (13);

(ii) deleting the words „other than the offence of defamation by

spoken words‟ in clause (1);

(iii) casting the burden of proving the truth of imputation on the

accused: and

(iv) requiring the accused to prove that he acted in good faith

and in public interest.

55. (i) Section 5 of the Imports and Exports (Control) Act, 1947,

may be amended so as to raise the punishment provided for

there under to 2 years rigorous imprisonment and a! so to make

it obligatory to pass the minimum sentence of six months

imprisonment except where the court, for reasons to be

recorded in writing, considers that a sentence lesser than the

minimum should be imposed.

(ii) A provision may also be made to the effect that the principal

office bearers would also be liable for punishment for offences

committed by a company or partnership concern or any

75

incorporated body or an association of individuals and that the

burden of proving their innocence should lie on them.

56. Sections 7 and 8 of the Essential Commodities Act may be so

amended by the Act by adding the words „or any direction given

under any order made there under‟ after the words „any order

made under Section 3‟.

57. Article 311 of the Constitution may be amended by adding the

following clause as clause (4): “Notwithstanding anything

contained in Parts 111, IV, VI and XIV of the Constitution.

Parliament may by law regulate all matters relating ti0

maintenance of integrity and honesty in the Services and posts

under the Union and States including the jurisdiction of Courts in

respect of such matters.”

The power to make such legislation should be added as an item

in List I of Schedule VII of the Constitution.

58. Powers to summon and compel attendance of witnesses and

production of documents should be conferred on the inquiring

authorities in departmental proceedings by suitable legislation.

59. The need for continuing the provisions prescribing a period of

limitation for initiation of any proceeding for any thing done or

ordered to be done under the powers given by special

enactments such as the Central Excise and Salt Act. 1944,

should be examined and if possible be totally done away with; if

76

it is not possible to do so the period of limitation should be

enlarged and it should start running from the date of knowledge

of the act or order and not from the date of accrual of the cause

of action.

TRUE COPY

77

ANNEXURE P-2

Relevant clause of the All – India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968

Rule 3(3)(ii)(iii) of the All India Services Conduct Rule 1968:

3(3) (ii) The direction of the official superior shall

ordinarily be in writing. Where the issue of oral direction

becomes unavoidable, the official superior shall confirm it

in writing immediately thereafter.

(iii) A member of the Service who has received oral

direction from his official superior shall seek confirmation

of the same in writing, as early as possible and in such

case, it shall be the duty of the official superior to confirm

the direction in writing.

TRUE COPY

78

ANNEXURE P-3

MAIN RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE P.C. HOTA COMMITTEE

ON CIVIL SERVICE REFORM

1. To mould young entrants for the higher civil service through

training, government may go back to the period from 1948 till

1971 when the age of eligibility was 21-24 years for general

candidates (as against 21-30 years for general candidates at

present) with five years age concession for members of the

Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes. Age concession for

candidates of the Other Backward Classes may be three years as

at present.

2. As no competitive examination will be proof against selection of

a few unsuitable candidates, Directors of Training Academies

may invoke the Probation Rules to weed out unsuitable officer-

trainees.

3. Officers must have Annual Performance Plan. Invariably an

Annual Performance Plan will be a component of the Action

Plan/Vision Statement of the Department/Ministry and its

strategic long-term plan. Wherever possible, performance

targets must be quantified. If it is not possible to quantify the

targets, some other mode of target setting be done to ensure

that an officer is held strictly accountable for performance.

79

4. After 15 years of service, a rigorous review be carried out of

performance of civil servants based on the earlier quinquennial

review of performance. If an officer is not honest and

performance-oriented, he be weeded out of service on

completion of 15 years on proportionate pension. An officer

should also have the option to retire on proportionate pension

after 15 years of service. A similar review be carried out

subsequently at periodic intervals to determine if performance

level of an officer has fallen sharply/if there are allegations

against an officer‟s integrity.

5. Each Department/Ministry should be required to identify the

points of citizen interface, benchmark the quality of services and

strengthen the existing grievance redressal mechanism.

6. Officers of the higher Civil Service must supervise work of junior

functionaries by regular visits and inspections. All officers of the

higher Civil Service must put on the website/print media their

contact telephone numbers during office hours. Every Ministry/

Department/Office having large public interface must have a

few toll free telephone numbers with voice mail facility.

7. Junior officers at the cutting edge level of administration should

be given training in customer service, attending to phone calls

and resolving public grievances.

80

8. Rules under the Freedom of Information Act 2002 be notified

immediately. The implementation of the Act be reviewed after

three/four years by an independent Task Force.

9. The Official Secrets Act be modified to cover only the essential

minimum requirements of national security, public order and

individual privacy.

10. All officers having a public interface to wear name badges while

on duty.

11. The duties, functions and responsibilities of all senior posts be

laid down and publicized.

12. After every five to seven years in service, a civil servant should

spend at least two months with a non-government organization,

academic institution or the private sector.

13. ISO 9000 be introduced for government offices.

14. A full time officer should be posted in the Information and

Facilitation Centre and each Department should attend to public

grievances.

15. Annual Property Return of all public servants be put on the

website.

81

16. Rules be framed under the Benami Transactions (Prohibition)

Act. 1988 for attachment/forfeiture of benami/ill-gotten property

of corrupt public servants.

17. Article 311 of the Constitution be amended to enable

President/Governor to dismiss/remove public servants summarily

in case of corrupt practice/having assets disproportionate to

known source of income. The officer concerned may be given

post-decisional hearing to prove his innocence. To ensure

natural justice, such post-decisional hearing has been held to be

constitutionally valid by the Supreme Court of India.

18. Under the overall control of the Central Vigilance Commission,

committees of experts be set up in various Departments to

scrutinize cases of officers before initiating departmental action

for corrupt practices/launching prosecution against them under

the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988. Such a reform will

encourage honest officers to take bold commercial decisions in

the public interest without the lurking fear of a vigilance/CBI

inquiry.

19. Section 13 (1) (d) (iii) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988

be amended so that civil servants are not incriminated for taking

bona fide commercial decisions in the public interest.

82

20. Every programme of government should specify the deliverables

in terms of services. Functioning of government offices having

large interface with the common man should be assessed once

in three/four years by independent organizations.

21. Citizen Centres should be set up to build capability for analyzing

and suggesting changes in government policies. The civil service

training institutes should perform the nodal role in this behalf.

22. Each Department of the Government should develop an internal

evaluation mechanism on the basis of clearly laid down

parameters. The result of such evaluation should be part of the

Annual Administration Report. Departments should be held

accountable for outcomes and there should be a sharp focus on

service delivery.

23. A State of Governance Report should be brought out evaluating

the performance of each State on the basis of a set of

parameters of good governance.

24. Points of public interface in government should be identified for

focused attention and improvement. Within a period of two

years the procedures in the areas of public interface should be

simplified and electronic service delivery for the common people

83

be introduced. Each Department/Ministry may lay down a time

schedule to extend service delivery through electronic means.

25. To provide a clean, honest and transparent government,

antiquated rules and procedures in Government must be

discarded and new simplified ones be put in place. Such an

exercise is absolutely essential for introduction of e-governance.

26. E-Governance can augment efficiency and ensure transparency

in government. The Andhra Pradesh experiment of identifying

officers as Chief Information Officers to be trained in the Indian

Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, in e-governance is a

noteworthy initiative. New entrants to the Civil Service have

adequate hands – on experience with computers and the

internet and they could be sent periodically for further training in

application of e-governance.

27. Each Department should identify skill gaps keeping in view its

functions and take steps to train the required number of people.

28. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) should function as a

vehicle for disseminating best practices across the country.

29. Officers posted as Chief Executive of e-governance projects

should be given reasonable tenure and held accountable for

results.

84

30. The administrative and financial flexibility required for

introducing innovative e-governance measures should be

identified and operationalized.

31. The Minimum Agenda for e-governance should be carried

forward and each Department is required to identify specific

activities which will be enabled in the next 12 months.

32. Departmental examination should include a practical test on the

ability to use and apply computers.

33. Each Department/Ministry should have its own website of basic

information relating to the Department/Ministry and the website

be available for registering public grievances.

34. Each Department/Ministry should undertake a review of the

particular service of which it is the Cadre Controlling Authority to

ensure that officers of the service are used optimally, promotion

prospects for them are adequate and skill levels of officers

upgraded periodically. Each Department/Ministry should

undertake a skill needs assessment to identify required skills and

upgraded skill levels.

35. Civil servants should be encouraged to move laterally to non-

government organizations.

85

36. Government should actively support and encourage outstanding

work done by civil servants through National/State awards and

commendations.

37. The initiative taken by the Department of Personnel and Training

to provide funds to the Indian Institute of Management,

Bangalore to develop a two-year course for officers of the IAS at

mid-career level is worthwhile experiment. Similar training

programmes be devised for the Indian Police Service, the Indian

Forest Service and other Central Services.

38. In the proposed Civil Service law, the highest political executive

shall continue to be the final authority to order transfer of any

officer before his tenure is over, but he will be expected to give

due consideration to Report of the Administrative Inquiry/views

of the Civil Service Board/Establishment Board and record

reasons on the need for premature transfer of an officer. It is

reiterated that the political executive shall have the final

authority ton transfer an officer at any stage in public interest.

An officer aggrieved by order of premature transfer can agitate

the matter before a three-Member Ombudsman, who may,

where suitable, award monetary compensation to be aggrieved

officer. The constitution of the Ombudsman will be the same as

the Ombudsman proposed for the Disputes Redressal Council as

at para 6.19 of this Report. The President/Governor shall receive

reports from the Ombudsman and shall lay an Annual Report on

86

such transfers on the table of the Legislature. There should be a

suitable provision in the law to enable States to adopt it and

make it applicable in the States without going through the long

process of drafting a law and get it passed in the Legislature.

39. The proposed comprehensive law on the Civil Service shall

incorporate, inter alia, a Code of Ethics and a statutory minimum

tenure in a post to an officer. Under the proposed law, if an

officer is sought to be transferred before his tenure, there would

be an expeditious administrative inquiry by a designated senior

officer to be earmarked for this purpose. This can be dispensed

with if the transfer is on promotion/deputation/foreign training.

In all other cases, the Report of Inquiry with the views of the

Civil Service Board/Establishment Board would be put up to the

Chief Minister if officers of the All India Service/other civil

services work in the States, or the Appointments Committee of

the Cabinet if the officers work under the Central Staffing

Scheme. For the officers of the other Central Services working in

Ministries/Departments but not under the Central Staffing

Scheme, the new law will prescribe a tenure with a provision for

administrative inquiry before an officer is sought to be

transferred except on specified grounds.

40. The recommendation of the Surinder Nath Committee (July

2003) for increasing the domain knowledge of IAS officers be

implemented. Similar exercise be undertaken to increase domain

87

knowledge of officers of the other two All India Services and

officers of then C4entral Services.

41. Officers of the All India Service on deputation to their home

State must invariably report back to their parent cadres on

expiry of their periods of deputation. Only one term of

deputation for an officer of the All India Service be allowed to

the home State and that too to attend to urgent personal

problem. The exemption at present available for officers of the

North-East/Jammu & Kashmir cadres in matters of deputation

may continue. Any violation of this stipulation will attract a major

penalty proceeding and also be taken into account while

considering the officer‟s empanelment/promotion. Such a

stipulation would also be applicable to officers of the Central

Service who go on deputation to different State Governments

and to officers who go on deputation to international

agencies/foreign governments.

42. Introduction of sophisticated technology alone would not make

the administration people friendly unless higher civil servants

have a pro-active attitude and reach out to the common people.

They must spend much more time in field visits, inspections,

tours and night halts in remote and rural areas.

43. As officers of State Services appointed to All India Services by

promotion also have to play leadership roles, they should face an

Interview by the Selection Board. The Interview will not be a

88

test of knowledge but will be only a test of leadership qualities.

The selection for promotion to All India Service will be made on

an overall assessment of suitability of officers on basis of record

of service and the Interview Test.

44. Not more than 50% of the officers in a batch should make it to

the Senior Administrative Grade. 30% should be the upper limit

for Higher Administrative Grade and 20% for the highest grade

of Secretaries to Government of India.

45. As there are large number of senior officers of the All India

Service in different cadres, in selected districts, senior officers of

the rank of Commissioners/Deputy Inspector Generals of

Police/Conservators of Forests may be considered for posting as

District Magistrates/Senior Superintendents of Police/Divisional

Forest Officers. The practice of posting very senior

/Commissioner level officers in districts was prevalent before

Independence and even for a few years after Independence. It

is still prevalent in some states.

46. If the Establishment Board, after giving the views of the Minister

in charge, who is a Member of the ACC. Its utmost

consideration. Fails to change its original recommendation

regarding the posting of an officer under the Central Staffing

Scheme, the Cabinet Secretary may send the proposals of the

Board with observations of the Minister in charge through the

89

Home Minister. Who is a Member of the ACC. To the prime

Minister. Who heads the ACC for a final decision.

47. Steps be taken to reduce the number of officers who are

empanelled for senior posts under the Central Staffing Scheme.

48. A member of the higher Civil Service would be debarred from

being appointed as a Private Secretary or Officer on Special Duty

to a Cabinet Minister/ Minister of State in Government of India or

in a state subject to certain stipulations. Ministers may have one

of the officers of the civil service in their Department/ Ministry to

function as Private Secretary for a continuous period of two

years only. The stipulation that no officer of a Civil Service can

be Private Secretary of Minister in the States or in the Central

Government for more than two years may provide for an

exception in case of the prime Minister and the Chief Ministers.

49. Members of the All India Services and the Central Services. Who

are regular recruits through competitive examinations and who

are unable to get promoted to the higher levels in their

respective service due to non-availability of posts. May be

allowed the next higher grade as personal to them a year before

retirement on super-annuation. Such up-gradation shall be

available only to officers with proven record of efficiency and

integrity.

90

50. Suspension from service of All India Service officers by the State

Government will be invalid if not confirmed by the Government

of India within a period of 60 days.

51. Under the new Civil Service law, a member of the higher civil

service should not be appointed to any statutory commission or

a constitutional authority after his retirement on super-

annuation. To insulate him from the temptation of post-

retirement assignment, he should be appointed to such statutory

bodies/ Constitutional Authority only when he is not over 55

years of age so that he can demit office from these Commissions

and Authorities after serving for five to six years.

52. There is a case for better compensation package for members of

the higher civil service. Such compensation must bear a

reasonable comparison with compensation for executives in the

private sector. Issues related to a better package of

compensation to the higher Civil Services may be referred to the

next Central pay Commission.

53. There should be a cooling off period of at least two years after

resignation / retirement before a civil servant can join a political

party and contest elections to any political office. No civil servant

can be appointed to the high constitutional office of Governor of

a State unless a period of two years elapses between his

resignation / retirement and his appointment as a Governor.

91

54. The recommendations of the National police Commission relating

to tenure of senior police officers, independent review of the

work of police departments and streamlining the powers of

arrest should be implemented. The recommendations of the

Malimath Committee on criminal justice system be also

implemented.

55. The procedure for reimbursement of medical expenses of civil

servants should be simplified so that quality medical services are

available from recognized private hospitals without having to

report to the CGHS on each occasion of ailment. The facilities

available at the CGHS hospitals also need to be strengthened.

56. To increase the representation of women in the civil service, it is

proposed that within 15 years, at least 25 percent members of

the higher civil service should be women as against 12 to 13

percent women at percent. Women in the higher civil service be

given four years of leave with full pay in their entire service

career over and above the leave due to them under the normal

leave rules. Such facility will enable them to balance their roles

as officers with their roles as mothers / housewives.

57. To eliminate delay in disposal of a disciplinary inquiry, the Union

public / Service Commission need not be consulted in case of a

civil servant facing charges of corrupt practice and whose case

has been referred to the Central Vigilance Commission for the

first stage / second stage advice. If however the officer is

92

penalized in the inquiry and prefers an appeal, the case may be

referred to the UPSC for advice on the appeal petition.

58. Where minor disciplinary proceedings are sufficient to meet the

end of justice, major penalty proceeding which are lengthy and

time-consuming should not be initiated.

59. An Inquiry Officer should be relieved from his normal duties for a

sufficient period to enable him to complete the departmental

inquiry expeditiously and submit the report.

60. A database on disciplinary cases should be maintained to keep

track of their progress.

61. An Employees Health Insurance Scheme on the pattern of

defense forces should be introduced for the civil service.

62. A high level Selection Committee having a representation of the

Chairman, Union public service Commission be established to

prepare a panel of two names for appointment of one of them as

a member of the State public Service Commission by the

Governor of a state. Similar High Level Selection Committee be

constituted to recommend a panel of two names for

appointment of one of them as a Member of the Union public

Service Commission by the president. Similar Committees be

constituted to recommend panel of suitable names for other high

level statutory and constitutional appointments such as

93

Securities and Exchange Board of India, Telecom Regulatory

Authority of India, Insurance Regulatory Authority, the Election

Commission , the Comptroller & Auditor General to which retired

civil servants are usually appointed.

63. To minimize litigation on service matters, in every Department /

Ministry there would be a Dispute Resolution Council (DRC)

comprising a retired official as chairman and two serving officers

as members. The decision of the DRC shall be invariably

implemented. In case of disagreement, orders of Core Group of

Secretaries / Cabinet Secretary be obtained before DRC‟s report

is acted upon. Similar Dispute Redressal Councils be set up by

State Government.

To ensure that the issues relating to the civil service get focused

attention at the highest political level, the Empowered sub-

Committee Governance of the National Development Council

should go into the policy issues of civil service and make suitable

recommendations.

TRUE COPY

94

ANNEXURE P-4

RELEVANT EXTRACT FROM THE ECONOMIC ADMINISTRATION

REFORMS COMMISSION (JHA COMMISSION) 1986

Reforms of Performance Appraisal System

7.1 Given a clear specification of the task and the vesting of real

authority, the next important prerequisite for ensuring individual

accountability is a proper system for appraisal of performance.

To start with, the role of the individual official within an

organization will have to be concretely and clearly related to the

objective of the organisation. The appraisal should be of total

performance and it should be on a continuing basis. It should

have in-built elements for comparative gradation of different

officials performing identical or similar tasks, so that the

appraisal system can be geared to the system of rewards and

punishments. The performance appraisal which prevails in the

Government hardly' fulfils any of these requirements. The

appraisal is done once a year. It is qualitative and

impressionistic. It is very often a general assessment of a person

rather than that of the performance of a task by him. There is

little evidence of objective criteria for the comparative gradation

of achievement. We believe that there is need for a drastic

overhaul of the performance appraisal system. We are of course

assuming that the system will operate and will be seen to

operate objectively.

Stability of tenure

95

7.2 Another important factor related to performance is the question

of stability of tenure. It is not possible to hold anyone

accountable for a given norm of achievement if he is not allowed

sufficient time to develop the necessary grip on the job and

translate his ability into performance. This is more so in regard

to the more senior appointments where the task involved is

complex and the results are necessarily a function of et

minimum period of time. It follows that officials, particularly at

senior levels, should be given a reasonable length of time to

show results and that this should be facilitated by some flexibility

regarding tenures.

Need for change in the attitude of watch dog bodies

7.3 Lastly, we should like to stress the need to bring about a

corresponding change in the attitude of the watch-dog bodies

entrusted with enforcing accountability in public servants. What

we have today in our system is essentially accountability for

error and wrong.

TRUE COPY

96

ANNEXURE P-5

RELEVANT EXTRACT FROM THE CENTRAL STAFFING SCHEME,

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL, PUBLIC

GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS (DEPARTMENT OF PERSONNEL &

TRAINING) NEW DELHI, JANUARY, 1996

THE CENTRAL STAFFING SCHEME:

3. The Central Staffing Scheme has been in operation now for over

30 years. It provides a systematic arrangement for the selection

and appointment of officers to senior administrative posts at

Centre, excluding posts which are specifically encadred within

the organised Group 'A' services or filled by recruitment through

the Union Public Service Commission. Some posts of Deputy

Secretary and Under Secretary under the Central Government

are shown as numbers, without specifying individual posts, in

the cadre strength of the Central Secretariat Service. These

posts are filled in accordance with the rules of the CSS, and

when so filled, stand outside the Central Staffing Scheme.

Appointments to all other posts of the rank of Under Secretary

and above in the Government of India are filled under the

Central Staffing Scheme, by borrowing officer from the All India

Services and participating Group 'A' services; the cardinal

principle being that all officers who are so borrowed will serve

the Government of India for a stipulated tenure on deputation

and, thereafter, return to their parent cadre. Their growth,

97

development and career prospects will be mainly in their own

Service.

Tenure:

17.01 The fixed tenure of deputation of posting under the Central

Government is the heart of the Central Staffing Scheme.

Rotation between the Centre and the States, Central

Ministries and parent cadres, and headquarters and the field,

provide a certain degree of pragmatism to policy formulation

and programme implementation from the Central Ministries.

Based on the experience gained so far, the periods of tenure

at the different levels have been prescribed as under:-

Under Secretary 3 years

Deputy Secretary 4 years

Director 5 years

Joint Secretary 5 years

17.02 An officer holding the post of Joint Secretary or equivalent,

when appointed to a post under the Government of India at

the level of Additional Secretary, would have a tenure of 3

years from the dateof appointment as Additional Secretary

subject to a minimum of 5 years and maximum of 7 years of

combined tenure as Joint Secretary Additional Secretary.

Where an officer remains on leave (either from the Centre or

from his Cadre authority or both) on the expiry of his tenure

as Joint Secretary till his appointment as Additional Secretary,

98

the leave period shall be counted as tenure deputation.

Additional Secretary 4 years, except for cases covered under

the previous heading. Secretary No fixed tenure.

17.03 Every officer shall revert at the end of his tenure as indicated

above on the exact date of his completing his tenure. He will,

however, have a choice to revert to his cadre on the 31st

May previous to the date of the end of his tenure in case

personal grounds such as children's education etc.,

necessitate such reversion. No extension after completion of

the full tenure would be allowed.

17.12 (a) Officers of the Indian Foreign Service appointed to posts

under the Central Staffing Scheme would have a tenure of

three years. They shall not normally be relieved, except with

the approval of the appointments Committee of the Cabinet

from a Central Staffing Scheme post before their tenure.

TRUE COPY

99

ANNEXURE P-6

CONFERENCE OF CHIEF MINISTERS STATEMENT

DIAGNOSIS AND THERAPY FOR TRANSPARENT AND EFFICIENT

GOVERNMENT* Statement adopted at the conference of Chief

Ministers on Effective and Responsive Administration held on 24 May,

1997 in New Delhi

There is an urgent need to ensure responsive, accountable,

transparent and people-friendly administration at all levels. The

Conference of Chief Ministers held recently, discussed an action plan

for effective and responsive government at the Central and State

levels. Inaugurating the conference, the Prime Minister referred to Pt.

Jawaharlal Nehru's statement that "belief in fair play and integrity" was

the basis of a good administration. He said that the Action Plan

document provided a good diagnosis and that it had to be followed up

by a credible and implementable therapy. The resolution adopted at

the conclusion of the conference stated, "The States welcomed the

initiatives taken by the Prime Minister towards more effective and

responsive administration and stated that these initiatives are

important and timely. It was agreed that each State would work for

the implementation of the Action Plan, making appropriate allowance

for variation on local circumstances. Necessary political will to

implement these will be essential."

Accountable and Citizen Friendly Government

100

Under the Action Plan, the Central and State Governments have

decided to formulate Citizen‟s Charters for Departments and Offices,

starting with those which have a large public interface. These Citizen‟s

Charters would specify standards of service and time limits that the

public can reasonably expect, avenues of grievance redressal and a

provision for independent scrutiny with the involvement of citizen and

consumer groups. These Citizen‟s Charters would be widely publicised

and will be made operational in the next few months. All Departments

will publicise facilities at various levels for the prompt and effective

redressal of public grievances from the secretariat downwards to the

villages. Review of existing systems of redressal of public grievances

and institution of measures for streamlining them with a built- in-

system for independent monitoring, is envisaged to be in place soon.

The Central and State Governments have decided to work together for

the simplification of existing laws, regulations and procedures, repeal

of obsolete laws, reform of laws operating against the weaker sections

and steps to reduce the time and cost of the disposal of cases in civil

and criminal courts. The entire process of approvals, sanctions and

issue of permits would be made simpler, transparent and single-

window based. A priority agenda will be adopted and implemented

over the next one year for this purpose. To fulfil the need of greater

decentralisation and devolution of administrative powers at all levels,

immediate steps will be initiated by the State Governments, to

strengthen people‟s participation in Government. Steps will also be

taken to ensure adequate devolution of powers and resources to the

101

elected local bodies in rural and urban areas. The Central and State

Governments are trying to encourage and sustain people‟s participation

and dedicated voluntary agencies in all the schemes for the delivery of

basic services.

Transparency and Right to Information

It is found that secrecy and lack of openness in transactions is largely

responsible for corruption in official dealings, and is also contrary to

the spirit of an accountable and democratic governments. To bridge

this lacuna, the Government has decided to take immediate steps, in

consultation with State Governments, for examining the report of the

Working Group on Right to Information. A legislation for Freedom of

Information and amendments to the relevant provisions of the Official

Secrets Act, 1923 and the Indian Evidence, will also be introduced in

the Parliament before the end of 1997. Computerised information and

facilitation counters are being opened in all the Central and State

Government offices with large public interface so that information and

assistance is available to the public on essential services and approvals

to the benefit of population such as land, records, passports,

investigation of offences, administration of justice, tax collection and

administration, issue of permits and licences etc. The on-going efforts

are being speeded up with the help of the National Informatics Centre

(NIC).

Improving the Public Services

102

It is noted that people-friendly and effective administration depends on

cleansing of civil services at all levels, adherence to ethical standards,

commitment to basic principles of the Constitution and clear

understanding of the relationship regulating the politicians and the civil

servants. Elimination of corruption in the public services requires

prevention, surveillance and deterrent prosecution. The instances of

politician-civil servant - criminal nexus also needs to be dealt with

ruthlessly. Check on politicisation of the civil services will certainly

minimise its impact not only on the morale and motivation of services,

but also on the sustained flow of responsive services to the public and

efficient execution of schemes. The existing rules and legal provisions

will be amended every six months and government employees, doing

good work will be encouraged by rewards. The investigation agencies

and vigilance machinery is being strengthened with the provision of

adequate staff, powers, resources and independence. The existing

procedures for departmental enquiries and vigilance proceedings of

Government employees will be revamped within three months on the

basis of a study of detailed proposals worked out by the Government.

The role and powers of audit in the identification and pursuit of

financial and procedural irregularities, would be strengthened with the

help of various agencies like Lok Ayukta, CBI, vigilance machinery,

income tax authorities, enforcement directorate and Comptroller and

Auditor General. The State Governments have been asked to formulate

and enforce a Code of ethics for State Services similar to the draft

Code being considered for introduction at the Central level. To enable

103

objective and transparent decisions on postings, promotions and

transfers of officials, particularly those working in key areas,

institutional arrangements will be evolved to ensure stability of tenure

and de-politicised postings at all levels.

Implementation Arrangements

A Committee will be set up under the Cabinet Secretary including some

of the Chief Secretaries as well as senior officials of the Government of

India to elaborate the different elements of the Action Plan in terms of

operational content and to work out the decisions required at Central

and State levels. The Committee would draw up a time-bound agenda

for legal and regulatory reforms in priority areas including a statutory

scheme for Freedom of Information and also consider steps to secure

widespread acceptance and feedback from different sections of the

public and elicit the cooperation of the people for responsive

administration. The Conference of Chief Ministers recognised that as

the country completes 50 years of independence, and as the people

are assailed by growing doubts about the accountability, effectiveness

and moral standards of administration, Central and State Governments

should join together to justify the trust and faith of the people in the

Government by taking up the implementation of the Action Plan in a

time bound manner.

TRUE COPY

104

ANNEXURE P-7

RELEVANT EXTRACT FROM THE 2ND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS

COMMITTEE REPORT

2nd ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS COMMISSION

10TH REPORT – REFURBISHING OF PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION –

SCALING NEW HIGHTS

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS (RELEVANT EXTRACTS)

13. ( Para 8.7) Placement at Middle Management Level

a. In posting officers in Government of India, the primary

consideration should be to select the most suitable person for

the post that is on offer.

b. Domains should be assigned by the Central Civil Services

Authority (the Commission has recommended the constitution of

this Authority in paragraph No 9.8 of this Report) to all officers

of the All India Services and the Central Civil Services on

completion of 13 years of service.

c. The Central Civil Services Authority should invite applications

from all officers who have completed the minimum qualifying

years of service, for assignment of domains. The applications

should specify the academic background of officers, their

research accomplishments (if any) and significant achievements

105

during their career, relevant to the domain applied for. A

consultative process should be put in place where the officers

should be interviewed and their claims to specific domains

evaluated. The Authority should thereafter assign domains to the

officers on the basis of this exercise. In case some domains do

not attract applicants, the Authority should assign these domains

to officers with the relevant knowledge and experience.

d. All vacancies arising at the level of Deputy Secretary/Director

during a financial year should be identified well before the

beginning of that financial year, by the Department of Personnel

and Training (DOPT). The Ministries concerned should also give

a brief job description for these positions. All these posts and

their job description should be notified to the cadre controlling

authorities of the concerned All India Services and Central

Services. On receipt of nominations from the cadre controlling

authorities, the DOPT should try to match the requirements of

various positions with the competencies of the officers in the

„offer list‟. The DOPT should then seek approval for the entire list

from the Competent Authority.

e. The Central Civil Services Authority should be charged with the

responsibility of fixing tenure for all civil service positions and

this decision of the Authority should be binding on Government.

f. Officers from the organized services should not be given „non-

field‟ assignments in the first 8-10 years of their career.

106

g. State Governments should take steps to constitute State Civil

Services Authorities on the lines of the Central Civil Services

Authority.

14. (Para 9.8) Placement at Top Management Level

a. The present empanelment system for short listing officers for

posting at the SAG level and above should be replaced by a

more transparent and objective placement procedure.

b. At higher levels in government, it is necessary to ensure that

the tasks assigned to a public servant match his/her domain

competence as well as aptitude and potential.

c. Ministries should classify all of their SAG level posts

according to their relevant functional domains.

d. There is need to introduce competition for senior positions in

government (SAG and above) by opening these positions in

Government (including attached and subordinate offices) to all

Services. This principle would apply to all posts including those

that are presently encadred with the organized

Group „A‟ Services. In order to operationalise this, government

should make the continued participation of any of the organised

civil services in the Central Staffing Scheme, contingent upon the

implementation of this principle in those Departments/Cadres.

i. For the positions at the Joint Secretary/SAG level and

above, the Central Civil Services Authority would invite

applications from amongst all the eligible officers from

107

the All India Services and Group „A‟ Central Services

which are participating in the scheme.

ii. For positions at the HAG level and above, the Central

Public Service Authority would, in consultation with

Government, earmark positions for which outside talent

would be desirable. Applications to fill up these posts

would be invited from interested and eligible persons from

the open market and also, from serving eligible officers.

iii. While carrying out this exercise, the Central Civil Services

Authority would stipulate the eligibility criteria, the

required domain expertise as well as the requirements of

qualifications, seniority and work experience. The

Authority would conduct interviews to short-list suitable

officers for these posts. Government would make the final

selection on the basis of this shortlist.

e. A Central Civil Services Authority should be constituted under the

proposed Civil Services Bill. The Central Civil Services Authority

shall be a five-member body consisting of the Chairperson and

four members (including the member-secretary). The Authority

should have a full time Member-Secretary of the rank of

Secretary to Government of India. The Chairperson and

members of the Authority should be persons of eminence in

public life and professionals with acknowledged contributions to

108

society. The Chairperson and members of the Authority shall be

appointed by the President on the recommendations of a

Committee consisting of the Prime Minister and the Leader of

the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. (Explanation:- Where the

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha has not been

recognized as such, the Leader of the single largest group in the

Opposition in the Lok Sabha shall be deemed to be the Leader of

the Opposition).

f. The Central Civil Services Authority should deal with matters of

assignment of domains to officers, preparing panels for posting

of officers at the level of Joint Secretary and above, fixing

tenures for senior posts, deciding on posts which could be

advertised for lateral entry and such other matters that may be

referred to it by the Government.

g. A similar procedure should be adopted for filling up vacancies at

SAG level and higher in the central police agencies. For example,

in the Central Para-Military Forces the senior positions should be

opened to competition from officers of the CPMFs, IPS and the

Armed Forces (including those completing their Short Service

Commissions). Similarly for the intelligence agencies officers

from the armed forces as well as the CPOs with experience in

the field of intelligence should be considered for postings at

higher levels in the intelligence agencies…

…18. (Para 13.4) Accountability

109

a. A system of two intensive reviews – one on completion of 14

years of service, and another on completion of 20 years of

service - should be established for all government servants.

b. The first review at 14 years would primarily serve the purpose of

intimating to the public servant about his/her strengths and

shortcomings for his/her future advancement. The second

review at 20 years would mainly serve to assess the fitness of

the officer for his/her further continuation in government

service. The detailed modalities of this assessment system would

need to be worked out by government.

c. The services of public servants, who are found to be unfit after

the second review at 20 years, should be discontinued. A

provision regarding this should be made in the proposed Civil

Services Law. Besides, for new appointments it should be

expressly provided that the period of employment shall be for 20

years. Further continuance in government service would depend

upon the outcome of the intensive performance reviews.

19. (Para 14.6) Disciplinary Proceedings

a. In the proposed Civil Services law, the minimum statutory

disciplinary and dismissal procedures required to satisfy the

criteria of natural justice should be spelt out leaving the details

of the procedure to be followed to the respective government

departments. The present oral inquiry process should be

converted into a disciplinary meeting or interview to be

110

conducted by a superior officer in a summary manner without

the trappings and procedures borrowed from court trials. This

would require that the CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965 be repealed and

substituted by appropriate regulations.

b. No penalty of removal and dismissal should be imposed, except

by an Authority, which is at least three levels above the post

which the government servant is holding. Other penalties – apart

from dismissal and removal – may be imposed by an Authority

which is at least two levels above the current post of the

government servant. No penalty may be imposed, unless an

inquiry is conducted and the accused government servant has

been given an opportunity of being heard.

c. The two-stage consultation with the CVC in cases involving a

vigilance angle should be done away with and only the second

stage advice after completion of the disciplinary process, should

be obtained. In addition, for cases involving a vigilance angle, no

consultation with the UPSC should be required.

d. Consultation with the UPSC should be mandatory only in cases

leading to the proposed dismissal of government servants and all

other types of disciplinary cases should be exempted from the

UPSC‟s purview.

20. (Para 15.6) Relations between the Political Executive and Civil

Servants

111

a. There is a need to safeguard the political neutrality and

impartiality of the civil services. The onus for this lies equally on

the political executive and the civil services. This aspect should

be included in the Code of Ethics for Ministers as well as the

Code of Conduct for Public Servants.

b. The Commission would like to reiterate its recommendation

made in its Report on “Ethics in Governance” while examining

the definition of corruption under the Prevention of Corruption

Act, 1988, wherein it has been recommended that “abuse of

authority unduly favouring or harming someone” and

“obstruction of justice” should be classified as an offence under

the Act.

c. It is essential to lay down certain norms for recruitment in

government to avoid complaints of favouritism, nepotism,

corruption and abuse of power. These norms are:

i. Well-defined procedure for recruitment to all government

jobs.

ii. Wide publicity and open competition for recruitment to all

posts.

iii. Minimisation, if not elimination, of discretion in the

recruitment process.

iv. Selection primarily on the basis of written examination or

on the basis of performance in existing

112

public/board/university examination with minimum weight

to interview.

These principles could be included in the „Civil Services Bill‟ as

recommended by the Commission in Chapter 17.

21. (Para 16.17) Civil Services Code

a. „Civil Services Values‟ and the „Code of Ethics‟ should be

incorporated in the proposed Civil Services Bill.

b. Conduct Rules for civil servants need to be redrawn based on

the values and code of ethics as outlined in this Chapter

(Chapter 16).

22. (Para 17.5) The Civil Services Law

A new Civil Services Bill may be drafted. The following salient

features may be included in the proposed Bill:

I. Title of the Bill: The Bill may be called „The Civil Services Bill‟.

II. Definitions: “Civil Services” shall comprise of all personnel

holding civil posts under the Union.

III. Civil Service Values: The Civil Services and the Civil Servants

shall be guided by the following values in addition to a

commitment to uphold the Constitution, the discharge of their

functions:

i. Absolute integrity at all times

ii. Impartiality and non-partisanship

iii. Objectivity

iv. Dedication to public service

113

v. Empathy towards weaker sections

The Heads of Departments shall be responsible for promoting these

values in their organizations. The Central Civil Services Authority may

from time to time review the adoption, adherence to and

implementation of the Civil Service Values in the departments or

organizations under the Union.

IV. Code of Ethics: The following should be included in the Code of

Ethics for civil servants:

i. Integrity: Civil servants should be guided solely by public

interest in their official decision making and not by any financial

or other consideration either in respect of themselves, their

families or their friends.

ii. Impartiality: Civil servants in carrying out their official work,

including functions like procurement, recruitment, delivery of

services etc, should take decisions based on merit and free from

any partisan consideration.

iii. Commitment to public service: civil servants should deliver

services in a fair, effective, impartial and courteous manner.

iv. Open accountability: civil servants are accountable for their

decisions and actions and should be willing to subject

themselves to appropriate scrutiny for this purpose.

v. Devotion to duty: civil servants should maintain absolute and

unstinting devotion towards their duties and responsibilities at all

times.

114

vi. Exemplary behaviour: civil servants should treat all members of

the public with respect and courtesy and at all times should

behave in a manner that upholds the rich traditions of the civil

services.

vi. Recruitment and conditions of service: Recruitment and

conditions of service of persons appointed to the „Public

Services‟ shall be governed by Rules made under this Act.

The following principles of recruitment should be included for all

appointments not routed through the UPSC or SSC:

i. Well-defined merit based procedure for recruitment.

ii. Wide publicity and open competition for recruitment to

all posts.

iii. Minimisation, if not elimination, of discretion in the

recruitment process.

iv. Selection primarily on the basis of written examination or

on the basis of performance in existing

public/board/university examination with minimum

weight-age to interview.

An independent agency should audit the recruitments made

outside the UPSC and SSC systems and advise the government

suitably. This audit should be conducted under the supervision of

the UPSC.

115

VI. New Conditions of Appointment: (1) A civil servant, not being a

civil servant recruited or inducted for a short-term appointment,

shall hold office for twenty years from the date of initial

appointment. (2) The relationship between the Civil Servant and

the Government of India during the time he/she holds office

shall also be governed by the rules made in this regard. All

public servants shall be subjected to two intensive reviews on

completion of 14 years and 20 years of service respectively.

Their further continuance beyond 20 years will depend on the

outcome of these reviews. It should be expressly provided that

all new recruitments shall be for a period of 20 years and their

continuance beyond 20 years would depend on the outcome of

the intensive reviews.

VII. Appointment to Senior Positions in Government: All positions in

Government (including in the attached and subordinate offices)

at the level of Joint Secretary and above would constitute the

„Senior Management Pool‟. This would apply to all posts including

those that are presently encadred with the organised Group A

Services. All appointments to positions in this pool shall be made

on the recommendations of the Central Civil Services Authority,

which would go into the past performance and also evaluate the

future potential of an officer. The Central Civil Services Authority

should recommend a panel of officers suitable for a position in

the Government and Government should choose an

officer/person from this panel.

116

VIII. Fixation of Tenures: All senior posts should have a specified

tenure. The task of fixing tenures for various posts may also be

assigned to this independent agency - Central Civil Services

Authority.

IX. Widening the Pool of Candidates for Selection to Senior

Positions: Candidates outside the government system should be

allowed to compete for certain posts at senior levels (Additional

Secretary and above). The task of identifying these posts should

be entrusted to the Central Civil Services Authority.

X. Dismissal, Removal etc. of Civil Servants: After the repeal of

Articles 310 and 311 (as recommended in the Report on „Ethics

in Governance‟), safeguards against arbitrary action against

government servants should be provided in the new law. These

safeguards should include:

i. No penalty of removal and dismissal should be imposed,

except by an authority, which is at least three levels above the

post which the government servant is holding.

ii. Other penalties – apart from dismissal and removal - may be

imposed by an authority which is at least two levels above the

current post of the government servant.

iii. No penalty may be imposed, unless an enquiry is conducted

and the accused government servant has been given an

opportunity of being heard.

117

iv. The Head of an organization should have powers to lay down

the details of the enquiry procedure, subject to the general

guidelines which may be issued by the Government from time to

time.

XI. A performance management system should be mandatory for

every organization in the government.

XII. Constitution of the Central Civil Services Authority:

i. The Central Government shall, by notification in the Official

Gazette, constitute a body to be known as the Central Civil

Services Authority to exercise the powers conferred on, and

to perform the functions assigned to it, under this Act.

ii. The Central Civil Services Authority shall be a five-member

body consisting of the Chairperson and four members

(including the member-secretary). The Authority should have

a full time Member- Secretary of the rank of Secretary to

Government of India. The Chairperson and members of the

Authority should be persons of eminence in public life and

professionals with acknowledged contributions to society. The

Chairperson and members of the Authority shall be appointed

by the President on the recommendations of a Committee

consisting of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the

Opposition in the Lok Sabha. (Explanation:- Where the

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha has not been

recognized as such, the Leader of the single largest group in

118

the opposition in the Lok Sabha shall be deemed to be the

Leader of the Opposition).

XIII. Functions of the Central Civil Services Authority: The Central

Authority shall discharge the following functions:

i. Review the adoption, adherence to and implementation

of the Civil Service Values in the departments or

organizations under the Central Government and send

reports to the Central Government.

ii. Assign domains to all officers of the All India Services

and the Central Civil Services on completion of 13 years

of service.

iii. Formulate norms and guidelines for appointments at

„Senior Management Level‟ in Government of India.

iv. Evaluate and recommend names of officers for posting

at the „Senior Management Level‟ in Government of

India.

v. Identify the posts at „Senior Management Level‟ in

Government of India which could be thrown open for

recruitment from all sources.

vi. Fix the tenure for posts at the „Senior Management

Level‟ in Government of India.

vii. Submit an annual report to Parliament.

119

XIV. Creation of Executive Agencies in Government: Government

should be authorized to create or reorganize some or all of

existing Departments into „Executive Agencies‟. The role of the

Ministries should primarily be on policy formulation while

implementation should be left to the Executive Agencies.

TRUE COPY

120

ANNEXURE P-8 (COLLY i)

17.5.2010 T.S.R. Subramanian “Guru Kripa”

74, Sector 15 A Noida - 201 301 Phone 0120-2512865

E-mail: tsrsubramanian@gmail.com

During the last ten years, I have been interacting with a fairly

large number of retired civil servants who have occupied some

of the senior – most positions in the Government, both at the

Centre and in the States. A common and repeatedly expressed

concern has been the sharp and progressive deterioration which

has taken place in the quality of governance and public

administration in India. For those of us who joined service in the

first three decades after independence, this decline is tragic and

precipitous, pervasive across the spectrum in practically every

sector and too obvious to need repetition. Indeed, as reported in

the press, you have yourself had occasion to write a number of

letters, in your capacity as the Head of the Civil Service,

highlighting the decline in standards of probity and commitment

to core values among the higher Civil Services.

2. You would agree that the preservation of integrity, fearlessness

and independence of the civil servant is an essential condition of

a parliamentary system of Government. While the formulation of

Government policy is no doubt the legitimate task of the

Minister, the Civil Servant is expected to advise him freely,

121

frankly and fearlessly at the stage of policy formulation. The

Minister in turn should not interfere in purely service matters

such as postings and transfers and should avoid any departures

from the approved policies to accommodate individual cases as a

result of political or other considerations. However, in practice

we see that the ability of the senior Civil Service to act as an

effective advisory body has been increasingly compromised. For

instance, in many States, the formally constituted machinery of

governance has been bypassed and the Chief Minister‟s

Secretariat reigns supreme. At the Centre, the Special Assistant

rules the roost in many Ministries, acting at the behest of the

Minister and cutting into the legitimate domain of the Secretary

and other senior officials. Indeed, the rise of the Prime Minister's

Office in terms of power, prestige and capability of intervention

has been palpably in evidence since the 1980‟s. All this is not

merely a subversion of due process, but has also adversely

impacted the substance of governance. Traces of the Mogul way

of functioning have crept into the system, with the trusted

henchman being allowed to do whatever he wants, so long as he

remains loyal, pays tribute and does whatever is asked of him.

3. The results are self - evident and indeed writ large in our

developmental experience. Weak governance has manifested

itself in poor service delivery, excessive regulation, whimsical

interventions governed by considerations of personal benefit,

uncoordinated and wasteful public expenditure, inadequate

122

transparency and lack of accountability; it has reduced the

effectiveness of government policies and impinged adversely on

growth and development. Despite our high growth rate, India

scores poorly in virtually all international rankings of countries

based on indices of social development. While there are

divergent official estimates of poverty, it is beyond dispute that

well over a quarter of our population still lives below the poverty

line. Indeed, many credible recent estimates place the number

of really poor at or over 50%. The persistence of large-scale

poverty and illiteracy and the lack of access to employment,

shelter, clean drinking water, basic sanitation and health care,

food and nutrition for wide swathes of our population are all

manifestations of serious failures of national governance.

4. None of this is new or surprising. Indeed, Government' of India,

not to mention the State Governments, have over the years set

up a large number of Committees and Commissions to study and

make recommendations on administrative and civil service

reforms. While these reports have dealt with the structural

improvement of the administrative machine and more efficient

methods of personnel management, they have uniformly

stressed the need to preserve the integrity and independence of

the Civil Services and to insulate them from undue interference

from the political establishment. In 1997, the Conference of

Chief Ministers of States, convened by the Government of India

to consider ways of improving the performance and integrity of

123

the public service, had recommended that the existing rules and

regulations should be amended within six months to enable

exemplary prosecution and removal of corrupt officials and the

weeding out of staff of doubtful integrity and that, at the same

time, a suitable mechanism should be worked out to reward

employees who do good work. Since then, the Central Fifth Pay

Commission (1997), the Geethakrishnan Commission on

Expenditure Reforms (2001), the Surinder Nath Committee on

Performance Evaluation (2003), the P.C. Hota Committee on Civil

Service Reform (2004) and the Second Administrative Reforms

Commission (2006-08) have all produced voluminous Reports

and recommendations on the subject.

5. Although many of these recommendations have been broadly

similar, they have not been accepted or implemented. While

incremental reforms have no doubt been made over the years,

these relate largely to operational matters like recruitment,

training, acquisition of domain knowledge, etc. Most of the core

recommendations which have been studied, discussed and

commended for implementation by successive Commissions and

Committees have not been acted upon in letter and spirit. These

game – changing recommendations would help to address the

pressing issues of probity, integrity and accountability of the Civil

Service, as well as the preservation of its core values and

independence and enable it to play its appointed role of impartial

adviser and faithful implementer of policies arrived at in a

124

transparent and rational manner, after due consideration of the

pros and cons and keeping in view the paramountcy of the

public interest.

6. To list a few of these recommendations:

a) The Santhanam Committee on Prevention of Corruption

(1962) had recommended that the annual immovable

property statements, which have been found to serve no

useful purpose, should be replaced by a periodic complete

statement of the assets and liabilities of each Government

servant. The Hota Committee had recommended that the

Annual Property Return of all public servants be put on the

website. Indeed, there is no reason why the assets of all

public servants (civil and political) should not be made

public each year and allowed to be freely accessed under

the RTI Act.

b) Government should be empowered to confiscate the

property of public servants who have unaccounted wealth

by enacting the Corrupt Public Servants (Forfeiture of

Property) Bill as suggested by the Law Commission

(Second ARC). This. will be fully in keeping with the

observations of the Supreme Court in a number of cases.

To this end, Rules should be framed under the Benami

Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988, for

125

attachment/forfeiture of benami / ill-gotten property of

corrupt public servants. (Hota Committee, Second ARC).

c) The Santhanam and Hota Committees had both opined

that Article 311 of the Constitution unjustifiably protracts

disciplinary proceedings against civil servants by

mandating a series of government approvals which lead to

frustrating delays. Disciplinary proceedings involving

charges of bribery, corruption and lack of integrity should

be treated as a separate category under a simplified

procedure (Santhanam). Prior sanction should not be

necessary for prosecuting a public servant who has been

trapped red-handed or in cases of possessing assets

disproportionate to the known sources of income (Second

ARC). Article 311 of the Constitution should be amended

to enable the President / Governor to dismiss / remove

public servants summarily in case of corrupt practice /

having assets disproportionate to known source of income.

The officer concerned may be given a post-decisional

hearing to prove his innocence (Hota); the Supreme Court

has affirmed the Constitutional validity of this procedure.

d) Politicians should be treated as public servants, subject to

judicial checks and administrative and financial disciplines

similar to those applicable to bureaucrats. The Santhanam

Committee had recommended this way back in 1962 and

the Second ARC has recently suggested that suitable

126

amendments be effected to the Constitution to provide

that the immunity enjoyed by MPs and MLAs does not

cover corrupt acts committed by them in connection with

their duties in the House or otherwise. While the Supreme

Court has also upheld this view, in practice there has been

very little accountability of the political class in terms of

the laws of the land.

e) Much of the deterioration in the standards of probity and

accountability within the civil service can be traced to the

practice of issuing and acting on verbal instructions or oral

orders which are not recorded. It should be made

incumbent on every civil servant to formally record all

such instructions / orders / suggestions which he receives,

not only from his administrative superiors but also from

political authorities, legislators, commercial and business

interests and other persons / quarters having interest or

wielding influence.

f) A comprehensive and tough anti-corruption strategy

should be put in place, including the following elements:

(i) Immediate compulsory retirement of officials whose

record and reputation is tainted, and prosecution of

those against whom there is evidence of corruption

(Hota);

127

(ii) Strengthening of powers of the state Vigilance

Departments, Lok Ayukta and the Anti-Corruption

branch of the State police enabling them to

effectively initiate and pursue investigations

independently of government direction (Hota,

Second ARC);

(iii) Guaranteed protection of civil servants who expose

corrupt practices (Second ARC) and institution of

annual awards for whistle-blowers in recognition of

their contribution in exposing wrong-doings in the

government;

(iv) Action against corrupt officers cannot be initiated in

many states as the power to sanction prosecution is

vested in state governments. This should be

declared a semi-judicial process, and the powers to

sanction prosecution should be vested with a

designated authority, which should pass a time -

bound speaking order on receipt of complaint from

CBl or other agencies.

g) A State of Governance Report should be brought out

evaluating the performance of each State on the basis of a

set of parameters of good governance (Hota).

h) The Prevention of Corruption Act should be amended to

provide for a special offence of 'collusive bribery'; if it is

128

established that the interest of the state or public has

suffered because of an act of a public servant, then the

court shall presume that the public servant and the

beneficiary of the decision committed an offence of

'collusive bribery' (Second ARC).

i) Both the Hota Committee and the Second ARC had

recommended that a new civil service law should be

enacted incorporating a statement of values and a code of

ethics for civil servants with reference to political

impartiality, ethical standards and accountability for

actions.

j) Practically all Commissions and Committees dealing with

administrative reform have stressed the need for transfers

at all levels to be handled in a non-political, non-partisan,

open and transparent manner. A rational transfer policy

should eliminate the 'transfer industry', do away with

politicized transfers, curb the overall incidence of

transfers, remove uncertainty and imbue officers with a

certain security of tenure in every post and should be seen

as being fair and objective. Transfers should not be

ordered as punishment; if an employee is found remiss in

his duties, he should be proceeded against

departmentally.

129

The Conference of Chief Ministers (1997) had recommended the

constitution of Civil Services Boards in different States presided

over by the respective Chief Secretaries (on the pattern of the

Establishment Board of the Government of India presided over

by the Cabinet Secretary) to assist the political executive and

streamline the policy of transfers and promotions based on

identifiable criteria. While some States have subsequently set up

such Boards by executive order, they have failed to inspire

confidence as, more often than not, they have merely formalized

the wishes of their Chief Ministers in matters of transfer of

officials.

Several Committees, including Hota and the Second ARC, have

stressed that a guaranteed minimum tenure for Secretaries to

Government, Heads of Departments and other senior officials is

the only effective solution. Indeed, the Hota Committee had

recommended a statutory barrier to frequent transfer of senior

officials through the establishment of a Civil Services Board /

Establishment Board, both in the States and at the Centre, under

a Civil Services Act. The recommendations of such a Board must

normally be binding on the Government. If, for any reason, the

Government decides not to implement the recommendations, it

must pass a self-contained order on the subject and place a

statement on the Table of the Legislature. Similarly, the Second

ARC had recommended the creation of a Central Civil Services

Authority which would, inter alia, formulate norms and

130

guidelines and recommend names of officers for posting at

'Senior Management Levels' in the Government.

7. My purpose in writing this rather long letter to you is essentially

to ascertain whether and what progress is being / has been

made in implementing some of these key reforms, which would

undoubtedly help to boost the morale of the higher Civil Services

and arrest the decline in standards of administration and

governance which has so sadly become the norm rather than the

aberration today. In his recent Budget Speech in Parliament, the

Finance Minister had frankly and correctly identified weaknesses

in government systems, structures and institutions at different

levels of governance and in particular, the bottleneck of our

public delivery mechanisms, as the key factor that can hold us

back in realizing our potential as a modem nation. He had also

stated that, out of the 800 recommendations of the Second ARC

which have been identified for implementation, 350 have been

implemented so far and a further 450 are under implementation.

This is indeed heartening. It would be useful to know whether

some of the core recommendations of earlier Committees, as

listed above, are among those which the Government has taken

up for implementation.

131

I regret encroaching on your very valuable time, but am doing

so only since the issues, I have raised, are of importance.

Yours sincerely, Sd/-

(T.S.R. Subramanian)

Shri K.M.Chandrasekhar,

Cabinet Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India, Rashtrapati Shawan, New Delhi - 110 004. Tel: 2301-6696/2301-1241

TRUE COPY

132

ANNEXURE P-8 (COLLY ii)

CABINET SECRETARY

NEW DELHI

K.M.CHANDRASEKHAR

Dear Sri Subramanian, DO No. 501/2/4/2009-CA.V

June 30, 2010

Thank you for your letter dated 17th May 2010. Forgive me for

the delay in my response, which arose because I had to collect

material and also deal with many other issues during the period.

2. Some recent initiatives that we have taken to improve

professionalism, standards of integrity and productivity in

Government are outlined below:

(a) In the matter of Civil Services, a Bill captioned 'Civil

Services Standards, Performance and Accountability Bill

2010' has been prepared which incorporates salient

features, like Civil Services Values, Code of Ethics and

Conduct, Performance Management System, etc. This is

presently under consideration of the Government. The Bill

envisages establishing a Central Civil Services Authority as

recommended by the 2nd Administrative Reforms

Commission and also establish a Performance

Management System for the Civil Servants.

133

(b) The Right to Information Act, which makes access to files

available to all citizens in most cases, has led to

remarkable increase in transparency and probity. You

would be aware that even file notings are made available

to applicants. This has resulted in objectivity and

adherence to fair play and due observance of procedures

and provisions in the laws and rules in handling

Government business.

(c) A Performance Monitoring & Evaluation System has been

introduced to evaluate and monitor the performance of

the Ministries/ Departments. In order to take a

comprehensive view and to measure the deliverables of

these Ministries/ Departments, a system of framing

Results, Framework Documents (RFD) for each Ministry/

Department has been introduced. According to this

system, at the beginning of each financial year, each

department is required to prepare a RFD consisting of the

priorities of the Ministry, President‟s Address,

announcements/ agenda as spelt out by the Government

from time to time. At the end of the year, all Ministries/

Departments are required to review and prepare a report

listing the achievements against the agreed results in the

prescribed format. In Phase-I of this system, 59 Ministries/

Departments have been covered. This year, we have

134

added another three Ministries / Departments and we

propose also to prepare a Results Framework Document

for the Cabinet Secretariat. You may be interested to

know that some State Governments have also come

forward to introduce Performance Monitoring & Evaluation

Systems in their States. Maharashtra and Punjab have

already held workshops for this purpose in which our

Secretary (performance Management), Cabinet

Secretariat, participated.

(d) In the matter of stability of tenure of officers and to

prevent arbitrary transfers, notifications have been issued

providing 2 years minimum tenure for all the IAS cadre

posts excluding the post of Chief Secretary in respect of

around 13 States which have agreed with the proposal

and a monitoring system is being proposed to be devised

to evaluate this tenure rule in respect of these States. In

respect of the remaining States, the matter is presently

under active consideration of the Government. However,

since State Governments control administrations within

their jurisdiction in a federal polity, the Government of

India can only play an advisory role. We have been

endeavouring to persuade the States to ensure stability of

tenure for officers with mixed results. While in some

States there is positive forward movement, other States

135

have not been enthusiastic. Your suggestions on how

stability of tenure can be ensured in a federal polity would

be most welcome.

(e) Also, the officers at regular intervals are put under mid-

career training programmes that have been designed to

train the officers with a view to make them adapt to new

& evolving technologies and changing work environment.

The Mid Career Training is being carried out in three

phases at regular intervals which has been designed to

take care of the present day requirements of the

Government. For this purpose, institutional tie ups with

reputed institutions such as IIMs, Duke University,

Syracuse University and Harvard University have been

made. Further, a system of intensive review of the

performance of the officers at the time of promotion both

at Senior Time Scale and Above Senior Time Scale levels is

being considered so that inefficient officers are removed

by premature retirement.

(f) To improve accountability and to improve the standards of

the civil service, Performance Appraisal Reports (in place

of ACRs) have been introduced. This is based on the

Surendranath Committee's recommendations and the

assessment of officers is now being done on a quantitative

136

basis with numerical gradings being introduced for each

aspect of assessment. However, the performance

appraisal system thus introduced requires urgent review,

since the results obtained are not satisfactory. In fact,

there is a tendency for reporting officers to grade their

subordinates uniformly at 10 out of 10. This will make

objective assessment for empanelment or promotion in

later years extremely difficult and a situation will come in

which merit will no longer be recognized. I am, therefore,

extremely keen to make changes in this system as quickly

as possible and would welcome suggestions from my

senior colleagues like you.

(g) The 6th Central Pay Commission has recommended

introduction of performance linked incentives and this has

been accepted by the Cabinet. We are working out

modalities for implementation of a system which will

recognize performance through suitable incentives. Since

we have introduced the performance monitoring and

evaluation system, out intention is to link performance

related incentives with results achieved and measured.

Any suggestions from you in this regard would be helpful.

(h) Empanelment system has also been revamped with the

introduction of an initial detailed assessment by Experts

137

Panel comprising retired Secretaries which are taken into

account during the empanelment process. This has

facilitated detailed assessment of the performance of each

officer and the removal of bias or assessments that

deviate markedly from the norm for the officer over the

years.

(i) Further, reforms in the Civil Services Examinations are also

on the anvil to take care of the present requirements of

the administrative system. The present mode of

preliminary screening is being replaced with an aptitude

test in keeping with the international standards.

(j) To suggest measures in order to expedite the process

involved in disciplinary / vigilance proceedings, a

Committee has been constituted under the chairmanship

of Shri P.C. Hota. This is based on the 2nd ARC‟s

suggestion to complete the disciplinary action within a one

year time frame. Here again, I would be grateful for

suggestions, if any.

(k) To deal with complaints against Secretaries / Additional

Secretaries of the Government of India and CMDs/

Executive Directors of CPSUs / Banks, two separate

Committees have been constituted under the

chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary and Secretary

138

(Coordination), Cabinet Secretariat respectively. Similarly,

a permanent Committee has been set up, headed by

retired Secretary, Smt. Rathi Vinay Jha, to look into cases

of reported harassment of women employees by officers

of the level of Secretary / Additional Secretary.

(l) A proposal to introduce a new chapter in the Prevention of

Corruption Act providing for attachment, confiscation and

the forfeiture of property of corrupt public servants is

presently under consideration.

(m) A Bill for providing protection to whistleblowers known as

„Public Interest Disclosure and Protection of Informers)

Bill‟ is also presently under examination.

3. I am obliged to you for having taken time out for writing a

detailed letter to me. I would benefit from further practical

suggestions from you, based on your long experience in

administration.

With regards,

Yours sincerely,

Sd/-

(K.M. CHANDRASEKHAR)

Sri T.S.R. Subramanian

'Guru Kripa'

74, Sector 15A

Noida-201 301.

TRUE COPY

139

ANNEXURE P-8 (COLLY iii)

T.S.R. Subramanian

Ex-Cabinet Secretary “Guru Kripa”

to the Government of India 74, Sector 15 A

Noida - 201 301

Phone : 0120 - 4334070

E-mail: tsrsubramanian@gmail.com

August 25, 2010

Dear Shri Chandrasekhar,

I thank you for your d.o. NO.501/2/4/2009-CA.V dated June 30,

2010 in response to my earlier letter raising certain issues regarding

Civil Service Reforms. I appreciate the trouble you have taken to reply

in some detail. Since I had been traveling the past month or so, I could

not respond to you earlier.

Many important points have been made in your letter. I also

note the earnestness with which some new measures are being

introduced. I would like to make some further comment for whatever

these are worth.

You have referred to the Right to Information Act. Indeed the

first initiative in this regard had been taken by me. I had asked Late

H.D. Shourie in 1997 to Chair a committee on this subject. Based on

this, the first draft of the proposed Act was approved by the Cabinet,

and was in fact sent to Parliament. Meanwhile the government fell, and

it was much later that RTI became law. I thought I would mention this,

since I have a nostalgic association with the evolution of this major

140

step. You have rightly referred to the RTI, which if used well, has

significant potential to introduce transparency in the system.

I notice that the thrust of the proposed reforms mentioned by

you refer to initiating steps to improve performance, better monitoring,

specialization and the like. These are quite important, and are

significant aspects endogenous to the Civil Services, so to speak.

However, the real problem preventing good quality implementation

relates to the politician-bureaucrat interface, and to the pressures

brought on the Civil Servant to “toe the line” or to ensure that he gives

only the advice that suits the political executive. This is the essence of

the problem, somewhat exogenous to the bureaucracy, however

having a larger bearing on their performance, efficiency and

impartiality. Bureaucrats are, through various means, enticed or

coerced to meet the private needs of the politician. This malaise is

even more strongly prevalent in the States, than in the Centre; the

field officers being more vulnerable than the secretariat officials.

Unless this core issue is addressed by the proposed civil services law /

authority, I believe that any change would be purely cosmetic, and

would not contribute to stemming the continuing steep decline in

governance standards.

You had indicated that a Civil Services Bill is under examination,

with a provision for a Central Civil Services Authority. This is necessary.

However, it is important that such an Authority has to be established in

141

each state, where the need is much greater than at the Centre. Indeed

the Authority needs to have full control over all matters relating to

transfers, postings, inquiries and all service matters of officers at all

levels, except the senior most levels. Naturally the secretaries and

heads of departments would be selected by the political authority.

However, full cadre management below these levels needs to be totally

insulated from all political influences. This has to be the objective,

however impractical this may appear at first sight. Besides, the Civil

Services Authority both at the Centre and the State should not include

in its membership any elected representative and should consist of

serving and retired officials of integrity. This is essential to ensure that

political intervention in day-to-day matters and implementation issues

are kept to a bare minimum, if not totally eliminated.

It is also imperative to ensure a minimum tenure of three years

in field jobs, preferably also in the secretariat. The problem is acute in

the States. The Government of India will have to ensure minimum

tenure, not just in the Centre but also more importantly, in the States.

This requires political will. Since the All India Service officers are

recruited by the Government of India, and sent on permanent

secondment to the States, this is a lever that can be used, though

carefully and judiciously, to ensure that it does not backfire. This is a

key necessity, to loosen the day-to-day control presently exercised by

the politicians on the implementation decision-making process of the

field officials, without which governance will not improve. Unless the

142

Centre finds a viable solution in this regard, much of the exercise will

be only for show, without substance. This recommendation is at least

50 years old, and has been repeated by every reforms commission/

committee.

I regret if you feel that I have been slightly long in my above

comments. I am sure that with your vast experience, you would be

able to help initiate meaningful steps which will improve standards of

governance.

With best wishes,

Yours sincerely,

Sd/-

(T.S.R. Subramanian)

Shri K.M. Chandrasekhar,

Cabinet Secretary,

Cabinet Secretariat,

Rashtrapati Bhawan,

New Delhi -110 004.

TRUE COPY

143

ANNEXURE P-9(Colly i)

CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE SECRETARY (PERSONNEL)

T.S.R. Subramanian “Guru Kripa”

74, Sector 15 A

Noida - 201301

Phone 0120-2512865

E-mail: tsrsubramanian@gmail.com

May 17, 2010

Dear Sri Consul,

Over the past few years, I have been exchanging notes on an

informal basis with a fairly large number of former colleagues who

have retired from the Government at senior levels, both in the Centre

and in the States. During these discussions, a common and recurring

theme has been the sharp and progressive deterioration which has

taken place in the quality of governance and public administration in

India. For those of us who joined service in the first three decades

after independence, this decline is tragic and precipitous, pervasive

across the spectrum in practically every sector and too obvious to need

repetition.

Significantly, Government has itself acknowledged at various

levels that weak governance and inadequacies in implementation have

resulted in poor service delivery, uncoordinated and wasteful public

expenditure, and lack of transparency and accountability which has in

turn reduced the effectiveness of government policies and impinged

adversely on growth and development. In his recent Budget speech,

the Finance Minister had highlighted the weaknesses in government

144

systems, structures and institutions at different levels of governance

and, in particular, the bottleneck of our public delivery mechanisms as

the one factor that can hold us back in realizing our potential as a

modern nation in the coming years. Former Prime Minister Rajiv

Gandhi had famously and publicly acknowledged that only 17 paise out

of every rupee spent on Governmental programmes actually reached

the common man. In its Report on Ethics in Governance, the Second

Administrative Reforms Commission has stated that “governance is

admittedly the weak link in our quest for prosperity and equity ...

Improved governance in the form of non-expropriation, contract

enforcement, and decrease in bureaucratic delays and corruption can

raise the GDP growth rate significantly.”

Since the civil service is the principal instrument of governance

and implementation of various Government policies and programmes,

the weaknesses and shortcomings in this regard can be traced back

directly to failures of the civil service, regardless of whatever proximate

causes are identified for under-performance in individual sectors. Any

attempt to improve administration must therefore necessarily focus on

the micro – issue of civil service reform, which in turn affects all

aspects of service delivery and implementation. Addressing this

fundamental issue will directly and significantly improve the quality of

delivery and implementation and thus the quality of governance in

general. Indeed, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has consistently

145

stressed the priority and importance which he attaches to

administrative reform almost from the day he took over.

The Department of Personnel plays the nodal role in acting as

the formulator of policy and the watch-dog of the Government in

ensuring that certain accepted standards and norms are followed by all

Ministries/Departments, in the recruitment, regulation of service

conditions, posting/transfers, deputation of personnel and other

related issues. The DoPT is also the repository of the collective wisdom

and the institutional memory of the Government of India in regard to

civil service reform.

Over the years the Government of India, as well as the State

Governments, have set up a large number of Committees and

Commissions to study and make recommendations on administrative

and civil service reforms. These reports have dealt with the structural

improvement of the administrative machine and more efficient

methods of personnel management, and contain many valuable

recommendations. Although many of these recommendations have

been broadly similar, they have not been accepted or implemented.

While incremental reforms have no doubt been made over the years,

these relate largely to operational matters like recruitment, training,

acquisition of domain knowledge, etc. Most of the core

recommendations which have been studied, discussed and

commended for implementation by successive Commissions and

146

Committees have not been acted upon in letter and spirit. These game

- changing recommendations would, if implemented, swiftly and

dramatically improve implementation and service delivery and the

quality of governance in general.

For example, practically all Commissions and Committees dealing

with administrative reform have stressed the need for transfers at all

levels to be handled in a non-political, non-partisan, open and

transparent manner. A rational transfer policy should eliminate the

'transfer industry', do away with politicized transfers, curb the overall

incidence of transfers, remove uncertainty and imbue officers with a

certain security of tenure in every post and should be seen as being

fair, objective and leading to career development. Transfers should not

be ordered as punishment; if an employee is found remiss in his

duties, he should be proceeded against departmentally. The key

element and indeed, the only effective solution, is a guaranteed

minimum and fixed tenure for officers of the higher civil services.

The Conference of Chief Ministers (1997) had observed that

frequent and arbitrary transfer of public servants affects the ability of

the system to deliver services effectively to the people. It

recommended the constitution of Civil Services Boards in different

States presided over by the respective Chief Secretaries (on the

pattern of the Establishment Board of the Government of India

presided over by the Cabinet Secretary) to assist the political

147

executive and streamline the policy of transfers and promotions based

on identifiable criteria. Subsequently, some States have set up Civil

Services or Establishment Boards with the Chief Secretary as the

Chairman and other senior officials of the State as Members. However,

these Boards set up by executive order in different, States have failed

to inspire confidence as, more often than not, they have merely

formalized the wishes of their Chief Ministers in matters of transfer of

officials.

The P.C. Hota Committee on Civil Service Reform (2004) had

identified the absence of a fixed tenure of officials as one of the most

important reasons for tardy implementation of government policies and

programmes, lack of accountability, waste of public money and large-

scale corruption. It noted that there was “overwhelming evidence” that

officials were transferred frequently at the whims and caprices of local

politicians and other vested interests, who successfully prevail upon

the Chief Minister / Minister to order such transfers. Often Chief

Ministers have to oblige powerful factions in their own party by

transferring senior officers who may be honest, sincere and steadfast

in carrying out government‟s programmes but are otherwise

inconvenient as they do not oblige local politicians.

The Hota Committee was of the view that the Civil Services

Board / Establishment Board, both in the States and at the Centre,

should be made statutory in character by enacting a Civil Services Act.

In a State, the Civil Services Board, chaired by the Chief Secretary and

148

comprising senior officers, should perform the functions relating to

transfer, empanelment, promotion, and deputation of officers

performed by the Establishment Board of Government of India /

Special Committee of Secretaries of Government of India, both of

which are chaired by the Cabinet Secretary. While the Chief Minister,

as the highest political executive, will be the final authority for transfer

of all senior officers serving in the State, he shall be guided by the

recommendations of the Board and will have to record his reasons in

writing in case of disagreement. No Minister in a State Government

shall have any powers of transfer, although he can move the Civil

Services Board in this regard stating cogent reasons. Postings of all

Group 'B' officers in a State must be done by the concerned Head of

the Department with the same tenure rule being given statutory

backing.

When there is a move to prematurely transfer an officer, the

Civil Services Board shall advise the Chief Minister regarding the

justification for the transfer after holding a summary administrative

inquiry. Ordinarily the Chief Minister is expected to agree with the

recommendations of the Board as transfer is a routine administrative

matter. However, if he does not do so, he shall be required to record

his reasons in writing. An officer who is prematurely transferred can

agitate the matter before an Ombudsman. An Annual Report on all

premature transfers shall be laid before the State Legislature.

149

Similarly, the Second ARC had recommended the creation of a

Central Civil Services Authority as a statutory body under a Civil

Services Act. The Authority shall be a five-member body consisting of

persons of eminence in public life and professionals with acknowledged

contributions to society appointed by the President on the

recommendation of a Committee consisting of the Prime Minister and

the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. The Authority would,

inter alia, formulate norms and guidelines and recommend names of

officers for posting at „Senior Management Levels‟ in the Government.

It would fix tenure for all civil service positions and this should be

binding on the Government. State Governments should take steps to

constitute State Civil Services Authorities on the lines of the Central

Civil Services Authority.

Since the primary consideration should be to select the most

suitable person for the post that is on offer, all vacancies arising at the

level of Deputy Secretary/Director during a financial year should be

identified by the DoPT, which should thereafter try to match the

requirements of the various positions with the competencies of the

officers nominated by the cadre controlling authorities and then seek

approval for the entire list from the Competent Authority.

Both the Hota Committee and the Second ARC had

recommended that a new civil service law should be enacted

incorporating a statement of values and a code of ethics for civil

150

servants with reference to political impartiality, ethical standards and

accountability for actions.

Much of the deterioration in the standards of probity and

accountability within the civil service can be traced to the practice of

issuing and acting on verbal instructions or oral orders which are not

recorded. It should be made incumbent on every civil servant to

formally record all such instructions / orders / suggestions which he

receives, not only from his administrative superiors but also from

political authorities, legislators, commercial and business interests and

other persons / quarters having interest or wielding influence.

In 1997, the Conference of Chief Ministers of States, convened

by the Government of India to consider ways of improving

performance and integrity of the public service, had recommended that

the existing rules and regulations should be amended within six

months to enable exemplary prosecution and removal of corrupt

officials and the weeding out of staff of doubtful integrity and that at

the same time, a suitable mechanism should be worked out to reward

employees who do good work. Since then, the Central Fifth Pay

Commission (1997), the Geethakrishnan Commission on Expenditure

Reforms (2001), the Surinder Nath Committee on Performance

Evaluation (2003), the P.C. Hota Committee on Civil Service Reform

(2004) and the Second Administrative Reforms Commission (2006-08)

have all produced voluminous Reports and recommendations on the

subject. In particular, the Hota Committee, dubbed as the „Committee

151

of Committees,‟ had studied and distilled the recommendations made

by preceding Committees, making its Report a useful anthology of

suggested Civil Service reforms. However, the general and

overwhelming impression is that all these Reports have been dealt with

in a routine manner, with cursory Action Taken Reports being

prepared, filed and forgotten. The prodigious research and intellectual

efforts of these Committees, not to mention the administrative and

financial resources expended on them, have been largely wasted.

My purpose in writing this rather long letter to you is essentially

to ascertain whether and what progress is being / has been made in

implementing some of these key reforms, which would undoubtedly

help to boost the morale of the higher Civil Services and arrest the

decline in standards of administration and governance which has so

sadly become the norm rather than the aberration today. It would be

useful to know whether some of the core recommendations made by

successive Commissions and Committees set up by the Government, as

listed above, are among those which the Government has taken up for

implementation.

Yours sincerely,

Sd/-

(T.S.R. Subramanian)

Shri Shantanu Consul,

Secretary (Personnel),

Department of Personnel and Training,

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions,

North Block, New Delhi.

Tel: 2309-4848/2309-2056

TRUE COPY

152

ANNEXURE P-9(Colly ii)

D.O. No. 14062/13/2010-AIS-III

SHANTANU CONSUL

Secretary GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

Tele : 23094848 DEPARTMENT OF PERSONNEL & TRAINING

: 23093056 MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL, PUBLIC

Fax : 23094500 GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS

NORTH BLOCK, NEW DELHI-110001

Website : http/www.persmin.nic.in

9th July, 2010

Dear Sri Subramanian,

I am sorry I have taken this unduly long time in replying to your

letter. I notice that the Cabinet Secretary has already addressed a

detailed letter to you in which almost all the issues raised by you have

been dealt with. I am, therefore, commenting on only a few issues in a

note which is enclosed.

2. It was very thoughtful of you to have taken time to address this

letter to me and the other officers. I look forward to receiving your

advice and guidance in future also.

With ward regards.

Yours sincerely,

Sd/-

(Shantanu Consul)

Shri T.S.R. Subramanian

Former Cabinet Secretary

“Guru Kripa”

74, Sector 15A

Noida - 201301

153

COMMENTS ON THE OBSERVATIONS CONTAINED IN THE LETTER OF

SHRI T.S.R. SUBRAMANIAN

1. Formal recording of oral instructions from higher authorities Rule

3 (3) (ii) and (iii) of the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968

envisage that:

(ii) The direction of the official superior shall ordinarily be in writing.

Where the issue of oral direction becomes unavoidable, the

official superior shall confirm it in writing immediately thereafter

(iii) A member of the Service who has received oral direction from

his official superior shall seek confirmation of the same in

writing, as early as possible and in such case, it shall be the duty

of the official superior to confirm the direction in writing.

The rule is amply clear. Strict implementation is required.

2. Weeding out of officers of doubtful integrity

As regards the issue of weeding out inefficient officers in the All

India Services, the matter of amending rule 16 (3) of AIS (OCRB)

Rules, 1958 and revision of the general policy guidelines regarding

premature retirement proposals / provisions taking into account the

Supreme Court Judgment in 2001 in the case of State of Gujarat Vs.

Umedbhai M. Patel has been under consideration. Rule 16(3) is

154

currently being re-examined in order to make it more stringent by

introducing a system of intensive review at the time of promotion both

at the Super-time and Above Super-time level.

3. Action taken on the recommendation of the Surinderanath

Committee report A Group was constituted in December 2002, under

the Chairmanship of Lt. Gen.(Retd) Surinder Nath, former Chairman of

UPSC, to review the present system of performance appraisal,

promotions and lateral movement in respect of the All India Services

and other Group A services and to make recommendations for

improvement.

The recommendations were examined by the Government. With

a view to improving the assessment of an officer's performance and

capabilities and to determine capacity building needs and suitability for

particular areas of responsibility / assignments, the old system of

writing of Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) has been replaced with

the system of Performance Appraisal Report (PAR) for officers

belonging to All India Services. Accordingly, the Government has

notified the All India Service (Performance Appraisal Report) Rules,

2007 on 14th March, 2007. The new system prescribes an interactive

method of evaluation in which the officers being appraised and the

Officer appraising, both are involved. The broad. contours of the

system include use of the performance appraisal for career planning

155

and training, preparation of a work-plan, health check up, introduction

of numerical gradings, disclosure of the report, etc.

4. Action Taken on Recommendation of the Hota Committee

(i) Officers must have Annual Performance Plan

The revised All India Services (Performance Appraisal Report)

Rules, 2007 provide that the exercise of preparation of a work plan is

to be carried out at the beginning of the year and finalized by 30th

April, positively. The work plan is to be reviewed during the month of

September/October as a mid-year exercise and finalized by 31st

October every year. With the introduction of Results Framework

Documents for the Department there will be greater integration of the

organisational goals with that of the individual performance.

(ii) Annual Property Returns of all public servants be put on the

website.

A proposal to place the Annual Property Returns of all the members of

the All India Services on the website is under active consideration of

this Department.

156

(iii) Suspension from service of All India Service officers by the State

Government will be invalid if not confirmed by the Government of India

within a period of 60 days.

Rule 3 of the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969 has

been amended in September, 2009 making a provision that suspension

of a member of the AIS shall not be valid if not confirmed by the

Government of India within a period of 45 days.

5. Action Taken on Recommendation of the 2nd Administrative

Reforms Commission

(i) Code of ethics and conflict of interest

Based on the recommendation of the 2nd Administrative Reforms

Commission in its 3rd Report on Ethics in Governance, a set of guiding

principles for the Civil Service Code of Ethics and Conduct for civil

servants and civil services in the Government has been included in the

proposed Civil Services Standards, Performance and Accountability Bill,

2010. The details in this regard are at Annexure-I.

(ii) Revamping the performance appraisal system

Based on the recommendation of the 2nd Administrative Reforms

Commission in its 10th Report, the performance appraisal system for

157

the members of the All India Services has already been modified in

2007. The details in this regard are at Annexure-II.

(iii) Enactment of a Civil Services Law

The proposed Civil Services Standards, Performance and

Accountability Bill, 2010, incorporating the recommendation of the 2nd

Administrative Reforms Commission is in an advanced stage of

finalisation.

158

Annexure-I

Civil Service Values, Civil Services Code of Ethics and Conduct, and

Civil Services Management Code

3. Values of Civil Services; (1) The civil services and civil servants

shall be guided by the following values in the discharge of their

functions:,

(a) High ethical standards.

(b) Absolute integrity.

(c) Political neutrality.

(d) Promoting of the principles of merit, fairness and impartiality

without regard to caste, community, religion, gender or class in

the discharge of duties.

(e) Accountability and transparency.

(f) Responsiveness to the public, particularly to the weaker section.

(g) Courtesy and good behaviour with the public.

(2) The Heads of Department or public authority shall be responsible

for promoting these values in their organisations.

(3) The Central Civil Services Authority may from time to time

review the adoption, adherence to and implementation of the

values of Civil Services, in the departments or public authority

under the Central Government and send reports to the

appropriate Department of the Central Government.

159

4. Civil Services Code of Ethics and Conduct: (1) The following shall

be the guiding principles for the Civil Service Code of Ethics and

Conduct for civil servants and civil services in the Government:

(i) Civil servants shall commit themselves to and uphold democratic

values and the supremacy of the Constitution.

(ii) Civil servants shall, at all times, defend and uphold the

sovereignty, integrity, security and fair name of the country.

(iii) Civil servants shall take decisions solely in terms of public

interest and use public resources efficiently, effectively and

economically.

(iv) Civil servants shall declare any private interests relating to their

public duties and take steps to resolve any conflicts in a way that

protects the public interest.

(v) Civil servants shall not place themselves under any financial or

other obligations to outside individuals or organizations that

might influence them in the performance of their official duties.

160

(vi) Civil servants shall not misuse their public positions to take

decisions in order to derive financial or material benefits for

themselves, their family or their friends.

(vii) Civil servants shall make choices, decisions and recommendations

on merit.

(viii) Civil servants shall act with fairness and impartiality and shall not

discriminate against anyone, particularly the poor and the under-

privileged.

(ix) Civil servants shall refrain from doing acts that are contrary to

extant laws, rules, regulations and established practices.

(x) Civil servants shall be accountable for their decisions and action

in the discharge of public affairs to the legitimate Government of

the day, and through the Government, to the public.

(xi) Civil servants shall maintain discipline in the discharge of their

duties and shall be liable to implement the legitimate orders duly

communicated to them.

(xii) Civil servants shall be liable to maintain confidentiality in the

performance of their official duties as required by the extant

laws in force, particularly with regard to information, disclosure

161

of which prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of

India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of

the State, relation with foreign countries or lead to incitement of

an offence or illegal or illegitimate gains to any person.

(xiii) Civil servants shall perform and discharge their duties with the

highest degree of professionalism and dedication to the best of

their abilities.

5. Breach of Civil Services Code of Ethics and Conduct :- (1) The

controlling authority or the disciplinary authority, as the case

may be, may, subject to the provisions of the Act, impose any of

the following sanctions on a civil servant for breaching the civil

services code of ethics and conduct :-

I. Censure

II. Withholding of promotions

III. Recovery of pay of the whole or part of pecuniary loss

caused to the Govt

IV. Withholding of increment

V. Reduction to a lower stage in the Pay Band

VI. Reduction to a lower Pay Band, Grade Payor Post

VII. Compulsory retirement

VIII. Removal from service

IX. Dismissal from service

162

(3) The general principles for initiating action for breach of the Civil

Services Code of Ethics and Conduct shall be that –

(a) these must comply with basic procedural requirements set

out in the Constitution, and this Act;

(b) these must have due regard to procedural fairness; and

(c) civil servants in the Department or public authority, shall

have ready access to the documents necessary during

such action.

6. Civil Services Management Code: (1) There shall be a Civil

Service Management Code for the civil services.

(2) The following shall be the guiding principles for the Civil Services

Management Code for the civil services:

(a) civil service is established as a highly professional, merit

based institution for promoting government policies and

good governance.

(b) Mechanisms and incentives will be put in place for civil

service to achieve and maintain high levels of productivity,

efficiency and excellence.

163

(c) Policies and structures Will be put in place which will

promote the viability and sustainability of civil service

keeping in view the finances of the Government, and

(d) The interface between the political executive and the civil

service shall be clearly established based on principles of

political neutrality, professional excellence and integrity.

164

Annexure-II

The salient features of the performance appraisal system under the All

India Services (Performance Appraisal Report) Rules, 2007

Only one reporting, reviewing and accepting authority - Only one

reporting, reviewing and accepting authority for a given period

of time. If more than one person supervises the performance of

the member of Service, the Government to identify the person to

report or review well in advance of the relevant assessment

year.

Disclosure of the full performance appraisal report.- Disclosure of

the full performance appraisal report, including the overall grade

and assessment of integrity to the officer reported upon after

finalisation by the accepting authority. The officer reported upon

has the option to give his comments on the assessment in terms

of attributes, work output and competency. If the comments are

accepted, performance appraisal report to be modified and the

decision and final grading to be communicated to the officer.

The officer reported upon may represent his case to the Referral

Board, which shall be confined to errors of facts. The decision of

the Referral Board shall be final.

Memorial.-The officer reported upon can prefer a memorial to

the President on the Performance Appraisal Report.

Annual medical health check-up,- Regular annual medical

examination mandatory for all officers above the age of 40. This

165

may be totally dispensed with officers below the age of 40,

except in case of medical incident. A copy of Part C of the health

check up report is to be attached to the PAR.

Work Plan.-The exercise of preparation of a work plan is to be

carried out at the beginning of the year and finalized by 30th

April, positively. The work plan to be reviewed during the month

of September/October as a mid-year exercise and finalized by

31st October.

Training requirement.-The officer reported upon to indicate

specific areas in which he/she feels the need to upgrade skills

and attend training programs.

Numerical grading - Numerical grade in respect of work output,

personal attributes and functional competencies.

Integrity - Integrity is to be recorded not only in relation to

matters relating to financial integrity but the moral and

intellectual integrity of the officer is also to be reported upon.

Pen picture - Pen picture on the overall qualities of the officer

including areas of strengths and lesser strengths, performance,

attitude towards weaker sections and recommendations relating

to domain assignment and an overall grade in the scale of 1-10

to be recorded by the reporting and reviewing authority. The

overall grade will be based on the addition of the mean value of

each group of indicators in proportion to weightage assigned.

Domain assignment.- Recommendations relating to domain

assignment to be given by the Reporting authority.

166

Schedule for completion of PARs - Schedule for completion of

PARs to be strictly followed and completed PAR should reach the

Cadre Controlling Authorities by 31st March of the following year.

If PAR is not recorded by 31st of December of the year in which

the financial year ended the officer is to be assessed on the

basis of the overall record and self-assessment for the year.

Cadre Controlling Authority to prepare a list of PARs not received

and follow up with the Secretaries of the concerned Ministries

and Chief Secretaries of the respective States. Secretary

(Personnel) in the State and the Establishment Officer in the

Centre shall be the Nodal officers to ensure that the PARs of the

members of Service.

Maintenance of personal dossier (CV)

i. A CV to be updated annually on the basis of the PAR / 5-

yearly CV update submitted by the appraisee

ii. PARs earned throughout the career

iii. Reports of medical check-up

iv. Certificates of training/academic courses/study leave

v. Details of books / articles / publications

vi. Appreciation letters from Government / Secretary / HOD /

Special bodies / Commissions

167

vii. Copy of order of penalty and final result of inquiry

viii. Warnings/displeasure/reprimands of Government

Disclosure of PAR: - Annual PAR, including the overall grade and

assessment of integrity shall be disclosed after finalisation by

accepting authority. Appraisee may give comments to the

Accepting Authority within 15 days and the comments shall be

restricted to specific factual observations. Reporting/Reviewing

Authority may accept I modify the PAR after consideration of the

representation and the decision and final grading shall be

communicated with reasons for non-acceptance of the views of

the Reporting/Reviewing authority. The Appraisee may represent

his case through Accepting Authority the Referral Board within 1

month. The Referral Board would consider the representation

and the decision of the Referral Board final. The Board may

“confirm or modify the performance appraisal report, including

the overall grade” with reasons are to be recorded in case of

upgradation or downgradation. Thereafter, The PAR process

would complete. Further relief to the Appraisee is to submit a

Memorial to the President as provided under Rule 25 of the AIS

(Discipline and Appeal ) Rules, 1969

168

ANNEXURE P-9(Colly iii)

T.S.R. Subramanian Ex-Cabinet Secretary “Guru Kripa” to the Government of India 74, Sector 15 A

Noida - 201 301 Phone : 0120 - 4334070

E-mail: tsrsubramanian@gmail.com

August 25, 2010

Dear Sri Consul

I thank you for your d.o. letter No. 14062/13/201O-AIS-III dated

9th July 2010, in response to my earlier letter to you raising certain

issues relating to administrative reforms. Indeed I thank you for the

trouble you have taken in compiling the reply. Since I have been

traveling for the past month or so, there has been a delay in

responding to you.

I had also sent a similar letter in May 2010 to the Cabinet

Secretary, to which he had been kind enough to respond in June 2010.

I have replied to him today, and am enclosing a copy of my reply,

which covers many of the points I wished to mention to you.

I also note that you now propose to bring the Annual Property

returns of all AIS officers on to a website. This is a useful move. You

may also consider including the property returns of all relatives (as

defined say for the Directors in companies); and may also include

moveable and immoveable property returns.

169

There is one other point on which I wish to comment. You had

referred to rule 3/3 (ii & iii) of AIS rules 1968 relating to the directions

being given by a superior to be in writing. However, the reality is that

instructions are conveyed to field officials as also to secretariat officials

on the phone or in a conversation by the private secretary or a person

close to the minister; in the field the directions are given by local

politicians or businessmen close to the Chief Minister or an important

political functionary. This malaise is much on the increase, and is

playing havoc with the quality of governance. Any official who does not

take heed to such advice could get transferred, or fall foul of the

regime. This is a harsh reality we all are aware of. Accordingly it will be

necessary to amend the rule to make it mandatory on the civil servant

to bring any advice, comment, direction, suggestion or prompting by

any official or non-official, through telephone or personal conversation,

relating to the discharge of his duties on record in writing. While this

may not totally eliminate the malpractice, this could certainly help

improve the present dismal situation. You may like to look into this -I

make the suggestion for whatever it is worth.

I note that you are anxious to improve the quality of

governance. I wish you all luck in this regard.

Yours sincerely, Sd/-

(T.S.R. Subramanian) Shri Shantanu Consul, Secretary Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, North Block,

New Delhi-110001.

TRUE COPY

170

ANNEXURE P-10(COLLY i)

CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE CHIEF VIGILANCE COMMISSIONER

T.S.R. Subramanian “Guru Kripa”

74, Sector 15 A

Noida - 201301

Phone 0120-2512865

E-mail: tsrsubramanian@gmail.com

May 17, 2010

Dear Sri Sinha,

As a civil servant, I was privileged to have occupied senior

positions in the Government, both at the Centre and in the State of my

allotment. Informal discussions with a fairly large number of former

colleagues who retired at senior levels have brought out the common

and deeply regretted concerns at the sharp and progressive

deterioration in the quality of governance and public administration in

India. For those of us who joined service in the first three decades

after independence, this decline is tragic and precipitous, pervasive

across the spectrum in practically every sector and too obvious to need

repetition.

The frequency and size of frauds which are being reported in the

press have grown exponentially and severely dented the

developmental process. The failure to effectively curb corruption and

the growth of the black economy are manifestations of pervasive policy

failure and poor governance which have in turn resulted in avoidable

poverty and unemployment, lower levels of human development, more

171

skewed distribution of income, poorer quality of infrastructure,

subversion of the political system, weakening of the institutions of

democracy, and increasing problems of law and order.

Whereas in earlier years it was only the odd official who was

financially corrupt, today financial probity seems to be at a premium in

the civil services. Information obtained through the Right to

Information Act shows that scores of officers from the IAS, IPS and

other key services continue to get promoted, posted to sensitive

positions and enjoy the benefits of power despite being charge-

sheeted by several anti-corruption agencies, in complete contravention

of the service rules framed by the Ministry of Personnel and the Union

Home Ministry.

In 1985, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had startled the

nation with his statement that only 17 paise out of every rupee spent

on Governmental programmes actually reached the common man.

There has been a marginal improvement in the last quarter century; a

recent study of the Public Distribution System found that 16 paisa out

of every rupee was reaching the targeted sections. These sobering

statistics point to the urgent need for reforming public administration

and delivery systems.

In this context, the establishment of the Central Vigilance

Commission as a statutory body had brought hope that the

172

Government‟s stated policy of zero tolerance for corruption would

henceforth be overseen and implemented by an independent body.

The CVC was set up as the premier statutory body for investigating

any transaction in which a public servant may have acted improperly or

in a corrupt manner, tender independent and impartial advice and

recommend appropriate action in disciplinary cases and for exercising

superintendence and check over vigilance and anti-corruption work in

the Government of India.

Some of the Commission‟s early initiatives, like the

creation of a website and recommending the use of

Information Technology by banks and other public institutions

to bring in transparency, as well as the decision to display the

names of senior officers who were charged with violating

conduct rules on the CVC website were widely welcomed. It

has been recently reported that, in March 2010, the CVC

disposed of 864 cases referred to it for advice, advising the

imposition of major penalty against 132 officers and that, on

the Commission‟s recommendations, the competent authorities

issued sanctions for prosecution against 42 officers.

While these are positive indications, the general

impressions is that the CVC‟s recommendations are largely

being ignored by Ministries, Departments and even by PSUs.

For example, the Minister of State for Personnel, Public

173

Grievances and Pensions, Shri Prithviraj Chavan, had recently

informed Parliament that the Government had „deviated‟ from

the CVC‟s advice in 38 cases. Of 27 cases in which the CVC

had recommended “major penalty” for errant officers, nine

ended in exoneration, six in “closure,” two in “warning”, two

in “censure”, seven in “minor penalty”, while in one case,

penalty was “not applicable.”

Similarly, some officials whose names have appeared on

the CVC website continue to occupy sensitive positions in

Government, although it is a first principle of administration

that if a person is facing a vigilance inquiry, he should not be

placed in a sensitive post. Again, although the CVC aims to

have all departmental inquiries completed within six months,

lengthy delays are the norm in the conduct of departmental

inquiries, providing a cover of respectability for the guilty and

helping corruption to flourish. Despite being dec lared null and

void by the Supreme Court in the Havala Case, the Single

Directive continues to be in force, debarring investigations

into any offence alleged to have been committed under the

Prevention of Corruption Act by officers of the level of joint

secretary and above without the prior approval of the

Government. Indeed, in his dissenting note on the Joint

Parliamentary Committee‟s Report on the CVC bill, Shri Kuldip

Nayar, Raja Sabha MP, had pointed out that providing this

174

type of immunity would mean that pliable public servants

“who carry out the errands of the political masters will go Scot

free” and “corrupt officers will rule the roost due to their

proximity to the seats of power.” This has indeed come to

pass.

It is unfortunate that, in Transparency International‟s Corruption

Perception Index for 180 countries, India's ranking has slipped from 73

in 1999 to 85 in 2008 and, after the CVC had contested the ranking, to

84 in 2009. This is certainly not evidence of zero tolerance for

corruption, which continues to flourish in India because it is perceived

to be a low risk, high profit business. Opaque and archaic rules and

procedures, significant delays in service delivery and lack of

accountability all provide opportunities for corruption, leading to a

situation where the size of the parallel economy is estimated at well

over 40% of the GDP. Moreover, far too little has been done to deter

corruption. Senior civil· servants have rarely been investigated or

punished and agencies such as the CBI or the Income Tax

Department, on which the CVC relies for conducting investigations,

have little credibility in the eyes of the public. It is clear that public

administration is hamstrung by corruption at various levels and indeed,

as documented by the N.N. Vohra Committee Report, by collusion

between some members of the civil service, the political establishment

and criminal elements. In short, the guardians of the system have

themselves sought to systematically subvert it to their private

175

advantage and the system has had no defence against such

subversion.

Over the years, the Government of India have set up a large

number of Commissions and Committees to study and make

recommendations on administrative and civil service reform. Many of

these Commissions and Committees have dealt at length and in detail

with the issue of corruption in public life. For example, the Santhanam

Committee on Prevention of Corruption (1962), the First Administrative

Reforms Commission (1966-70), the L.K. Jha Economic Administration

Reforms Commission (1983), the Conference of Chief Ministers of

States (1997), the Central Fifth Pay Commission (1997), the

Geethakrishnan Commission on Expenditure Reforms (2001), the

Surinder Nath Committee on Performance Evaluation (2003), the P.C.

Hota Committee on Civil Service Reform (2004) and the Second

Administrative Reforms Commission (2006-08) have all made

recommendations on the subject.

Based on these reports, it should be possible to put in place a

comprehensive and tough anti-corruption strategy, including the

following elements:

i. Immediate compulsory retirement of officials whose record

and reputation is tainted and prosecution of those against

whom there is evidence of corruption;

176

ii. Strengthening of powers of the state Vigilance

Departments, Lok Ayukta and the Anti-Corruption branch

of the State police enabling them to effectively initiate and

pursue investigations independently of government

direction;

iii. Guaranteed protection of civil servants who expose

corrupt practices;

iv. Annual awards for whistle-blowers in recognition of the

contribution made by such persons in exposing wrong-

doings in the government;

v. In particular, property and tax returns of all senior officers

should be available for scrutiny by the public. These could

be put on a „home page‟ of the government on the

Internet, so that anyone having access to Internet could

access such information and get in touch with government

if the stated facts are contrary to his knowledge;

vi. Each State should be asked to pass the Corrupt Public

Servants (Forfeiture of Property) Act, already drafted by

the Law Commission. This will ensure that the illegal

wealth of the corrupt is confiscated and is not enjoyed by

them. Under the Benami Transaction Prohibition Act of

1988, benami properties (bought in some one else's name

to avoid declaring the source income) can be confiscated.

The states should be asked to frame rules and procedure

177

for this law and the number of cases prosecuted under

this law should be monitored;

vii. Action against corrupt officers cannot be initiated in many

states as the power to sanction prosecution is vested in

state governments. This should be declared a semi-judicial

process, and the powers to sanction prosecution should be

vested with a designated authority, which should pass a

time - bound speaking order on receipt of complaint from

CBI or other agencies.

viii. Since much of the deterioration in the standards of probity

and accountability within the civil service can be traced to

the practice of issuing and acting on verbal instructions or

oral orders which are not recorded, it should be made

incumbent on every civil servant to formally record all

such instructions I orders I suggestions which he receives,

not only from his administrative superiors but also from

political authorities, legislators, commercial and business

interests and other persons / quarters having interest or

wielding influence.

The implementation of these steps will go a long way in creating

confidence in the public mind that the government means business

and is serious about eradicating corruption.

178

My purpose in writing this rather long letter to you is to ascertain

how the CVC, as the premier anti - corruption body in the country,

plans to deal with the systemic and long-term deficiencies which have

led to the present situation, characterized by disturbing trends in

regard to corruption and falling standards of probity and integrity in

the civil services. Beyond the day-to-day disposal of pending cases,

does the CVC have a long term plan to cleanse the system and

improve standards of governance to an acceptable level? Has the CVC

advised the Government to implement specific anticorruption measures

which have been recommended by successive Commissions and

Committees set up by the Government of India? (2006-08) ? Has the

CVC put its weight behind a long-term strategy to combat corruption in

public life? If so, can this be put on the website or otherwise shared

with the public? If not, why not?

These are no doubt hard questions, but they are integral to the

efficacy of the CVC and its ability to discharge its statutory

responsibilities and indeed to the future growth and development

prospects of India as a whole. I would be grateful for a reply.

Yours sincerely, Sd/-

(T.S.R. Subramanian) Shri Pratyush Sinha, Chief Vigilance Commissioner, Central Vigilance Commission, Satarkta Bhawan, GPO Complex, Block-A, INA, New Delhi - 110 023. Tel: 2465-1020

TRUE COPY

179

ANNEXURE P-10(COLLY ii)

D.O. No. CVC/2010/96433

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

CENTRAL VIGILANCE COMMISSIONER

Pratyush Sinha Satarkta Bhawan

G.P.O. Complex, Block A, INA

New Delhi 110023.

August 2, 2010

Dear Shri Subramanian,

Many thanks for your letter dated 17th May, 2010 and your views

regarding the state of corruption in India. There has been some delay

in replying to your letter because I was waiting for the two vacancies

of the Vigilance Commissioner to be filled so that we could discuss

your suggestions in the Commission meeting. That now may have to

wait for some more time. In the meanwhile, I am enclosing a short

note on the new initiatives taken by the Commission. You are aware

that the CVC‟s jurisdiction stops with the Government of India

organizations and agencies. We are also finalizing a draft National Anti-

corruption Strategy which will then be discussed with all the stake

holders before it is sent to the Government for its adoption.

With regards.

Yours Sincerely Sd/-

(Pratyush Sinha) Shri T.S.R. Subramanian “Guru Kripa” 74, Sector-15A NOIDA-201 301

180

New initiatives taken by the Commission

1. An important requirement for promoting integrity is to have an

effective and coordinated anti-corruption policy. What exist

presently are various circulars, guidelines or instructions issued

by various agencies including the CVC from time to time. The

Prime Minister Office has also issued instructions on Zero

Tolerance to corruption which serves as a guiding document.

Besides, anti-corruption measures are pursued' by various

Ministries as an internal part of schemes run by them. A need

was therefore felt to have a National Anti-Corruption Strategy

(NACS)as an overarching policy document to be adopted by the

government, as is the practice in most of the countries. The

independent Anti-Corruption Commissions of these countries

have played a leading role in helping the government formulate

such a strategy. The CVC has therefore undertaken the task of

helping the Government by formulating a' draft National Anti-

Corruption Strategy.

2. Commission has been placing greater emphasis on prevention

which is a more efficient and effective means of checking

corruption. A preventive vigilance framework is being prepared

by SCOPE which aims at aligning the vigilance work with the

modern day approach of risk management and corporate

governance.

181

3. One of the Commission‟s strategy has been to create awareness

and educate the public on anti-corruption. The aim is to reduce

people‟s tolerance for corruption and reduce its social

acceptability. The Commission has initiated a project for

generation of awareness among the people. It is proposed to

engage media agencies to create campaign in the electronic and

print media besides posters and leaflets.

4. Leveraging of technology to prevent corruption has been an

important initiative of the Commission since 2004. This was

implemented as a two-phased programme of persuading the

organisations to computerise the activities vulnerable to

corruption. This has been successful to a large extent and the

efforts of the Commission have been quoted as a best practice

by the OECD. The Commission is now reviewing this programme

so as to implement the next stage with a renewed focus.

5. The Commission has been promoting, the concept of Integrity

Pact developed by Transparency International since Nov. 2007.

More than 50 organisations including the ministries conducting

major procurements have adopted" the Integrity Pact so far and

the experience has been satisfactory. The CVC nominates the

IEMs who monitor the Integrity Pact.

182

6. The provision for whistle blowers and their protection is already

in place since 2004 under the Public Interest' Disclosure &

Protection of Informers‟ Resolution (PIDPIR)wherein CVC is the

authority to handle the “whistle blower complaints” and provide

protection to the “whistle blowers”. CVC has been paying

especial attention to complaints received under this Resolution to

investigate them in a time bound manner with due protection to

the complainants.

7. Workflow automation and IT enabling of the functioning of the

Commission is under implementation wherein about 30%

progress has been made. The project is targeted to be

completed by 1st August, 2010. This would enhance the

efficiency of the Commission‟s work besides enhancing data

management.

8. The important developments pertaining to International

Cooperation in Anti Corruption is listed below:

a) India had signed the United Nations Convention against

Corruption in 2005. The CVC had given its comments on the

matter and the government is in the final stages of ratifying the

convention.

183

b) The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

(OECD), Anti-Bribery Convention aims at tackling corruption in

international business transactions. India has been granted the

„Observer‟ status in the Anti-Bribery Working Group of OECD.

The Commission is in the process of studying the implications of

the Convention for India.

c) The Central Vigilance Commissioner of India has been a member

of the Executive Board of International Association of Anti

Corruption Agencies (IMCA) since 2007.

d) The Parliamentary Committee of Indonesia (consisting of 8 MPs)

which deals with anti corruption had visited the CVC during

March, 2010. The Indonesian Commission wants to engage with

the CVC for further cooperation in the field of anti corruption.

e) The Anti Corruption Commission of Sri Lanka (CIABOC) had

requested the CVC for organising training in investigation for its

officers. Training has been organized in the CBI Academy.

184

ANNEXURE P -11 (COLLY i)

T.S.R. Subramanian

Ex-Cabinet Secretary “Guru Kripa”

to the Government of India 74, Sector 15 A

Noida - 201 301

Phone : 0120 - 4334070

E-mail: tsrsubramanian@gmail.com

May 17, 2010

Dear Dr. Veerappa Moily,

As a civil servant, I was privileged to have occupied senior

positions in the Government, both at the Centre and in the State of my

allotment. Over the past few years, I have been exchanging notes on

an informal basis with a fairly large number of former colleagues who

have similarly retired from the Government at senior levels. These

discussions have highlighted the common and deeply felt concerns at

the sharp and progressive deterioration in the quality of governance

and public administration in India. For those of us who joined service

in the first three decades after independence, this decline seems tragic

and precipitous, pervasive across the spectrum in practically every

sector and too obvious to need repetition.

Sir, as Chairman of the Second Administrative Reforms

Commission, you have expertise and in-depth knowledge of these

issues; and as the Law Minister you are in a unique position to take

steps to implement the much needed and long-overdue reform of

public administration. The fifteen Reports of the Commission, and in

particular. The path-breaking Reports on the Right to Information,

185

Ethics in Governance and Citizen-Centric Administration, contain a

large number of specific recommendations which, if implemented in

letter and spirit, will dramatically improve the substance of

governance, delivery of public services and efficacy of government

policies and programmes. In this context, it was heartening to hear the

Finance Minister say, in his recent Budget Speech in Parliament, that

out of the 800 recommendations of the Second ARC which have been

identified for implementation, 350 have been implemented so far and a

further 450 are under implementation.

Over the years the Government of India, as. well as the State

Governments, have set up a large number of Committees and

Commissions to study and make recommendations on administrative

and civil service reforms. Apart from recommendations dealing with the

structural improvement of the administrative machine and more

efficient methods of personnel management, these Reports have

uniformly stressed the need to preserve the integrity and

independence of the Civil Services and to insulate them from undue

interference from the political establishment. While incremental

reforms have no doubt been made on the basis of these Reports,

largely in relation to operational matters like recruitment, training,

acquisition of domain knowledge, etc., the general and overwhelming

impression is that many of the core recommendations contained in all

these Reports have been dealt with in a routine manner, with cursory

Action Taken Reports being prepared, filed and forgotten. These game

186

- changing recommendations would help to address the pressing issues

of probity, integrity and accountability of the Civil Service, as well as

the preservation of its core values and independence and enable it to

play its appointed role of impartial adviser and faithful implementer of

policies arrived at in a transparent and rational manner, after due

consideration of the pros and cons and keeping in view the

paramountcy of the public interest.

I take the liberty of listing some of these recommendations:

a) The Santhanam Committee on Prevention of Corruption (1962)

had recommended that the annual immovable property

statements, which have been found to serve no useful purpose,

should be replaced by a periodic complete statement of the

assets and liabilities of each Government servant. The Hota

Committee had recommended that the Annual Property Return

of all public servants should be put on the website. Indeed,

there is no reason why the assets of all public servants (civil and

political) should not be made public each year and allowed to be

freely accessed under the RTI Act.

b) Government should be empowered to confiscate the property of

public servants who have unaccounted wealth by enacting the

Corrupt Public Servants (Forfeiture of Property) Bill as suggested

by the Law Commission (Second ARC). This will be fully in

187

keeping with the observations of the Supreme Court in a number

of cases. To this end, Rules should be framed under the Benami

Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988, for attachment/forfeiture of

benami / ill-gotten property of corrupt public servants. (Hota

Committee, Second ARC).

c) The Santhanam and Hota Committees had both opined that

Article 311 of the Constitution unjustifiably protracts disciplinary

proceedings against civil servants by mandating a series of

government approvals which lead to frustrating delays.

Disciplinary proceedings involving charges of bribery, corruption

and lack of integrity should be treated as a separate category

under a simplified procedure (Santhanam). Prior sanction should

not be necessary for prosecuting a public servant who has been

trapped red-handed or in cases of possessing assets

disproportionate to the known sources of income (Second ARC).

Article 311 of the Constitution should be amended to enable the

President / Governor to dismiss / remove public servants

summarily in case of corrupt practice / having assets

disproportionate to known source of income. The officer

concerned may be given a post-decisional hearing to prove his

innocence (Hota); the Supreme Court has affirmed the

Constitutional validity of this procedure.

188

d) Politicians should be treated as public servants, subject to

judicial checks and administrative and financial disciplines similar

to those applicable to bureaucrats. The Santhanam Committee

had recommended this way back in 1962 and the Second ARC

has recently suggested that suitable amendments be effected to

the Constitution to provide that the immunity enjoyed by MPs

and MLAs does not cover corrupt acts committed by them in

connection with their duties in the House or otherwise. While the

Supreme Court has also upheld this view, in practice there has

been very little accountability of the political class in terms of the

laws of the land.

e) Much of the deterioration in the standards of probity and

accountability within the civil service can be traced to the

practice of issuing and acting on verbal instructions or oral

orders which are not recorded. It should be made incumbent on

every civil servant to formally record all such instructions /

orders / suggestions which he receives, not only from his

administrative superiors but also from political authorities,

legislators, commercial and business interests and other persons

/ quarters having interest or wielding influence.

f) A comprehensive and tough anti-corruption strategy should be

put in place, including the following elements:

189

g) Immediate compulsory retirement of officials whose record and

reputation is tainted, and prosecution of those against whom

there is evidence of corruption (Hota);

h) Strengthening of powers of the state Vigilance Departments, Lok

Ayukta and the Anti-Corruption branch of the State police

enabling them to effectively initiate and pursue investigations

independently of government direction (Hota, Second ARC);

i) Guaranteed protection of civil servants who expose corrupt

practices (Second ARC) and institution of annual awards for

whistle-blowers in recognition of their contribution in exposing

wrong-doings in the government;

j) Action against corrupt officers cannot be initiated in many states

as the power to sanction prosecution is vested in state

governments. This should be declared a semi-judicial process,

and the powers to sanction prosecution should be vested with a

designated authority, which should pass a time - bound speaking

order on receipt of complaint from CBI or other agencies.

k) A State of Governance Report should be brought out evaluating

the performance of each State on the basis of a set of

parameters of good governance (Hota).

190

l) The Prevention of Corruption Act should be amended to provide

for a special offence of „collusive bribery‟; if it is established that

the interest of the state or public has suffered because of an act

of a public servant, then the court shall presume that the public

servant and the beneficiary of the decision committed an offence

of „collusive bribery‟ (Second ARC).

m) Both the Hota Committee and the Second ARC had

recommended that a new Civil Service Law should be enacted

incorporating a statement of values and a code of ethics for civil

servants with reference to political impartiality, ethical standards

and accountability for actions.

n) Practically all Commissions and Committees dealing with

administrative reform have stressed the need for transfers at all

levels to be handled in a non-political, non-partisan, open and

transparent manner. A rational transfer policy should eliminate

the „transfer industry‟, do away with politicized transfers, curb

the overall incidence of transfers, remove uncertainty and imbue

officers with a certain security of tenure in every post and should

be seen as being fair and objective. Transfers should not be

ordered as punishment; if an employee is found remiss in his

duties, he should be proceeded against departmentally.

191

The Conference of Chief Ministers (1997) had recommended the

constitution of Civil Services Boards in different States presided over by

the respective Chief Secretaries (on the pattern of the Establishment

Board of the Government of India presided over by the Cabinet

Secretary) to assist the political executive and streamline the policy of

transfers and promotions based on identifiable criteria. While some

States have subsequently set up such Boards by executive order, they

have failed to inspire confidence as, more often than not, they have

merely formalized the wishes of their Chief Ministers in matters of

transfer of officials.

Several Committees, including Hota and the Second ARC, have

stressed that a guaranteed minimum tenure for Secretaries to

Government, Heads of Departments and other senior officials is the

only effective solution. Indeed, the Hota Committee had recommended

a statutory barrier to frequent transfer of senior officials through the

establishment of a Civil Services Board / Establishment Board, both in

the States and at the Centre, under a

Civil Services Act. The recommendations of such a Board must

normally be binding on the Government. If, for any reason, the

Government decides not to implement the recommendations, it must

pass a self-contained order on the subject and place a statement on

the Table of the Legislature. These particularly apply to State

Governments.

192

Similarly, the Second ARC had recommended the creation of a

Central Civil Services Authority as a statutory body under a Civil

Services Act. The Authority shall be a five-member body consisting of

persons of eminence in public life and professionals with acknowledged

contributions to society appointed by the President on the

recommendation of a Committee consisting of the Prime Minister and

the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. The Authority would,

inter alia, formulate norms and guidelines and recommend names of

officers for posting at „Senior Management Levels‟ in the Government.

It would fix tenure for all civil service positions and this should be

binding on the Government. State Governments should take steps to

constitute State Civil Services Authorities on the lines of the Central

Civil Services Authority.

Sir, I apologize in advance for writing such a long letter.

However, a large number of civil servants and members of the general

public are concerned that these eminently sensible recommendations,

made by successive expert Commissions and Committees appointed by

the Government, have remained on paper without being implemented

over long periods of time. My purpose in writing to you is essentially to

ascertain whether and what progress is being / has been made in

implementing these key reforms, which would undoubtedly help to

boost the morale of the higher Civil Services and arrest the decline in

standards of administration and governance which has so sadly

become the norm rather than the aberration today. It would be useful

193

to know whether some of the core recommendations of earlier

Committees, as listed above, are among those which the Government

has taken up for implementation.

Yours sincerely,

Sd/-

(T.S.R. Subramanian)

Dr. M. Veerappa Moily,

Minister for Law & Justice,

Ministry of Law and Justice,

4th Floor, A-Wing,

Shastri Shawan,

New Delhi-110 001

TRUE COPY

194

ANNEXURE P -11 (COLLY ii)

T.M. VEERAPPA MOILY

MINISTRY OF LAW & JUSTICE

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

402, „A‟ WING, SHASTRI BHAWAN,

Dr. RAJENDRA PRASAD ROAD

NEW DELHI – 110 015

D.O. No. MLJ/2010/-3173 May 24, 2010

Dear Shri Subramanian ji,

I have received your letter dated 17th May, 2010 and thank you

for the useful suggestions made by you.

2. I would like to meet you some time.

With regards.

Yours sincerely

Sd/-

(Dr. M. Veerappa Moily)

Shri T.S.R. Subramanian,

Ex-Cabinet Secretary to the Govt. of India

74, Sector 15-A,

NOIDA- 201 301

TRUE COPY