4.10. Depoliticization of Civil Services

Following are the recommendations of 2nd ARC on relations between political executive and civil servants:

♤ 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.

♤ While examining the definition of corruption under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, the “abuse of authority unduly favouring or harming someone” and “obstruction of justice” should be classified as an offence under the Act.

♤ 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:

o Well-defined procedure for recruitment to all government jobs.

o Wide publicity and open competition for recruitment to all posts.

o Minimisation, if not elimination, of discretion in the recruitment process.

o Selection primarily on the basis of written examination or on the basis of performance in existing public/board/university examination with minimum weight to interview.

To insulate the bureaucracy from political interference and to put an end to frequent transfers of civil servants by political bosses, the Supreme Court in 2013 issued a series of directions to insulate civil servants from political influence. Following are the directions issued by the Supreme Court in T.S.R. Subramanian and others vs. Union of India:

♤ Officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), other All India Services and other civil servants were not bound to follow oral directives, since they "undermine credibility". All actions must be taken by them on the basis of written communication.

♤ Establishment of a Civil Services Board (CSB), headed by the Cabinet Secretary at the national level and chief secretaries at the state level, to recommend transfers and postings of All India Services (IAS, IFS and IPS) officers. Their views could be overruled by the political executive, but by recording reasons only.

♤ Parliament to enact a Civil Services Act under Article 309 of the Constitution setting up a CSB

♤ There should be fixed minimum tenure.

♤ Group 'B' officers would be transferred by heads of departments (HoDs).

♤ No interference of ministers, other than the chief minister, in transfers or postings of civil servants.