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Monday, June 20, 2016

My opinion piece: Sly machinations of the officialdom can reduce Political Executive and the Higher Bureaucracy to a naught

Sly machinations of the officialdom can reduce Political Executive and the Higher Bureaucracy to a naught (Published @ The Quint)

File noting initiators are experts at deriving incorrect decisions from the political executive which may militate against the broad stated policy of the Government. Political will, thus, must be imposed with an iron hand.

Navdeep Singh


Having dealt with litigation and public policy for long, one thing that constantly bothers me is the lack of proper inputs to the political executive and even to the senior bureaucracy finally leading to improper decisions which do not reflect the collective will of the Government but only the personal opinions and limited understanding, or lack thereof, of the army of section officers and under secretaries who initiate file notings, ultimately resulting in issuance of policies that at times militate against the broad stated position of the Government itself. In the end, the restrictive and limited understanding of the initiators of the file notings at the lowest echelons of the Government is imposed upon millions of citizens in the form of public policy, which, good or bad, the Government later has to defend even when genuinely attacked, and which, even if realized to be imbalanced, is not usually rescinded since it becomes a prestige issue for the higher ones who signed it.

I was reminded of this disturbing reality again while going through a recent Office Memorandum (OM) issued by the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) on the subject of litigation, issued on 7th of June. But more on it later in this piece.

It needs no emphasis that our Courts are overburdened with litigation, especially appeals and challenges initiated by the Government and its instrumentalities. The Government, over the years, has become a compulsive litigant rather than a responsible one. The reason is simple- the Government is faceless and responsibility is seldom fixed on individual personalities, and there is no personal financial pain involved since it is the taxpayers’ money that is squandered on litigation.

Alive to this, the Prime Minister commendably conveyed to various departments that such litigation should be decreased and even disputes within various departments and Ministries should be resolved. The Law Minister further, as he has made publicly known, is trying to tune-up a new National Litigation Policy, which besides other measures, would be attempting to curb irresponsible litigation initiated by the Government and its agencies.

But the situation on ground is quite hazy. One latest example of this condition is the above mentioned Office Memorandum. To put it crudely, the said circular, by a sleight of hand, wants to put to naught the efforts of the current regime, the endeavour of the Law Minister and even honest legal opinion recorded on file.

Since on many occasions, when Courts render decisions which are perceivably against policy as interpreted by DoPT, the Law Ministry opines that the decision should be implemented without filing any appeal, the DoPT has found a unique solution, and that is, by way of an innocuous looking line in Paragraph 1(a) of the OM it has decided to do away with the process of referring the file to the Department of Legal Affairs of the Law Ministry altogether and rather to go in for an appeal if the matter is perceived to be against ‘policy of the DoPT’. Needless to state, this practically means that appeals shall be filed in almost all cases where positive decisions are rendered by Courts and Tribunals in favour of employees since in the first place such employees would have taken recourse to judicial remedy only when their departments would have rejected their claims based on their interpretation of ‘Government Policy’. Of course, the reality also is that more often than not, appeals and reviews are filed in employment related service matters not out of any genuine reasons or judiciousness, but out of ego and prestige. As far as litigation is concerned, the Government has always been trigger-happy, and the only speed-breaker, at times, was the candid legal advice by the Department of Legal Affairs, which is its first bounden duty under the Allocation of Business Rules, and with that now out of the way, the raging bulls of litigation are bound to have a free run putting the efforts of the Prime Minister and the Law Minister to jeopardy.

So what is the solution? The quest for an answer to this is admittedly not an easy task. But then some very basic steps can be taken:

(a) Follow a collegiate method of decision-making rather than the one-way file noting system. Make face to face meetings by the competent final authority more frequent where polices or even regular decisions affecting the public, before issuance, are thrashed out and brainstormed rather than relying upon notes put up from below. Look beyond the comfort zone of the coterie that insulates from practical ground realties.

(b) Follow a more aggressive system of stake-holder consultation to get a well-rounded view of the issue at hand. For example, on the issue of litigation or public policy, the authority empowered to take a decision, while retaining that right to take a decision, must consult all stake-holders, experts and also representatives of the affected parties so that he or she gets an unbiased 360 degree viewpoint rather than just the perspective of the official establishment. In such meetings, there exists the very useful opportunity of rebutting incorrect or imbalanced views which might go unchecked on file when there is nobody to counter them. The regular meetings of the Standing Committee of Voluntary Agencies (SCOVA) and Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM) under the same DoPT are worth emulating in other spheres of policy making.  

(c) Ensure that the political will is enforced with an iron hand. India is a democracy where the desire of the political executive should reign supreme. Once a particular pro-people broad decision on public policy is taken, any projection of hurdles should not be accepted and a strong top-down approach must be maintained.

All of us must understand that since times immemorial, our governance and policy have been slaves to ego-enhancement tools of those in key positions, even if at junior levels, where the ability of creating impediments for the public or to make the masses run around in circles, are symbols of power, prestige and a perverted form of augmentation of self-esteem. In such a scenario, our Ministers must understand that officials down the chain would not want to let go of the power concentrated in a few hands- such officials thrive on the sadistic pleasure from red-tape and license-raj, they love the way they can derive decisions out of generalists and political leaders, and thus to overly rely upon such elements would be the greatest disservice to what our nation, incidentally a democracy, stands for.

India should be governed by robust policies made for public good powered by good intentioned outlook of a strong political executive, and not by the personal opinion of some bored babu sitting in the corner of some dull room in Delhi wanting to impose his or her limited exposure and approach upon us. Representatives of the people must apply mind and should not be taken for a ride, you are answerable to the people, not that babu.

Political executive, please stand up and take charge!  

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Major Navdeep Singh is a practicing Advocate in the Punjab & Haryana High Court. He was the founding President of the Armed Forces Tribunal Bar Association. He is a Member of the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War at Brussels. He was also a Member of a Committee of Experts constituted by the Defence Minister on directions of the Prime Minister to reduce litigation initiated by the Ministry of Defence. 

5 comments:

Sahana R said...

What has been stated by you is the fundamentals and basic thesis of the democracy. In country where minds have been feudal since time immemorial and there is a great chasm between the giver and the receiver, this aana-data attitude suits them well.
Our society is not talent driven power driven.
After the independence the quality of the polity soon started adulterating like present day milk where you pray that gutter water is not delivered and in this transient mode bureaucracy saw its role in power positioning & taste of blood.
Soon the polity started getting populated more and more by the goons, uneducated and the unethical practitioners ,so much so that even the so cosy and job secured bureaucrats were brow beaten in line to accept their hierarchy.
Hierarchy of what... not the public service but self service and nepotism and bureaucrats were more than happy to become the arms of extension and safe executers for the politicians.
System is now so skewed that best of the talent cannot become the RBI Governor or FTII or Finance Commission head and many similar posts.
IAS has ensured it will become the chairman of Dairy Board , Port chairman to Housing board and you name it .. the post are reserved.
Politicians are happy doing same with the positions of Governors to the heads of all Institutions.
In navy we call – only shit floats and bigger it is .. more aggressively it sticks together. For army you can find some better example.

Navdeep-ji who is interested in fair play and in this the most abused word is “Nationalism”.
Infact I have been told it serves bureaucracy and politicians alike if the judiciary does not function and then who suffers. One way is to choke it even more than what it is now and one day judiciary will accept the NJAC or the political cum bureaucracy supremacy.
To hell with the justice and its disposal ...

All India Ex-Services Welfare Association said...

Major Navdeep Singh, Advocate Punjab & Har High Court has written his thought in a very well manner/language that can be understood by everyone. His thoughts/idea really touched to our heart because he has written fact and real picture. Every politician answerable to public themselves and not babudom sitting in the closed room. Hence I respect the views of Major Navdeep Singh.
thanks
Nahar Singh

Manohar said...

The Office Memorandum issued on 7th of June by the Department of Personnel & Training on the subject of litigation reflects the egoistic attitude of the bureaucracy. As far as the political setup is concerned, they are impotent to outdo these adamant reactions to any opposition to their whimsical policy makings.

Synapse said...

While this is true for notings in the Ministry, within army too an equally dangerous trend exists. No approving authority is willing to overrule/disagree to a recommendation made by his junior. So the junior is told to ammend the proposal/recommendation to match the desires of approving authority. The noting keeps going back till it reaches the initiator. He then re-writes what is desired while all superioirs in the hirarchy agree to his proposal duly recommending it. Most often the initiator is in totally disagrement to what he is signing.

Unknown said...

I appreciate the knowledge, wisdom and balanced mind of Major Navdeep Singh as his blog on decision making process in Govt is excellent piece of work. I recall recommendations of 5th CPC wherein it was strongly proposed to reduce levels of officials writing on Noting sheets to 3.There were many other path breaking recommendations by 5th CPC. These were not accepted by the Govt. Somewhat similar exercise was carried out by the then CM Shri Chander Babu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh around the year 2000 and it had improved speed as well as quality of decisions.

The concept of many levels of Commissioned Officers or Gp C to Gp A in Civil services making remarks on the files in higher HQs or Ministries has insulated the top brass from the pain of the citizens or the affected group of persons about whom decisions are taken. If someone puts up the recommendations of 5th CPC to The present Govt for a review, may be we become a progressive Nation by reducing cost of governing the country (and of the Govt employees itself). Then taxpayer will also respect the efficient governance and willingly pay for the cause of Nation building and not for salary and perks of GROUP of INEFFICIENT (GoI) calling themselves as GOVERNMENT of INDIA (GoI).