public interest writ petition, the apex court gave its ruling? Petitioners included former cabinet secretary TSR Subramanian, former India’s ambassador to US Abid Hussain, former chief election commissioner TS Krishna Murthy, former Delhi Police chief and ex-Governor, Ved Prakash Marwah and former Maruti boss and ex-bureaucrat Jagdish Khattar etc. (Full List of 83 petitioners below).
The Court in its ruling said that fixed
tenure of bureaucrats will “promote professionalism, efficiency and good
governance.” In the petition filed in February, 2011, the former government
officials said that the need of giving fixed tenure to civil servants was
reiterated by every commission or committee in the last 50 years. “The Government
of India will have to ensure minimum tenure, 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 of 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,” the petition said.
On the need of recording instructions from
political bosses, the petitioners asked: “Every civil servant formally records 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 business interests and other persons/quarters
having interest, wielding influence…”.
The Apex Court has agreed to such a system.
The SC Bench said: “Where in exceptional circumstances, action has to be taken
on the basis of oral directions, it is mandatory for the officer superior to
confirm the same in writing. The civil servant, who has received such
information, in turn, is required to seek confirmation of the directions in
writing as early as possible and it is the duty of the officer superior to confirm
the direction in writing.”
The Court said that there must be “some
records to demonstrate how the civil servant has acted, if the decision is not
his, but if he is acting on oral directions, instructions, he should record
such directions in the file.” After all, if the civil servant is acting on oral
directions or dictation of anybody, he will be taking a risk, because he cannot
later take the stand the decision was in fact not his own, the Bench added. “Recording
of instructions, directions is, therefore, necessary for fixing responsibility
and ensuring accountability in the functioning of civil servants and to uphold
institutional integrity,” the ruling said.
List of 83 former bureaucrat petitioners
1.
TSR Subramanian
Former Cabinet Secretary, GoI
2.
Abid Hussain
Former Ambassador of India to US
3.
TS Krishna Murthy
Former Chief Election Commissioner
4. N
Gopalaswami
Former Chief Election Commissioner of India
5. Ved
Prakash Marwah,
Former Delhi Police Commissioner,
Former Governor of Manipur, Mizoram and
Jharkhand.
6. Bhure Lal
Former Secretary to Government of India,
Former Chairman of the
Environment Pollution (Prevention)
Control Authority (EPCA)
7. NC Saxena
Former Secretary, Planning Commission of
India
8.
Jagdish Chandra Pant
Former Secretary to Government of India
9. Surendra Narain Mathur
Former MD, Indian Railway Finance Corporation
10. Arvind Varma
Former Secretary, Ministry of Chemicals and
Petroleum, GoI
11. Prem Narain Mittal
Former Member (Investigation) CBDT
12. Keki Daruwalla
Former Special Assistant to the Prime
Minister on International Affairs
13. RL Narayan,
Former High Commissioner to Canada
14. Ajay Prasad
Former Secretary, Civil Aviation, GoI
15. Sharad Chandra Behar
Former Chief Secretary, Madhya Pradesh
16. Nirmala Buch
Former Secretary to GoI, Ministry of Rural
Development
17. Arundhati Ghose
Former Ambassador to United Nations Offices
in Geneva
18. Amitabh Chandra
Former Principal Secretary, Medical
Education and Drugs Department,
Government of Maharashtra
19. Nripendra Misra
Former Chairperson, Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India
20.
Sivaramakrishnan S Natarajan
Former Chairman, Ordinance Factory Board
and Director General, Ordinance Factories, Ministry
of Defence
21. Joginder Singh
Former Director, CBI
22. Bahukutumbi Raman
Former Additional Secretary, Cabinet
Secretariat,
Government of India
23. BK Ratnakar Rao
Former Secretary (Security),
Cabinet Secretariat,
Government of India
24. Arun Bhagat
Former Director, IB, Government of India
25. Sushil Tripathi
Former Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and
Natural Gas, GoI
26. Rajinder Jit Khurana
Former Chairman, Joint Intelligence
Committee,
Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India
Former Secretary to the Government of India
27. Krishna V Rajan
Former Secretary, Ministry of External
Affairs,
Government of India
28. Rakesh K Mittal
Former Social Welfare Commissioner, Uttar
Pradesh
29. Amar Nath Ram
Former Secretary, Ministry of External
Affairs, GoI
30
Raj K Bhargava
Former Home Secretary, Government of India
31. Kewal Ram Bhati
Former Vice Chairman,
Uttarakhand Public Services Tribunal,
Dehradun
32. S Chakravarthy
Former Member, Monopolies and Restrictive
Trade
Practice Commission, GoI
33. Shailaja Chandra
Former Chairperson, Public Grievances
Commission and
Appellate Authority under Delhi Right to
Information Act, 2001,
Government of NCT of Delhi
34. Francis Thomas Raphael Colaso
Former Director General of Police, Karnataka
35. Ravindra Gupta
Former Secretary Heavy Industries and
Public Enterprises
36. Siddharth Kak
Former Member
Customs Central Board of Excise and Customs
(Spl. Secretary)
37. Ajit
Kumar
Former Finance Secretary, Government of
India
38. Jagdish Khattar
Former Joint Secretary, Ministry of Steel, GoI
Former Maruti Chief
39. Mano Ranjan
Former Secretary, Ministry of Steel,
Government of India
40. Pravin
Chandra Sharma
Former Member, Board of Revenue Uttar
Pradesh
Former Chairman, Uttar Pradesh State Roads
Corporation
41. HH Vishwanathan
Former High Commissioner of India to
Nigeria
42. Sarita Prasad, Former Secretary,
Ministry of
Social Justice and Empowerment, GoI
43. NK Sabharwal
Former Director, Cooperation for
Development
Bureau for Asia and the Pacific at the
World Intellectual Property Organisation
(WIPO)
44. Varghese Alexander Valiaparampil
Former Adviser Transport, Planning
Commission of India
45. P Venkatarama Venkatakrishnan
Former Chairman, Pollution Control Board,
Chennai
Former Member, Central Administrative
Tribunal
46. K
Aggarwal, Former Principal Advisor, Planning
Commission, Government of India
47. Kamal Nain Bakshi
Former Ambassador of India to Italy
48. Bhagirath Lal Das
Former Secretary, Department of Steel, Government of India
49. Jai Paul Gupta
Former Financial Commissioner, Punjab
50. Swatantra VS Juneja
Former Special Secretary, Ministry of
Finance
Former Director General, Asian Development
Bank, Manila
51. DV Kapur
Former Secretary to Ministries of Power,
Heavy Industry
and Chemicals and Petrochemicals, GoI
52. Bishambar Makhija
Former Principal Advisor, Planning
Commission, GoI
53. Ravindra Mathur
Former Secretary to the Government of India
Former Chief Secretary, Uttar Pradesh
54. Mahesh Prasad
Former Chairman Indian Trade Promotion
Organisation
55. LV Saptharishi
Former Secretary to the Government of India
56. Ram Updesh Singh
Former Chairman, Bureau of Public
Enterprises,
Former Vigilance Commissioner
57. Ishwar C Srivastava
Former CMD, Rajasthan Minerals Development
Corporation, Jaipur
58. Dr Gopalan Sundaram
Former Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government
of India
59. RP Agrawal
Former Secretary, Higher Education, Government
of India
60. Anil Baijal
Former Secretary, Ministry of Urban
Development, GoI
61. Kulbir Singh
Former Chief Administrative Officer,
Northern Railway (Ministry of Railways)
62. Dipak Chatterjee
Former Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, GoI
Former Ambassador of India to European
Union, Belgium and Luxembourg
63. Arun Bongirwar
Former Chief Secretary, Maharashtra
Former Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port
Trust
64. Deepak Dasgupta
Former Chairman, National Highways
Authority of India
65. DS Bagga
Former Chief Secretary, Government of Uttar
Pradesh
66. Harsh Gupta
Former Chief Secretary, Himachal Pradesh
67. SK Arora
Former Ambassador of India to Iran
68.
DR Kaarthikeyan
Former Director, CBI
69. Kura Ram Lakhanpal
Former Chief Secretary, Punjab
70. Jagmohan L Bajaj
Former Chairman UP Electricity Regulatory
Commission
71. BS Sial
Former Director General of Police, NSG
72. Raghubar Dayal
Former Managing Director, Container
Corporation of India
73. Manohar Subrahmanyam
Former Joint Secretary, Department of Food,
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development, GoI
74. PP
Khanna
Former Development Commissioner,
Small Scale Industries, Government of India
75. NN Vasudev
Former Vice-Chairman Railway Claims
Tribunal
76. Proloy Bagchi
Former Additional Secretary, Department of
Posts and Telegraphs,
Government of India
77. Vijay
Kumar
Former Secretary, Ministry of External
Affairs
78. S. Narayan
Former Secretary to the Prime Minister,
Former Chief Economic Adviser to the Prime
Minister
79.
S Regunathan
Former Chief Secretary, Government of Delhi
80. Surendra Singh Pangtey
Former Administrative Member, Board of
Revenue, Lucknow
81. Anand Sarup
Former Chairman, National Book Trust of
India
Former Education Secretary, Government of
India
82. Surjit Kishore Das
Former Chief Secretary, Uttarakhand
83. Bhalachandra N Bhagwat
Secretary, Ministry Human Resource
Development, GoI
Good to have the complete list of bureaucrats. Excellent info. Three cheers for those 83 officials
ReplyDeleteLandmark decision by SC.Hope for the best & thanks to all officials.
ReplyDeleteA Sound Move at a Needy Hour. Cheers UP
ReplyDeleteWhat these retired bureaucrats were doing when in service? have they risen their voice when in service?
ReplyDeletepolice is not good
ReplyDelete