Court Directs civil services boards should be set up at Central, state levels
OUR LEGAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, 31 October
In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court today said bureaucrats need not act on oral or verbal orders given by political bosses. The court also suggested sweeping reforms in the functioning of the bureaucracy and sought an end to frequent transfers by suggesting a fixed tenure to insulate them from political interference. It asked the Centre and all state governments along with Union Territories to issue directions within three months for providing fixed tenure to civil servants.
 Suggesting the sweeping reforms, a Bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Justice P C Ghose said Parliament must enact a law to regulate postings, transfers and disciplinary action against bureaucrats. These reforms are to ensure that at least officers at the rank of joint secretary and above in the government of India, heads of police and forest forces across the country, income tax and customs seniors, and other important custodians of public property like district magistrates and superintendents of police in states have adequate independence and cannot be “shunted at the mercy of the political animal”.
 The apex court held that much of the deterioration in bureaucracy is because of political interference and said that civil servants should not act on verbal orders given by political executives and all actions must be taken by them on the basis of written communication. Justice Ghose said giving a fixed minimum tenure to a civil servant will not only promote professionalism and efficiency, but also good governance.
The apex court verdict comes on a PIL filed by 83 retired bureaucrats, including former Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramanian, seeking its directions for insulating bureaucracy from political interference. It will go a long way in giving freedom and independence to the functioning of bureaucracy.  The judgment comes close on the heels of controversies surrounding Ashok Khemka, IAS officer of Haryana cadre over the DLF-Robert Vadra land deal, and Durga Shakti Nagpal, UP cadre IAS officer, who was targeted by the state government for alleged misconduct.
Apart from fixed tenure, the Bench also ordered setting up within three months Civil Services Boards at the Centre and state level as part of the sweeping administrative reforms.
 These boards will recommend to the head of government which officer among India&’s three all-India Services, or state and Central services, is the best one to man a given position of public importance. It will then be for the Prime Minister or the chief minister of the day to accept or reject the board&’s proposals, but the reasons for overruling will be recorded on paper. Thus, it will end whimsical actions as in recent cases like that of Durga Shakti Nagpal in Uttar Pradesh and Sanjeev Chaturvedi and Ashok Khemka in Haryana.
The second part of this order pertains to Civil Services Conduct Rules, 1964, under which each instruction, including oral ones, shall have to be recorded and it will also require to be written the political and business interest being served therein.  This will prevent creation of controversies like the one where the coal secretary P C Parakh during 2004-05 acted on behalf of the prime minister.
The court observed that recording of every instruction will align with the Right to Information, 2005, giving them or a subsequent enquirer the genesis of everything that transpired in a decision.