Law and public servants

THE LAW RELATING TO PUBLIC SERVICE: Samaraditya Pal; Eastern Law House Pvt. Ltd., 54, Ganesh Chunder Avenue, Calcutta-700013. Rs. 650.

WE ARE governed by the rule of law but the rule of law is what ``public servants'' and their political masters prescribe or proscribe. The little Indian, numerically large, seeks justice and right primarily from the minions of government. The court, with its flair for formalities, genius for dilatory processes and other expensive inhibitions, cults and conditionalities, is the last resort. The executive is the first instrument on the ground for the people to seek redress. So much so, public servants are the real administrators and their discipline, diligence and sense of duty to deliver right and justice, determine how far the humble, human millions have faith in the administration.

Public servants make for the operational success of the Rule of Law at the grassroots level. But it is an illusion to hold that public servants are more public in their commitment to common people than servants of their political masters, so long as the law does not protect their rights and impart a sense of security and fair deal. Thus, at the bottom of good governance is the jurisprudence of public service sans which oblique, delinquent and callous behaviour and corrupt and obsequious conduct from the officialdom are inevitable.

To take care of justice to public servants, their reasonable autonomy and legitimate expectations, we have many laws, constitutional provisions and accumulation of case-law too bewildering to understand unless some intelligent, pragmatic and scholarly jurist writes a well-arranged, authoritative and comprehensive book on the subject and updates it before the chaos of judicial precedents from the CAT and the courts upset well- established principles. The author of the book under review fills the bill.

The maze of rulings by courts, perplexing profusion of statutory rules, erratic issue of departmental instructions and continuing stream of clarifications from the Central and State Governments make Public Service Law ``a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.'' In this context, one must remember that the Constitution (42nd Amendment) Act 1976 (Part XIV A) brought into existence a number of Service Tribunals (Art. 323 A) which added to the plethora of judicial decisions because the High Courts continued to exercise jurisdiction over the CAT decisions. Rightly therefore does Prof. M. P. Jain observes: ``The service jurisprudence in India is rather complex, intertwined as it is with legislation, rules, directions, practices, judicial decisions and with principles of Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Fundamental Rights and natural justice.''

Nevertheless, the daunting task of discovering a design, marshalling topics and rendering the law understandable is attempted with success by the author, much to the reviewer's amazement. The author is candid when he concedes: ``This book is not intended to be an exhaustive treatment of the subject, both from the point of view of the topics covered or the citation of precedents. There are certain topics like disciplinary proceedings which, by their very nature, cannot be exhaustively dealt with in a book like this. There are many topics which are not of much practical significance to lawyers (e.g. the postings, joining time, leave encashment). There are some which are dealt with in specialised books (e.g. Industrial Disputes or Administrative Tribunals under the Administrative Tribunals Act 1985). Precedentially it refers to those which examine or lay down principles. The book is not designed to serve the purpose of a digest. Fortunately for the practitioners, there are some extremely helpful digests in the field of service law to which reference might be necessary for those who wish to examine more exhaustively how the principles have been applied by the courts in different situations.''

Law is allergic to simplicity and reveals in prolixity and to weave a lucid statement of the complex calculus of principles, precedents and practices is an admirable goal proud to accomplish, which the author has done. Every branch of service law, meticulously explored, finds reference and receives learned light.

The whole gamut of a public servant's career, the vicissitudes of life while in service and the encounters in the terminal stages of superannuation - all these facets of this vast system of law have been fairly handled. The publishers must be thanked for the facile publication on a thorny subject. Of course, inflation is the rule of the market and so, the buyer has to fork out a hefty sum to own a copy of the book.

V. R. KRISHNA IYER

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