The Hindu : Abuse of the Constitution

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Friday, May 24, 2002

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Abuse of the Constitution

By S. R. Maheshwari

The Punjab Public Service Commission scandal is a classic case of systemic failure for which society as a whole has to hang its head in shame.

THE LATEST scandal disgracing the country's administrative system relates to the Punjab Public Service Commission whose chairman, Ravinder Pal Singh Sidhu, treated his office as a sale depot where every Government job under his control had a price tag attached to it. In the course of his tenure of six years, he made nearly 3,500 appointments and in the process amassed no less than Rs. 100 crores. He maintained a number of `touts' whose task was to extract money from the job seekers and forward the ill-gotten money to the chairman. Posts in the State Government were graded. A rate-chart was prepared for various posts under the jurisdication of the PPSC. A post in the Punjab Civil Service carried the highest `premium'. Jobs were sold outright. Question papers were selectively leaked. The favoured candidate could either fill up answer-sheets or study the question papers a day before examination. The ill-gotten money was deposited in various bank accounts, which were opened in fictitious names as well as in the names of Mr. Sidhu himself, his NRI brother, Reetinder Paul Singh, and the latter's wife. The examiners were appointed on grounds of pliability. They were provided a list of roll numbers which were to be given specific awards. The chairman mischievously chose questions to ruin the chances of those who did not give money and instead relied on their merit. Some samples of questions asked in the interview for appointment to the Punjab Civil Service are: "What are the various types of buffaloes and their lactation periods? Which insect cannot be killed by an insecticide? What is the name of Winston Churchill's father?" These candidates failed to make it to the PCS but got into the Indian Administrative Service, through a tougher competitive examination.

Where employment is secured by doling out bribes, the motivation of the employee becomes dangerously negative. The bribe given for securing a Government job is viewed by the victim as an investment from which he naturally expects a return. Such appointees, then, lose no opportunity in bleeding society — `we, the people of India', to use the language of the Constitution. What is more, by denying a post to the meritorious, the whole society is harmed and disgracedOf the four pillars of democracy enshrined in the Constitution, the public service commission (PSC, Union and State), is one, the other three being the Supreme Court, the Comptroller and Auditor-General, and the Election Commission. The centrality of position accorded to the PSC needs no elaborate explanation. Of all the processes of personnel administration, recruitment is the most sensitive being vulnerable to extraneous influences. All civilised countries feel the need for insulating public recruitment from political pressuresAn official document on India arguing for the establishment of such a body in 1919 observed: "In most of the dominions where responsible government has been established the need has been felt of protecting the public service from political influences by the establishment of some permanent office particularly charged with the regulation of service matters... We feel that the prospect that the services may come more and more under ministerial control does afford strong grounds for instituting such body."

Accordingly, the Government of India Act, 1919, provided for the establishment of a multi-member PSC. It was set up in October 1926 with Sir Ross Barker as chairman, this choice being dictated by a desire to fashion the Commission after the traditions of the British Civil Service Commission. The recruiting body was accorded an exalted status, making it independent of the Executive and impartial in its functioning. The Government of India Act, 1935, conferring provincial autonomy was another landmark in the constitutional advancement. It provided for a Federal PSC for the federation and a PSC for each province.

The arrangement continues under the Constitution of India operative since 1950. The framers of the Constitution designed the PSC as the custodian of merit in public service and apparently took all measures to make it a fool-proof institution. The PSC is made a constitutional agency, taking it out of the Executive of the day. The members including chairman are appointed by the President/ Governor. They enjoy a fixed tenure and removal from service is made exceptionally difficult, a provision which safeguards their independence and impartially. After completing their fixed term they are constitutionally barred from accepting any further employment under the Government. This provision further reinforces their independence from the Executive. The PSC's budget is a `charged' expenditure thus not subject to discussion in the legislature. Above all, the Constitution makes an extra ordinary provision regarding the State level Public Service commission. While its members are appointed by the Governor, they can be removed only by the President.

Many questions arise from the Sidhu case. The PSC is deliberately designed as a multi-member body, the motive being to prevent arbitrariness and waywardness on the part of individual members. When one man forgot the oath he took on assumption of office what were other members doing? Did the Chief Minister exercise sufficient care while appointing the top personnel of the PSC? Was it not known to the political executive of the State that public jobs were being sold openly? What was the role of the established watchdog organisations of the State such as the Vigilance Department when the Constitution was getting openly molested? The sad truth is that the Punjab Public Service Commission scandal is a classic case of systemic failure for which society as a whole has to hang its head in shame. The Constitution took ample care to preserve its integrity and uprightness. What the Constitution did not do, unfortunately, is manufacture the right type of man to operate such a noble mechanism.

What is the way out? Of the foremost importance at the moment is the need to bury the view that the public administration of the land is open for free loot. Governance is a sacred task; it is a public trust and those who are employed to operate it are its trustees, perennially accountable to the laws of the land including its Constitution. One may, in addition, consider some other changes. The State PSCs must be taken out of the zone of political control by putting them directly under the alert eye of the Union Public Service Commission, which must be suitably empowered and activated.

The Constitution is necessarily operated by human beings and thus is no better than the men and the women who handle it. B. R. Ambedkar rightly warned the Constituent Assemble: "I feel, however good a Constitution may be, it is sure to turn out bad because those who are called to work, happen to be a bad lot... The working of the Constitution does not depend wholly upon the nature of the Constitution. The Constitution can provide only the organs of state such as the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. The factors on which the working of those organs of the state depend are the people and the political parties they will set up as their instruments to carry out their wishes and their politics. Who can say how the people of India and their parties will behave?" He concluded: "If the Constitution of India gets derailed, the reason will not be that we had a bad Constitution. What we will have to say is that man was vile.''

(The writer is former Professor, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi.)

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