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In a very practical sense Civil service is integral to India’s civil and criminal justice system as the civil servants exercise powers conferred on them under various statutes, Rules, Regulations and executive orders, and are accountable ultimately to the courts for their actions. This position is not captured in the word ” service” as commonly understood in India. And the powers are exercisable by the civil service only in accordance with the ” procedure established under the law” which means that violation of the procedure means infringement of the ” procedural rights of the citizens” . Thus orders passed in violation of the procedure are bad in law and liable to be set aside by the competent administrative or the Appellate authority.
The orders passed by the civil servants are to be “speaking orders”, that is written orders indicating grounds in clear language the grounds for the decision which should not only be” just and fair” but appear to be so” meaning before all which is a condition of credibility of the system of governance and the rule of law. Since the orders of the civil servants are subject to appeal/ revision, any civil servant exercising powers conferred on her by virtue of the post she holds must apply her mind to the facts in issue and relevant laws and policies which have the force of law to decide the same following the procedure laid down in law. The words ” just and fair” refer to justice founded on ethics. Hence the first step is to develop a ” judicial mind” is to develop an understanding of “the idea of justice” – the title of Amartya Sen’s path breaking work which a serving or an aspiring civil servant must read to appreciate the relationship between ethics and justice. Ethics is comprehensive as its principles apply to all aspects of the decision making process and its outcome. For instance implementation of MNREGA demands ( a) proper selection of projects which will add to the ” productive” community assets,(b) selection of landless agricultural labourers for work, proper execution of the project and (c) timely payment of wages to the labour to enhance their purchasing power. Each of these steps involves issues of ethics and propriety for ensuring that tax payers money is properly used for the purpose for which it was sanctioned. Thus from the very beginning of the career, an IAS officer as SDO in charge of a subdivision of a district is at once an appellate authority in respect of orders passed by the Sub Deputy Collectors in charge of Revenue circles ( Tehsildars) under the state Revenue laws while his orders are subject to appeal before either the Board of Revenue as under the Assam Land Revenue Regulation 1886 or other authorities and ultimately to the courts. Cultivation of a ” judicial mind” – unbiased appreciation of facts, evidence and laws is an essential requirement which is founded on ethics and integrity which together constitute the idea of justice.
Looking from this broad perspective all cadres ( IPS. IRS, IDES, Danics etc) fall in this group directly and Accounts and other cadres even when their work is carried out according to the Financial Rules and overseen by the CA&AG and the respective Public Accounts Committees of the Parliament or the State Legislature. The police service cadres in the same way are accountable to the courts of law as their primary duty is prevention of crimes and investigation into the crimes and reporting of its outcomes to Courts in the form of Chargesheet against the accused or final report in cases where there’s no evidence against the accused. In either case the decision rests with the courts.
Thus a clear understanding of the inter relationship between ethics, laws and administrative justice which is also founded on ethics will empower the civil service aspirants to deal with the case studies section of the Ethics (GS 4 paper); and therefore merit special attention of the Faculty of coaching centres.
