Can three new all India services do the trick?

Satpal Singh

Article 309 of Indian Constitution discusses the recruitment of all India services and conditions of the services of persons serving the union and the state - subject to provisions of the Constitution. Acts of the appropriate legislature may regulate the recruitment and conditions of the services and posts in connection with affairs of the union or any state. Provided that it should be competent for the President or such person as he may direct in the case of services post in connection with the affairs of the Union; and Governor of a state or such person as he may direct in the case of services and post in connection with the affairs of the state, to make the rules regulating the recruitment; and the any rules so made shall have effect subject to provision of any such act; but the time has come to make a considerable improvement in this Act to keep the interlopers at arm’s length. 

With regard to the provision for all India Judicial Services (AIJS), it is felt that this is necessary in the interest of efficiency of the subordinate judiciary. This proposal was considered in the Law Ministry conference held in 1960; where a strong opinion was expressed for and against the said proposal. The proposal was accordingly shelved. It appears that the Chief Justice Conferences held in 1961, 1963 & 1965 forwarded these recommendations; but when the views of the state Government and High Courts were sought, there was a difference of opinion. In this context, more than half of the states and High Courts opposed the proposal. This matter was again considered by the Law Commission in its 116th report (Submitted in November 1986), which still has ample scope for due re-consideration for this report; the mentioned pit-falls are amendable in accordance with changing scenario.

Though a proposal to introduce an all India Judicial service was put forward several times; there were three objections: (a) Inadequate knowledge of regional language would corrode judicial efficiency in pronouncing judgments due to inadequate understanding of people and evidence; (b) the promotional avenues of the members of the state judiciaries would be severely curtailed causing heart burning to those who have already entered the services and manning of the state judiciary services would be adversely affected; and (c) erosion of control of the High Courts over the subordinate judiciary would be impair the independence of the judiciary.  In order to chalk out these problematic areas, a special ‘Brain-storming session’ is required to find out a judicious solution for these problematic areas.  

With regarding to an All India Education Service, it has been observed that there are a sizeable number of UGC recognised private universities which are selling their degrees. Whenever these fake degree holders compete with the genuine candidates; they are sometimes short listed and the genuine candidates are often eliminated by the State Public Service Commission. As far as the quality of education is concerned; there are many instances where appointments of college and university teachers are based on merely political vested interests rather than any consideration of merit. It has been noticed that students who have averaged 36 per cent in their academic life have been appointed university teachers and subsequently become even the vice chancellor of the university.

In this context, it has also been observed that university teachers are not in a position to clear even the basic concepts of their respective subjects in most of states. In this context, there is another instance which indicates the ‘height of despotism’ when a university teacher was merely appointed with vested political interest. He was completely blank in his teaching subject; as a result of this, he has never taken a class during his 20 years of service. When he faced severe criticism from different pressure groups; he took ‘voluntary retirement’ from his service. How can such teachers build the future of the country?

The ‘All India Management System’ is also very essential to ameliorating the functioning of the public sector which has been developed during different successive planning periods of India. In this context, various reports say, “except few, most of the public sector undertakings have failed to achieve their desired results.” It is because of a considerable numbers of pitfalls in the prevailing ‘management systems’ in the changing scenario. Till now, there has been a monopoly of the IAS people; as chief of the public sector enterprises, who come on deputation for three years. During these three years, most of the IAS officials are not in a position to make out the functioning and its implications in accordance with changing scenario. They should be replaced by the management professional recruited through an all India competitive examination.

Hence, it becomes imperative to introduce three all India services; including All India Judicial Services; All India Education Services and All India Management Services, so that all these services may conform with the changing scenario of India.

(The writer is a free-lance columnist and Executive Director of Rohtak-based NGO Vikas Path)