Public servants must serve, not rule: High Court

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 21

In a stern warning to public servants, the High Court has told them that they were engaged for the service of the public and not to rule over them. The ruling came in a case where the sanction of building plan was sought, but officials of a municipal committee “sat over the file and did not respond in time”.

Justice Kshetarpal asserted, “compassionate empathy” was required to be one of the traits or qualities of everyone manning a public office. The Constitution of India emphasised that the public servants, and other persons working in such offices, were required to treat everyone equally, irrespective of caste, creed, religion or economic condition. “The persons holding such offices are required to be more sympathetic and compassionate, while dealing with downtrodden and uneducated persons,” Justice Kshetarpal maintained.

Empathy required

Compassionate empathy is required to be one of the traits or qualities of everyone manning a public office. The Constitution emphasises that the public servants are required to treat everyone equally, irrespective of caste, creed, religion or economic condition. —Justice Kshetarpal, High Court

He also made it clear that the entire emphasis of the Haryana Municipal Act, 1973, was to encourage residents to erect buildings after getting the plan sanctioned. If some building had been erected or re-erected in its violation and such construction was found within the permissible limits, it was required to be regularised or compounded. “The objective is not to demolish the buildings, which are permissible to be constructed in accordance with the rules framed there-under.”

Section 201 of the Act stated that no person would erect, re-erect or commence the process without sanction of the building plan from the committee concerned. The proviso to Section 208 of the Act made it clear that the Municipal Committee may accept composition fee prescribed in the rules, instead of requiring alteration or demolition of any such building. In exercise of powers under the Act, the state government had notified the Haryana Municipal Building Bye-laws, 1982, and the Haryana Building Code, 2017, he stated.