JOIN US'Unreasonable': Former bureaucrats on Centre's move to amend IAS rules
Over 100 former bureaucrats on Thursday described the Centre's bid to amend the rules to give them sweeping power to call IAS, IPS and IFoS officers on deputation as "arbitrary, unreasonable and unconstitutional" and one that hits at the "very core" of the constitutional scheme of Indian federalism.
A statement issued by 109 former civil servants under the aegis of Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG) said the proposed amendments interfere with the basic structure of the Constitution of India as a Union of States and can cause "irreparable damage" to the one institution which country's first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhai Patel held as being the most critical to the unity of the country.
The statement was signed by former bureaucrats like AS Dulat, Shivshankar Menon, GK Pillai, Julio Ribeiro, Maxwell Pereira, MG Devasahayam, Vappal Balachandran, Meeran C Borwankar and Sujata Singh among others.
They quoted Patel's speech in the Constituent Assembly in October 1949, "The Union will go, you will not have a united India if you do not have a good All India Service which has the independence to speak out its mind, which has a sense of security….”
The signatories asked, "will a government which holds the Sardar in higher esteem than any other figure in the history of the freedom movement pay heed to his words and drop the proposal to change the AIS Cadre Rules?"
They argued that the proposed amendments will shift the "balance disproportionately" in favour of the Centre in matters of cadre deployment and cadre management will effectively convert the three All India Services -- IAS, IPS and IFoS -- into three more central services.
"It is possible that AIS officers may view the interests of the State as secondary and subordinate to the Centre and to the political regime in power there. AIS officers working in the State will be reluctant to take any decision or action against the wishes of the political party in power at the Centre for fear of being summarily transferred to the Centre and harassed there. This will undermine the ability of the State governments to implement their policies and stand up against any arbitrary diktats of the Centre," they warned.
They also expressed apprehension that states will consider the State Civil Services as more amenable to them and may treat AIS officers with suspicion and distrust.
"If the AIS begins to play a lesser role in the States, it will also affect the unifying role which they play in the context of federal diversity – social, economic, and cultural (including administrative culture)," the statement said.
"It will allow greater scope for abuse of power by the Union Government so that whenever it is unhappy with the State Government it can target AIS officers occupying strategic posts (e.g., Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, Director General of Police, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, District Magistrate, Superintendent of Police etc.), withdraw them from their pots and place them elsewhere, thereby effectively derailing the functioning of the State administrative apparatus," it said.
The former civil servants pointed out that the AIS covenanted in the main body of the Constitution, making them creatures not of the Executive but of the Constitution itself. The Constitution places the AIS squarely in the middle of a federal, dual polity so that there is a sense of shared ownership between the Union and the States, they said.
"This is a feature unique to the AIS and distinguishes them from other Central Services created by the Centre as well as from services created by State Governments. For Sardar Patel, this feature was critical to guaranteeing members of the AIS their independence and their ability to speak their minds. Their Constitutional status and independence would give them the security to function as a protective ring around the Constitution," they said.
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