Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 6: Not only violating its own transfer policy, the State Government is also willfully ignoring the important judgment of Apex Court of India, which is aimed at ensuring stability of tenure of civil servants and subsequent efficient service delivery. This stand of the State Government is notwithstanding the fact that repeated shuffling of officers is deleterious to good governance.
In TSR Subramanian and Others Versus Union of India and Others case, Supreme Court Bench comprising Justice K S Radhakrishnan and Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose vide its judgment dated October 31, 2013 had observed, “the civil servants are not having stability of tenure, particularly in the State Governments where transfers and postings are made frequently at the whims and fancies of the executive head for political and other considerations and not in public interest”.
Highlighting the necessity of minimum tenure, the Apex Court had stated that fixed minimum tenure would not only enable the civil servants to achieve their professional targets but also help them to function as effective instruments of public policy, adding “repeated shuffling/transfer of the officers is deleterious to good governance”.
The Supreme Court judgment further states: “Minimum assured service tenure ensures efficient service delivery and also increased efficiency. They (officers) can also prioritize various social and economic measures intended to implement for the poor and marginalized sections of the society”. Accordingly, the Apex Court had directed all the State Governments to issue appropriate directions to secure providing of minimum tenure of service to various civil servants.
In the judgment, the Supreme Court had further stated that Civil Services Board consisting of high-ranking in-service officers with Chief Secretary as its head could be a better option to guide and advise the State Governments on all service matters especially on transfers, postings and disciplinary action, “Though the views of the Board members could be overruled by the political executive but by recording reasons, which would ensure good governance, transparency and accountability in Governmental functions”, the judgment reads.
Initially, the State Government took the judgment of Apex Court seriously and obtained the opinion of the Law Department before referring the issue to the Establishment Committee but thereafter the copy of the judgment remained confined in the official files, sources said, adding “it seems that Government doesn’t want to bring efficiency and transparency in the transfers, which, however, has become an industry of its own sorts”.
In response to a question, they said, “initially the Government tried to ignore the implementation of judgment by stating that Article 309 of the Constitution of India, which deals with the civil services, is not applicable to Jammu and Kashmir and State has own Section 124 of J&K Constitution which pertains to the subject”.
“But this stand was disapproved at various quarters on the ground that if Article 309 is not applicable to Jammu and Kashmir at least judgment of the Apex Court is applicable”, sources further said, adding “anyhow, the Government found it appropriate to maintain silence over the judgment so as to continue with the process of ordering transfers at its whims and fancies”.
They said that direction of the Supreme Court vis-à-vis issuing appropriate directions to secure providing of minimum tenure of service to various civil servants, which had to be implemented within a period of three months, has yet to be taken seriously by the State Government.
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