‘Centre has moral, not legal, say over state decisions on officers’

What do you feel about political interference in the bureaucracy in various states, especially highlighted by the recent large-scale transfe...

What do you feel about political interference in the bureaucracy in various states, especially highlighted by the recent large-scale transfers by Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh and Narendra Modi in Gujarat?
My answer holds good for what Mayawati may do in UP or what Laloo may do in Bihar. Ours is a federal structure in which the command and control over an all-India officer posted in a state rests with the state government. We have three all India services: the IAS, which is controlled by my ministry, the IPS which is controlled by the Home Ministry and the Indian Forests Service, which is controlled by the Environment Ministry. The same structure exists both at the Central and at the state level.

The system works something like this: As the cadre controlling authority, we at the Centre are responsible for the appointment, disciplining and dismissal of officers belonging to the all-India services. For everything else, the power rests with the state government. In any case, these officers deal with things like law and order, management of forest lands, etc. which are state subjects and, therefore, they necessarily have to be under the control of the state government.

The Centre has no legal right to intervene in the decisions a state government may take on postings and transfers. We do, of course, have moral authority. We can encourage the states to give a reasonable tenure to officers. Before an officer is transferred, we can talk to the state government. But all this can at best be done through letters or over the telephone. There are no legal remedies available to us to change a decision that a state government has taken.

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Can’t we build a system of dykes, particularly around the institutions of District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police, so that they don’t get transferred each they want to uphold the law or the CM changes?
It’s not possible in the current system. While an officer is posted in a state, we can’t exercise any authority over him. Even when an officer is posted to the Centre, we have to seek cadre clearance from the states. As I said, we do have moral authority but if you ask me for a formula on how to exercise this authority, I can’t give you one. It varies from case to case and it may or may not work.

The Sarkaria Commission and the Administrative Reforms Commission have recommended that an independent constitutional authority be set up to control the postings, transfers and promotions of civil servants. Why haven’t these recommendations been implemented?
Look, the Centre and the states have to agree on this first. It’s not a subject that can be taken lightly. Actually, this problem of frequent and large-scale transfers is something that has come up only in the last few years, ever since we’ve had coalition governments and frequent changes of state governments. Earlier, there used to be a huge Congress government at the Centre and most of the states were also ruled by the Congress. So, there was rarely a problem.

Couldn’t the Centre simply institute a minimal posting period of, say, three years for an officer with the rider that any transfer under that period should be based on sound reasoning? The IAS and IPS Associations have been demanding this.
It cannot be done unilaterally. This is something that has to be debated and discussed thoroughly, both at the central level and with the states.

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