LATERAL ENTRY FOR PROFESSIONALS: OPENING PANDORA’S BOX

Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT) of Union Government have recently issued a notification for selection of professionals at Joint Secretary level through lateral entry scheme. The entry of professionals from various fields into secretary level appointments of Government of India is certainly a welcome step but with some riders. The critics claim that such kind of move for lateral entry of professionals bypassing the constitutional authority of UPSC for recruitment, may compromise with the basic principle of neutrality and anonymity of civil services. The critics claim that it is a move by the incumbent Union Government to introduce a ‘committed bureaucracy’ rather than a ‘neutral and anonymous bureaucracy’. Despite of all these hitches, the decision to introduce a system of lateral entry of professionals into IAS dominated bureaucracy is a welcome move. It would bring dynamism, fresh ideas which are much needed for the ‘New Age Governance’. The move is expected to open up scope for introduction of various professionals including health professionals, Chartered Accountants, Corporate professionals, legal experts, etc into arena of policy making into Government services. This should give way to civil services reforms and introduction of specialist services in terms of All India Judicial Services (AIJS), All India Public Health Services (AIPHS), Indian Medical Services (IMS) and so on.

Introduction –

The proposal to create an All-India Judicial Service (AIJS) along the lines of the All India Services (AIS) is one that has been endlessly debated since the idea was first mooted by the Law Commission in the 1950s. The chief Justices conferences in year 1961, 1963, 1965 as well as the Law Commissions (1^st, 8^th &11^th) had suggested for the creation of separate AIJS. However, the differences of opinion on the need and modality of AIJS amongst the judiciary, Bar council of India and Government of India has put the proposal on hold till date. The proposal for AIJS include selection of district judges all over India through an All-India level examination and allocation of these selected candidates as judges of sub ordinate courts to each State, along the lines of the All India Services like IAS,IPS,IFoS.

Advantages of the AIJS –

The proponents of AIJS support the need of centralised recruitment process for judicial services at the lower courts level. Presently, Colleguim System for appointing judges is being followed which is marred by lack of objectivity and impartiality. AIJS promises to remove these vices. The conduct of an open competitive examination for AIJS by an independent body like UPSC for the direct recruitment of judges from the entry level would ensure free and fair selection of the judges at All India level. The independent commission for recruitment to judiciary would also help to remove the deadlock of method of appointment of judges between executive and judiciary. It would create an objective and transparent system of appointments in the judiciary system of India. Since the judges of higher court are appointed from lower courts mostly, the quality of judges at the subordinate courts needs to be improved and the system of AIJS would certainly improve the justice delivery system all over the country. It would also help to induct the non-local candidates (outsiders) in the high court benches to ensure the delivery of justice in an impartial manner. There is already a backlog in filling the vacancy of judges at various High Courts, AIJS is expected to fill up this gap and deliver speedy justice to people. Availability of efficient judges at all levels selected through a common talent pool would reduce pendency of cases, adjudicatory delays and also reduce appeals in higher courts.

Criticism of AIJS-

The critics of All India Judicial Services emphasize on misdiagnosing the ills of judicial system. They claim that the problem lies in quality of manpower in judicial services rather than the method of selection of judges. The mismanaged legal education institutes alongwith very less remunerative salary structure of judges, with limited career advancement opportunities for sub-ordinate court judges, results into lesser availability of pool of talent for judicial services. A talented and dynamic legal graduate prefers a remunerative private practice over the less attractive judicial service. Secondly, the critics also highlight the issue of local language and regional practices at sub-ordinate courts where the outsiders selected through AIJS would be unfit. It is criticised that AIJS doesn’t take into account local laws, practices and customs which vary widely across States, vastly increasing the costs of training for judges selected through this mechanism. It is to be noted that in majority of sub-ordinate courts the orders are passed in local languages. Thirdly, the claim that AIJS on the lines of AIS would take care of filling vacancies in judicial services all over India is also without a firm background. The available data on vacancies in judiciary services prove that both the decentralised approach of each High Court conducting its own recruitment and a centralised one seem to have roughly the same efficacy in filling up the vacancy.

Though the move for lateral entry of professionals by Union Government for ten Joint Secretary level posts is welcome, it can labelled as       ‘too late, too little’ as it gives entry to only ten professionals into policy making arena of IAS lobby. The decision to keep UPSC out of the loop for this recruitment process, creates doubts in the minds of people about the intention of the incumbent Government. Critics apart, it should give way for a ‘specialist bureaucracy’ rather than a ‘generalist bureaucracy’ for the resurgent India.

(The author of this article, Lt Col (Dr) Satish Dhage, is an ex Army officer and has been qualified for IPS (Indian Police Services) through IPS LCE 2012. Presently, he is Director, MGM Institute of Competitive Exams Aurangabad. For any queries or feedback, he can be contacted on email id : drsatishdhage@gmail.com)