Constitutional safeguards of civil servants

Abstract

The civil services are considered to be the steel-frame of administration. Being the focal point of administration, they are destined to play a pivotal role and have therefore, been afforded with constitutional status. The performance of a civil servant depends, to a large extent, on the nature of his conditions of service. He has to be afforded protection in the bona fide discharge of his constitutional duties. It is, therefore, essential to afford to civil servants, judicious, rationalised and adequate protection against arbitrary administrative and punitive action. Article 311 (2) of the Constitution provides for the mandatory procedural safeguards as a condition precedent for imposition of major penalties, subject to certain exceptions as incorporated in the provisos to Article 311 (2). But, the denial of the rights of the civil servants have brought forth a whole corpus of decisional law - the Civil service law - based on importing the rights, justice and according fairness to the civil servants. The constitutional amendments effected so far. and interpretations, given by the Supreme Court, have evolved certain principles of decisional laws of far reaching importance. Consequently, the Government under certain circumstances, can dispense with the services of a civil servant, without holding any enquiry against him in the event of any allegation made against him, on the ground of public policy and public good. This has resulted in a lot of confusion and feeling of uncertainly in the mind-set of civil servants. While delinquent civil servants should be dealt with, honest and dedicated civil servants should not be made to suffer unnecessarily. This critical and in-depth investigation was undertaken in the light of the decisional laws in depth to consider the adequacy of existing constitutional safeguards. For the purpose, the investigator examined the following hypothesis: The existing safeguards, provided for the security of tenure of civil servants have to be strengthened, as they constitute the steelframe of