Secretaries-General - Lukmaan IAS

THE CONTEXT: The legislative bodies in India require expert secretarial assistance for carrying out their multiple responsibilities. However, the current legislative personnel administration suffers from many weaknesses. Hence, it is suggested that an Indian Legislative Service is needed. This article examines this issue in detail.

THE INDIAN LEGISLATIVE SERVICE(ILS): AN OVERVIEW

The ILS can be another All-India Service similar to the IAS, IPS, etc, that is centrally recruited, trained, and assigned to the legislative bodies, especially at the Union and State levels. The ILS can be the backbone of the legislative bodies equipping them to carry out the mandated functions. The idea of ILS became vogue in the backdrop of the appointment and abrupt removal of a Secretary-General (SG) of the Rajya Sabha in whose place a retired Indian Revenue Service official assumed charge. This has generated a debate on the need for an independent legislative service that will cater to the needs of all the legislative institutions in the country, including at the local level.

WHY DO WE NEED AN ILS?

TO FULFILL THE CONSTITUTIONAL MANDATE:

Article 98 of the Constitution provides for the scope of separate secretariats for the two Houses of Parliament. The same goes true for the state legislatures too. This means that the secretariats should be independent of the executive government.
However, sourcing manpower from the executive branch may lead to the violation of the concept of independence and conflict of interests. It breaches the principle of separation of power.

UPHOLDING EXECUTIVE ACCOUNTABILITY:

A separate secretariat marks a feature of a functioning parliamentary democracy. In a parliamentary system, the Parliament must watch over the executive, both political and permanent.
Thus, the Parliament should have the technical and human resource capacity to be an effective body for providing meaningful scrutiny and enforcing accountability.

EXPERTISE IN PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURES:

Serving/retired civil servants appointed to the higher posts suffer from a lack of exposure and poor knowledge of Parliamentary procedures.
Expertise in Parliamentary functioning is not only a product of domain competency but also of experience. A dedicated service like the ILS can address this problem.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE POST OF THE SECRETARIES-GENERAL:

The Secretaries-General of both the Houses are mandated with many Parliamentary and administrative responsibilities.
One of the prerequisites that demand the post of the Secretary-General is unfailing knowledge and vast experience of parliamentary procedures, practices, and precedents. Most civil servants precisely lack this aspect of expertise.
A dedicated ILS will provide a wider talent pool of qualified, experienced, reliable, and autonomous human resources for selection to man the crucial post of SG.

GROWTH OF LEGISLATIVE INSTITUTIONS:

With the 73^rd and 74^th Constitutional Amendments, thousands of legislative bodies have come up at the local level in India.
Although the local self-government institutions may not be comparable to those at Union and State levels, still they have significant roles and functions in the democratic setup.
An ILS will prove to be the vital missing link that enables these bodies to act as institutions of “self-government” in the true sense.

VERTICAL INTEGRATION OF LEGISLATIVE INSTITUTIONS:

There is hardly any mechanism for a continuous interaction or sharing of knowledge resources among the legislative institutions. The annual Presiding Officers’ conference cannot fulfill this need for continuous administrative engagement.
By providing a common pool of dedicated human resources to these bodies will bring vertical linkage among them, which will be beneficial for learning about best practices, legislative businesses, and Parliamentary innovations, among others.

CHALLENGES OF MODERN GOVERNANCE:

The growth of modern government and expansion of governmental activities require a matching development and laborious legislative exercise. The legislators being laypersons, need expert assistance so that they can discharge their functions effectively.
For the government, the bureaucracy acts as the think tank and thus, the Parliament also needs a think tank and the ILS is the best bet in this regard.

HOW IS THE SECRETARIAT ORGANIZED AT VARIOUS LEVELS?

In general, the personnel of the Parliament is recruited by the respective Houses themselves. For instance, the Rajya Sabha Secretariat conducts open competitive examinations for filling up vacancies in specified posts. Other modes of recruitment are a deputation from Central/State governments and legislature secretariats, promotion from existing secretariat services, lateral entry, and appointment of serving/retired civil servants, especially in higher-level positions. A similar arrangement exists at the State level, although variations may be there. At the local level, the practice of Parliamentary form is still in the nascent stage; the practices considerably vary across states. Here a uniform pattern is not visible, and the administrative personnel generally are state government employees.

FORMER CBDT CHAIRMAN PC MODY REPLACES PPK RAMACHARYULU AS SECRETARY-GENERAL OF RAJYA SABHA

Less than three months after being appointed as the Secretary-General of the Rajya Sabha, PPK Ramacharyulu has been replaced with former Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairman PC Mody. Mody has been appointed as the new Secretary-General of the Rajya Sabha just weeks before the commencement of the Winter Session of Parliament, which is expected to start on 29 November. Mody, a former chairman of CBDT, will be the new Secretary-General of the Upper House of Parliament. Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has signed an order to this effect.

Mody, a 1982-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, being appointed as the Secretary-General of the Upper House marks a rare occasion when an IRS officer has held the post. Most of the time, the post is traditionally held by an IAS officer. Ramacharyulu has now been appointed as an advisor in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat. Ramacharyulu was appointed as the Secretary-General of the Rajya Sabha on 1 September.2021. No reason has been given for his replacement.

According to reports, Ramacharyulu goes down in history for having the second shortest stint as Secretary-General. Mody is a 1982 IRS officer who was given three extensions as CBDT chairman since August 2019. The Secretary-General heads the Secretariat of the House and is seen as the eyes and ears of the Rajya Sabha chairman when it comes to matters of rules and procedures. The position of SG is a crucial one in the Parliamentary system.

According to the Rajya Sabha website, the SG is the parliamentary adviser to the RS chairman and through him to the House. The SG is also the administrative head of the RS Secretariat and, overall, in charge of all administrative and executive functions on behalf of, and in the name of, the Chairman. There are no recruitment rules for appointing SG to LS or RS. It is completely the discretion of the Speaker, in the case of Lok Sabha and Chairman in the case of Rajya Sabha, to appoint whoever they think is suitable for the post.

SOURCE: THE FIRSTPOST.COM

PROBLEMS IN THE IDEA OF INDIAN LEGISLATIVE SERVICE?

VIOLATION OF THE CONSTITUTION:

Article 98 of the Constitution gives power to the Houses to deal with all the aspects of secretariat personnel administration. Recruitment and appointment done by another agency will be deemed as going against this provision.

INHERENT ISSUES IN AIS:

AIS has been severely criticized by many states as going against the federal provisions of the polity, and a new AIS is likely to add fuel to the fire.
Also, it is highly doubtful if this new AIS will have the proposed efficiency given the less-than-optimal efficiency of other All-India Services.

IMPACT ON CAREER ADVANCEMENT OF EXISTING CADRE:

Appointees to the Secretariat from the ILS will be holding middle to senior-level posts which will adversely impact the career advancement opportunities of the existing cadre of employees and officers.

NO EMPIRICAL DATA:

Hardly any study is conducted that shows that the ILS is the solution for the present problems faced by legislative institutions.

STRUCTURAL CONSTRAINTS OF LEGISLATURES:

The legislatures’ functions, including law-making, suffer from multiple structural constraints, including poor productivity, lack of consensus on crucial issues, criminalization of politics, etc.
An ILS is not going to be the solution to the problems of legislatures in India.

PRACTICAL DIFFICULTIES:

The idea of an ILS seems to be naïve as the supporters have not bothered to find out the practical difficulties in implementation, including the huge financial burden on the exchequer.

POSITIONS OF THE LOCAL BODIES:

The positions of the local self-government institutions in India are not one of a legislative body and the structure and practice of the parliamentary system hardly exist at this third tier.
There exists a lot of confusion about the actual role of PRI/ULB in Indian governance. An ILS is deemed to be a misfit and results in a waste of resources in such a context.

THE CLERK OF THE HOUSE- THE PARLIAMENT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

The Clerk of the House is the principal constitutional adviser to the House and adviser on all its procedure and business, including Parliamentary privilege, and frequently appears before Select and Joint Committees examining constitutional and Parliamentary matters. As with all the members of the House Service, he is politically entirely impartial and is not a civil servant.

THE WAY FORWARD

The legislative institutions have to be equipped to carry out their responsibilities efficiently and effectively which requires a competent human resource-based secretariat system. The Parliament and state legislatures may bring laws to provide for a streamlined personnel system independent of the executive.
The idea of an ILS may be worth trying, provided a political consensus is reached on its modalities of establishment and other details, but whose appointment needs to take care of the current nature of Indian polity.
It is not advisable due to efficiency, impartiality, and moral considerations to appoint serving/retired Civil Servants to the higher-level positions and it is necessary to have a select pool of officers from the inside cadre who should be trained and groomed.
To ensure effective parliamentary control over the executive and to provide for efficient Parliamentary functioning, the structural constraints faced by the institutions need to be addressed.
Parliamentary Research and Training Institute for Democracies (PRIDE) is an integral part of the Lok Sabha Secretariat to provide parliamentarians, staff, and others with institutionalized opportunities for systematic training in the various disciplines of parliamentary institutions, processes, and procedures. Another such platform is PRISM (Parliamentary Research and Information Support for Members of Parliament). These platforms need to be utilized for enhancing the human resource competency of the personnel, and a similar setup must be established at the state level.

THE CONCLUSION: Every time inefficiency and poor standard of the administration is debated, the ready-made solution seems to be a new AIS be it in areas like environment, health, education, judiciary, or others. This purported solution is oblivious to the inefficiencies and poor standards in the existing AIS as often brought out by many committees and commissions. Thus, bringing another AIS in the form of ILS is not the panacea for the ills of the Indian Parliamentary system. The legislative institutions at the Union and the State level need to develop into independent institutions in the truest sense like that of developed nations and not become vulnerable to executive interference.

QUESTIONS:

“An efficient secretariat system is a sine qua non for an efficient Parliament”. How far do you think that an Indian Legislative Service will contribute towards enhancing the productivity of the Parliament?
A strong Parliament means a more answerable executive. Thus, an Indian Legislative Service is the need of the hour. Comment.
The proposal for setting up an Indian Legislative Service suffers from constitutional, political, administrative, and pragmatic challenges. Examine.
“The Secretary-General of the Rajya Sabha is the principal Parliamentary advisor to the Chairman of the Council of the States”. Discuss.

ADD TO YOUR KNOWLEDGE

THE SERVICES OF THE LOK SABHA SECRETARIAT

(I)Legislative, Financial Committee, Executive and Administrative Service (LAFEAS)

(II) Library, Reference, Research, Documentation, and Information Service (LARRDIS)

(Ill) Verbatim Reporting Service (VRS)

(IV) Private Secretaries and Stenographic Service (PSSS)

(V) Simultaneous Interpretation Service (SIS)

(VI) Printing & Publications Service (P&PS)

(VII) Editorial and Translation Service (E& T)

(VIII) Parliament Security Service (PSS)

(IX) Drivers and Despatch Riders Service

(X) Messengers Service

(XI) Parliament Museum Service (PMS)

THE FUNCTIONS OF THE RAJYA SABHA SECRETARIAT

The Rajya Sabha Secretariat functions under the overall guidance and control of the Chairman, Rajya Sabha. The main activities of the Secretariat inter alia include the following:-

providing secretarial assistance and support to the effective functioning of the Council of States (Rajya Sabha);
the payment of salary and other allowances to the Members of Rajya Sabha;
providing amenities as admissible to Members of Rajya Sabha;
servicing the various Parliamentary Committees;
preparing research and reference material and bringing out various publications;
recruitment of manpower in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat and attending to personnel matters; and
preparing and publishing a record of the day-to-day proceedings of the Rajya Sabha and bringing out such other publications as may be required concerning the functioning of the Rajya Sabha and its Committees.

In the discharge of his constitutional and statutory responsibilities, the Chairman, Rajya Sabha, is assisted by the Secretary-General, who holds the rank of the Cabinet Secretary to the Government of India. The Secretary-General, in turn, is assisted by senior functionaries at the level of Secretary, Additional Secretary, Joint Secretary, and other officers and staff of the Secretariat. Based on the recommendations of the Parliamentary Pay Committee way back in 1974, the Secretariat was restructured on a functional basis into the following Services, which cater to the specific needs of the House and its Committees.

The Legislative, Financial, Executive, and Administrative (LAFEA) Service
The Library, Reference, Research, Documentation, and Information (LARRDI) Service
The Verbatim Reporting Service
The Simultaneous Interpretation Service
The Editorial and Translation Service
The Private Secretaries and Stenographic (PSS) Service
The Printing and Publications (P&P) Service
The Watch & Ward, Door Keeping, and Sanitation Service
The Drivers and Despatch Riders Service
The Messenger Service

THE INDIAN LEGISLATIVE SERVICE-THE NEED OF THE HOUR?