THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION IN INDIA
| Published date | 01 September 1953 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1953.tb01702.x |
| Date | 01 September 1953 |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Some of my colleagues on our National Insurance (local) Advisory
Committee arc wondering what will happen when the Ministries of Pensions
and National Insurance are merged. Is
it
too much to hope that the appro-
priate local advisory committee will be given the opportunity to render some
really useful service in the interests
of
the service pensioners
?
Personally,
I
would welcome such an opportunity for, despite some of our pessimists,
I
have confidence in the system of local advisory committees.
I
am sure
there are many men and women who will readily give expert advice through
these voluntary channels whenever the
“
powers-that-be
’’
require it.
Yours sincerely,
R. L.
ENTWISTLE.
Upminster, Essex.
17th
June,
1953. (Administrative Assistant, Labour
Relations Division, Ford Motor Co. Ltd.).
THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION IN INDIA
DEAR
SIR,
The items of information in an article on
“
The
(sic)
Public Service
Commission in India
’’
(Spring, 1953) require a little elucidation. The
impression conveyed is that of certain automatons which have been established
for some time, “purely advisory,” but at the same time “in no way sub-
ordinate to the legislature or executive.” Unfortunately, in order to emphasise
the
“
advisory
”
character of the Commissions, the author quotes from a
speech explaining the provisions in the Government of India Act of 1935,
and not from any statement in the Constituent Assembly of India which
framed the constitution for the Indian Union! In giving the
“
distinctive
features
”
of the Commissions under the present Constitution, he starts with
the tenure of office of persons like himself, but reserves for later mention the
most important innovation, itself of great constitutional import, viz., the right
of making Annual Reports to the Legislature concerned as a “safeguard
against arbitrary action by them in disregard of the Commission’s advice.”
In fact, it
is
through this safety-valve that
a
lot of the public education and
publicity work on the Civil Services
vis-his
political patronage has been
lately possible in India. The latest is a typical report (from which
I
quote
below) issued by the Uttar Pradesh (the biggest state in India now) Public
Service Commission, chaired by a distinguished educationist, Dr. Amarnath
Jha. The Union P.S.C. had also similar points to make. Unfortunately,
your author belongs to the school which makes too much of the
“
advisory
”
character of the Commissions. However it appears that in order to live up to
the expectations of students of constitutional development, the Commissions,
which meet
at
conference periodically, should unite in building of traditions
and conventions to ensure an efficient, incorruptible civil service,
as
good as,
and more patrotic perhaps than, that left by the British.
Here are extracts from
The
Statesman (Calcutta and New Delhi) on the
U.P.P.S.C.’s report which point to the inevitable pains attaching to the
rebirth
of
a
State under local political auspices:
LUCKNOW, July 20.-To those who pin their faith on the need for
an efficient and incorruptible civil service for the successful functioning
300
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