Ensuring Social Justice In The Bureaucracy

Recently, The Leader of the opposition pointed out the absence of SC/ST officers in framing the 2024 Budget. 

UPSC Withdraws Controversial Lateral Entry Advertisement Amid Reservation Concerns

• UPSC issued an advertisement: Recently, the UPSC issued an advertisement seeking applications for 45 senior positions across 24 ministries, sparking a political debate.
• Significant Roles: These roles are significant as they involve major decision-making responsibilities within the government
• Criticism: The opposition had strongly criticized the government’s push for lateral entry, primarily because these appointments do not come with mandatory reservations for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC). 
  • Concern raised: This practice might sideline marginalized communities from occupying important government positions, which traditionally come with reservations under the 13-point roster policy.
    • They see the lateral entry could be used to bypass the reservation system 
• Withdrawal of Advertisement: The Central government directed the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to withdraw its advertisement issued a few days ago, seeking applications for lateral recruitment to senior bureaucratic posts at the Centre. 

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What Is Lateral Entry Into The Bureaucracy?

• Lateral entry: It refers to the practice of recruiting individuals from outside the traditional government service cadres to fill mid and senior-level positions within the bureaucracy. 
• Instead of selecting officers from within the civil service, lateral entry allows professionals from the private sector, academia, public sector undertakings (PSUs), state governments, and other nongovernmental organizations to be appointed to key roles in the Union government.
• Process: The UPSC facilitates this process by issuing advertisements for various senior positions such as joint secretary, director, and deputy secretary across multiple ministries. 
  • Candidates with the appropriate qualifications and experience are invited to apply, making these positions critical decision
• Term: They would be given contracts of three years, extendable to a total term of five years.

Origin and Implementation of UPSC Lateral Entry

• Second ARC: The principle of lateral entry was endorsed by the Second Administrative Reforms Commission which was constituted in 2005, chaired by Shri Veerappa Moily. 
• NITI Aayog Recommendation: NITI Aayog in its three-year Action Agenda, and the Sectoral Group of Secretaries (SGoS) on Governance in its report submitted in February 2017, recommended the induction of personnel at middle and senior management levels in the central government. 
  • These ‘lateral entrants’ would be part of the central secretariat which in the normal course has only career bureaucrats from the All India Services/ Central Civil Services.

Recommendations Of Various Expert Groups/Committees Regarding Lateral Entry

• 1st Administrative Reforms Commission:
  • It recognised the need for specialization as the functions of the government had become diversified.
  • ARC highlights that performance appraisals may be adopted from the armed forces, which could aid in weeding out non-performers.
  • Surinder Nath Committee in 2003 and Hota Committee in 2004 also recommended domain expertise in civil services.
• In 2005: Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) recommended lateral entry at both the Central and state levels.
  • ARC highlights that performance appraisals may be adopted from the armed forces, which could aid in weeding out non-performers.
• Earlier instances of lateral entrants: Nandan Nilekani, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Vijay Kelkar, Arvind Subramanian,and Raghuram Rajan have all been brought in from outside the services to lead various committees and organizations.

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Need Of Specialist Or Domain Expert

• Technical knowledge: These domain experts can provide ground level insight and real challenges associated with policy formulation and its implementation.
• Complex situations: The functions related to administration are now becoming more and more complex, technical and subject specific, hence only a specialist can deal with them effectively.
• Lack of field knowledge: The generalist or traditional bureaucrats are not aware of reality in the field. 
• Improvements in governance and performance: NITI Aayog’s Three-Year Action Agenda for 2017-2020, as this will “add competitiveness to the existing career bureaucracy.”
• Fill the officer vacancy gap: The country is short of nearly 1,500 IAS officers (Ministry of Personnel Data)
  • E.g: Baswan Committee (2016) also advocated lateral entry to fill these vacancies.
• Entry and retention of talent in government: According to the Sixth Central Pay Commission report (2006), lateral entry will “ensure entry and retention of talent in the government even for those positions that have a high demand and premium in the open sector.

Arguments Against Lateral Entry

• Lacking Field Experience: External talent lacks the breadth and scope of field experience that the civil service provides. 
• Long-term commitment: Lateral entrants, often appointed for shorter tenures, may lack the long-term commitment and loyalty that permanent civil servants develop. 
• Potential conflicts of interest between public service and private sector backgrounds could influence decision-making. 
• Issue with execution: Career civil servants are better at bridging the gap between policy making and ground level execution than external talent.
• Internal tussle: A vote of no confidence in the government personnel management system will result from a largescale lateral induction.
• Undermines the role of civil servants: Civil Servants are already institutionalized operating in the well-established scenarios with efficiency. Lateral entry will kill their morale. 

Issues In Ensuring Social Justice In The Bureaucracy

• Lack of representation for marginalized communities : Recently, During his parliamentary address, the Leader of the opposition highlighted the absence of Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) officers among the 20 officials involved in framing the 2024 Budget proposals. 
  • Only one officer from the minorities and one from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) were included in the process. 
• No Role in the Framing Policy: This highlights that those who originally belong to poor and deprived sections of society do not have a role in the framing of a crucial aspect of government’s economic policy. 
• Upper Caste Dominance: Out of 322 officers holding Joint Secretary and Secretary posts, 254 belonged to the general category, while only 16 were from SC, 13 from ST, and 39 from OBC categories. 
  • Number of Secretary and Joint Secretary-level officers stood at 4% and 4.9%, respectively. 

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• Late Entry Disadvantage: SC/ST and PwBD candidates often join the civil services later in life and are unable to reach the highest positions due to retirement before attaining senior roles.
• Unreserved candidates are getting, on average, three more years of service: Cabinet Secretariat data (2nd ARC) from 2004 shows that on average, unreserved candidates enter the service at the age of 24.7 years, whereas SC, ST, and OBC members do so at 27.6 years, 26.9 years, and 27.1 years respectively.
  • these late entrants will have a shorter service span, which means that they may not have adequate opportunities to contribute to policy-making at higher levels
• Subjective process of empanelment for higher positions: In this process, the government first considers applications from eligible candidates. 
  • Ideally, the willing candidates should be judged on merit, accountability, efficiency, bent toward action, and so on. 
  • But these are all subjective criteria, and in a divided society like India, it is very difficult to create ideal situations
• Criticism of lateral entry recruitment: Lateral entries have been criticised on the grounds that there are no quotas for SC, ST and OBC candidates in such recruitment.
  • AIM: Lateral recruitment is aimed at achieving the twin objectives of bringing in fresh talent as well as augment the availability of manpower

Way Forward & Proposed Changes

• Representation matters: Democracies cease to be representative when the population is inadequately represented in the country’s institutions. 
  • Jyotiba Phule Arguments: This was argued by Jyotiba Phule when he said that the Pune Sarvajanik Sabha can’t be called a sarvajanik sabha if only a few castes are in control. 
  • Article 16(4) of the Constitution: That argument is reflected in Article 16(4) as well: “Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any backward class of citizens which, in the opinion of the State, is not adequately represented in the services under the State.”
• Kothari Commission: The Kothari Commission even favoured only two attempts, not only for the general candidates but also for SC/ST members.
• The Second ARC recommended: “The permissible age for appearing in the Civil Services Examination should be 21 to 25 years for general candidates, 21 to 28 years for candidates from OBC and 21 to 29 years for candidates from SC/ST and PH. 
  • This will make every entrant to the service, at least theoretically, eligible to be empanelled for the secretary post.
• To fix the year of service as a condition for retirement: There can be a fixed tenure for all officers, irrespective of entry age. 
  • At the same time, the government must ensure that the scope of arbitrariness, discrimination, and subjectivity in the matter of career progression of the officers is reduced.
• Retirement Age Adjustment: The retirement age limits could be adjusted to ensure all civil servants retire by around 67 years of age, with annual medical fitness checks after the age of 62.
• To decrease arbitrariness and subjectivity in Top Bureaucracy:
  • First ARC recommended: Only 5 to 10 per cent of the civil servants engaged in work of a similar nature and at the same level in any organisation be given the grade “fit for promotion out of turn”. 
  • In 2004, the Hota Committee suggested: To replace the Annual Confidential Report (ACR) with a new system, which would focus more on evaluating performance based on clear work plans and objective measures. 
• Formation of Committee: An independent and multi-disciplinary committee with adequate representation from SC/ST, OBC, and PwBD communities should be established to examine the proposal of fixed tenure and its implications for social justice.

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Conclusion

• Ensuring social justice within the bureaucracy is crucial for a truly representative democracy. Addressing the underrepresentation of marginalized communities, especially in decision-making positions, is essential to creating an inclusive and equitable governance structure. 
• On the other hand, Lateral entry for specialist positions should prioritize efficiency over equity. An efficient bureaucracy is ultimately more effective in delivering social justice than reserving specialized jobs for particular categories. The focus should remain on bringing in the best talent to serve the public interest effectively.