Power is so heady that one tiny draught can unhinge even a well-meaning aam aadmi. Seasoned politicians, on the other hand, are discreet. They slyly privatise the police power of the state and subjugate the civil service. Only recently, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) acquired courage to demand autonomy, that too when it found that it would get support from an activist Supreme Court which ridiculed it as a "caged parrot" of its masters. The serial scams exposed the role of the ministers in tweaking the prime investigative agency and the government was compelled to grant some independence to it.
Last week's Supreme Court judgment in the case of a land deal between industrialists in Gujarat highlighted the plight of the other victim of political power, namely the bureaucracy (Dipak Babaria vs State of Gujarat). Civil servants are seen to be under the thumb of political masters and there are few among them, such as Mr Humphrey Appleby of "Yes, Minister" fame, who can wag the dog. Though the Supreme Court has written several judgments exposing their unenviable position, the babus have not been half as lucky as the sleuths of the CBI.
The court quashed the direct resale of 40 acres, originally bought from farmers by Indigo Refinery, to Alumina Refinery at the diktat of the state revenue minister. The collector of Kutch acted ever so obediently, though every official knew that the order was against the law. The land, which was surrendered by Indigo as it abandoned its project, had to be reverted to the government and resold at the prevailing market price. That was not done since the minister overruled the opinion of secretaries and passed an unreasoned order to sell it at a low price to Alumina. The judgment stated that the minister ignored the dictum that howsoever high you may be, the law is above you.
The judges wrote several stinging passages against the minister and her faithful officials. "Dictating the collector," said the judgment, "to act in a particular manner on the assumption by the minister that it is in the interest of the industrial development would lead to a breach of the mandate of the statute framed by the legislature. Ministers are not expected to act in this manner and, therefore, this particular route through the corridors of the ministry, contrary to the statute, cannot be approved. The present case is clearly one of dereliction of his duties by the collector and dictation by the minister, showing nothing but arrogance of power."
In some rare cases, the court has chided politicians but the regime never changes its spot. In the leading case, Trilochan Dev vs State of Punjab, the court declared: "In the system of Indian democratic governance, as contemplated by the Constitution, senior officials occupying key positions such as Secretaries are not supposed to mortgage their own discretion, volition and decision-making authority and be prepared to give way or being pushed back or pressed ahead at the behest of politicians, for carrying out commands having no sanctity in law."
Some time ago, the Supreme Court reopened a tax assessment because it suspected that the officer concerned had acted under pressure from her superiors (Commissioner of Income Tax vs Greenwood Corporation). She accepted the returns filed by a Himachal Pradesh company, and wrote extensively, in an attached note, that she did so according to instructions from the commissioner.
In one case, top officers of the Union Territory of Chandigarh were censured for taking over the land of farmers for a private venture (Surinder Singh vs Union of India). The court stated that the land acquisition officer merely followed orders from above. "If he had shown the courage of acting independently and made recommendation against the acquisition of land, he would have surely been shifted from that post and his career would have been jeopardized," the court remarked. "In the system of governance which we have today, junior officers in the administration cannot even think of, what to say of, acting against the wishes/dictates of their superiors. One who violates this unwritten code of conduct does so at one's own peril and is described as foolhardy."
In this scenario, too few cases come to the court since most civil servants succumb to the circumstances, fearing sidelining, transfer, demotion, sacking and scores of other harassment. They are the sacrificial lambs and they have to take the blame for not raising the badge of courage. Self-preservation is utmost in their mind. Very few can stand up to the government of the day such as activist Harsh Mander, who was transferred 22 times in 17 years, Durga Shakti Nagpal who took on the sand mafia in Uttar Pradesh or Ashok Khemka of Haryana. The CBI picked some autonomy from the ashes of the "Coalgate" hearings. Babus should perhaps wait for a darker scam to claim their freedom.
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