Requires an Indian Legislative Service

The appointment of Dr. PPK Ramacharyulu as the Secretary General of the Upper House by Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu on September 1, 2021 was a news that attracted a lot of attention. Ramacharyulu was earlier an employee of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat who became the General Secretary of the Upper House. A precedent – ​​appointing the Secretary General ‘outside’ or bureaucratic, who often retires – very difficult to follow, was made possible by the Speaker. This was a well-deserved signal to the long-serving staff of the Parliament Secretariat and their long-sought for course reform to restore the legitimacy. However, it was a fleeting gesture – Ramacharyulu was replaced, oddly, by a former bureaucrat, PC Modi, in less than three months. The Chairman is said to have succumbed to political pressure.

Since the first Parliament in 1952, 11 General Secretaries served in the Rajya Sabha before Ramacharyulu. Except for a few lateral entry staff, who could become general secretary, all others were parachuted from time to time from the civil services or other services.

In the first Parliament, the Rajya Sabha elected the first Secretary (General) SN Mukherjee, a civil servant, while India inherited the Legislative Assembly Department (Secretariat) attached to the Central Legislative Assembly from 1929. However, the appointment of SN Mukherjee as Secretary (General) can be justified as he had served as the Joint Secretary in the Constituent Assembly Secretariat and the Chief Drafter of the Constitution. SS Bahlerao joined the Rajya Sabha Secretariat as Deputy Secretary in 1958 and became the third General Secretary (General) in 1976. Prior to his tenure in the Rajya Sabha, he had served as Assistant Secretary in the erstwhile Hyderabad Legislative Assembly and Secretary in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. Meeting.

Similarly, Sudarshan Agrawal joined Rajya Sabha as Deputy Secretary and became the fourth General Secretary in 1981. From 1993, all the General Secretaries of Rajya Sabha were from civil service until Ramacharyulu was appointed as the 12th General Secretary. Retired IRS officer PC Modi was appointed as the 13th General Secretary in the Upper House for the first time.

independent of the executive

Article 98 of the Constitution provides for separate secretariats for both the Houses of Parliament. Therefore, the principle laid down in this article is that secretariats should be independent of the executive government. RK Sidhwa, an eminent member in the Constituent Assembly, emphasized the need for an independent secretariat. He cited an example: “When the Speaker’s Secretariat required pencils for the members, the executive refused to give them.” This figuratively marks the importance of an independent secretariat. A separate secretariat is a feature of a functioning parliamentary democracy.

The General Secretary, with a rank equivalent to that of a Cabinet Secretary, is the third most important functionary of the Rajya Sabha after the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman. The Secretary-General also enjoys certain privileges such as freedom from arrest, immunity from criminal proceedings, and any obstruction and violation of his rights would amount to contempt of the House. The Secretaries-General of both the Houses have been entrusted with a number of parliamentary and administrative responsibilities. One of the pre-requisites seeking the post of Secretary General is inexhaustible knowledge and vast experience of parliamentary procedures, practices and precedents. This aspect of expertise is precisely lacking in most civil servants.

in the Lok Sabha

Unlike the Rajya Sabha, nine employees of the Lok Sabha (including lateral-entry officers) were raised to become the Secretary General to date. The first Secretary General (General) of the Lok Sabha was MN Kaul (1952–64), the Constituent Assembly Secretariat (1947–50) and the Secretary of the Provisional Parliament (1950–52). SL Shakdher (1964–77), the second Secretary General of the Lok Sabha, who was Secretary of the Department of Parliamentary Affairs in 1949, was later appointed as OSD to MN Kaul, and Kaul was replaced as Secretary (General) . Later in the Lok Sabha The nine general secretaries (from the secretariat) Avtar Singh Rikhi, Subhash Kashyap, CK Jain, RC Bhardwaj, GC Malhotra, PDT Acharya, S. Bal Shekhar, P. Sreedharan and PK Grover. The precedent of promotion of senior most secretary to the post of Secretary General of Lok Sabha has come to an end. Also, some of them got the post of General Secretary after retirement.

constitute an infringement

Serving civil servants or those who have retired have longer baggage and clout of their previous careers. When civil servants are appointed to the post of Secretary General, it not only defeats the purpose of ensuring the independence of the Secretariat but also creates conflict of interest. It violates the principle of separation of power. Officials exercising one area of ​​power may not be expected to exercise others.

In a parliamentary form of government, one of the roles of the Parliament is to oversee the administrative behavior of the executive. In other words, Parliament has all the reasons to supervise the administration. In order to be an effective body to provide meaningful inquiry and to hold the executive accountable, Parliament must have technical and human resource qualifications that are at par with the executive. A stronger parliament means a more accountable executive. However, the bureaucracy consistently does not allow the Parliament to be an efficient and strong legislative body.

An All India Service is a must

There are thousands of legislative bodies in India, ranging from panchayats, block panchayats, zilla parishads, municipal corporations to state legislatures and the central parliament at the national level. Despite these huge law-making bodies, they lack their own common public recruitment and training agency at the national level. Parliament and state legislative secretariats recruit their pools of bureaucrats separately. Qualified and well-trained staff are required to ensure competent and strong legislative institutions. The development of modern government and the expansion of government activities requires equal development and painstaking legislative exercise. It is necessary to create a common All India Service Cadre – an Indian Legislative Service. A general service may form a combined and experienced legislative staff cadre, allowing them to serve in the central parliament from local bodies. The Rajya Sabha may, under Article 312, pass a resolution to this effect to create an All India Service for both the Union and the States, in the national interest, and enable Parliament to create such service by law.

In the United Kingdom, the Clerk of the House of Commons has always been appointed from the legislative staff pool created to serve the Parliament. The time has come for India to adopt and adopt such democratic institutional practices.

Vinod Bhanu, Director, Center for Legislative Research and Advocacy, New Delhi. Views expressed are personal

• Article 98 of the Constitution provides for separate secretariats for both the Houses of Parliament. Therefore, the principle laid down in this article is that secretariats should be independent of the executive government.

• The General Secretary, with a rank equivalent to that of a Cabinet Secretary, is the third most important functionary of the Rajya Sabha after the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman.

• When civil servants are appointed to the post of Secretary General, it not only defeats the purpose of ensuring the independence of the Secretariat but also creates conflict of interest. It violates the principle of separation of power.

• It is necessary to create a common All India Service Cadre – an Indian Legislative Service. A general service can form a combined and experienced legislative staff cadre, so that they can serve in the central parliament from local bodies.