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RESPONSE TO CITIZENS RIGHT TO GRIEVANCE REDRESS BILL

The Citizens Right to Grievance Redress Bill proposed by the government providing for citizens charters and seeking timely redressal of citizens grievances suffers from several critical deficiencies. 1. It provides for a highly centralized system of grievance redressal which is bound to collapse under its own weight within a few days of its implementation. According to the proposed bill, if a citizen fails to get his grievance redressed from the grievance redressal officer and the head of that department, the grievance would go to the State Public Grievance Commission consisting of 5 members and stationed at state capital. One wonders how would this 5 member body deal with grievances from all the villages and cities of the entire state against all departments which could run into lakhs, if not crores. Still worse is the fact that an appeal against State Public Grievance Redressal Commission would lie before a 5 members Central Public Grievance Commission stationed in Delhi. This 5 member Central Public Grievance Commission would be expected to solve all the grievances against all state and central government departments of 120 crore population. Obviously the system is designed to collapse. 2. The penalty clause for non redressal of grievance is vague, weak and fails to provide an effective deterrence against non performance. There is no penalty provided against the Head of the Department. 3. The bill provides for a selection committee but does not provide for the composition of search committee and is silent on the selection process. 4. The bill is silent on grounds and procedure for removal of non performing and corrupt members of the Public Grievance Commissions. 5. The definition of complaint is so vast that the grievances related to violation of citizen charters which mostly leads to demand for bribery would get submerged into the ocean of other non critical grievances. 6. The bill does not provide for compensation to the aggrieved citizen.

Our Suggestions
Proposal No. 1: Implement sense of house passed by parliament. Anna suspended his fast in August on the basis of a resolution passed by the Parliament of India which was termed as Sense of House by some people but was referred to as a resolution by the Prime Minister in his letter to Shri Anna Hazare. This resolution clearly stated that three issues would be addressed through the Lokpal Bill namely Lokayuktas in states would be created through the same bill and lower bureaucracy and citizens charter would be included in the Lokpal bill. However we are surprised that contrary to that resolution, the government proposes

to exclude citizen charter from Lokpals jurisdiction and bring a weak and ineffective bill to deal with citizens grievances. Therefore, we would strongly urge that the issue of citizens charters should be brought in through the Lokpal Bill and should not be dealt through a separate bill. We have suggested introduction of following sections to provide for citizens charters in Jan Lokpal Bill. We would strongly recommend that these sections should be incorporated in Lokpal Bill. Definition: Grievance means a claim by a person that he could not get satisfactory redressal according to a citizens charter despite approaching a Grievance Redressal Officer of that Department; (1) Each public authority shall prepare a specific charter within a reasonable time not

exceeding one year from the coming into force of this Act. (2) Every citizens charter shall enumerate the public authoritys commitments to the citizens which are capable of being met within a specific time limit and shall designate the officer whose duty would be to fulfill the commitment of the public authority. (3) If any public authority does not prepare its citizens charter within a year, Lokpal shall

notify the citizens charter on its own after consulting the public authority and the same shall be binding on that authority. (4) Each public authority shall make an assessment of the resources required to implement the citizens charter and the government shall provide such resources. (5) Each public authority shall designate an official called Public Grievance Redressal Officer in each station where the public authority has an office, to whom a complaint could be made for any violation of the citizens charter. (6) The Senior most officer of that public authority in that office will be designated as the Public Grievance Redressal Officer. (7) It shall be the duty of the Grievance Redressal Officer to get the grievance redressed within a period of 30 days from the receipt of the complaint. (8) In the event of even the Grievance Redressal Officer not getting the grievance redressed within the specific period of 30 days a complaint could be made to the Lokpal.

(9) The Lokpal after hearing the Grievance Redressal Officer would impose suitable penalty not exceeding Rs. 500/- for each days delay but not exceeding Rs. 50,000/- to be recovered from the salaries of the Grievance Redressal Officer. However, if the victim is from socially and economically backward sections, the punishment shall be double. (10) Apart from levying the penalty on the Grievance Redressal Officer, the Lokpal may also in suitable cases recommend to the appropriate authority to have departmental punishment imposed on the Grievance Redressal Officer. (11) The Lokpal will also issue a direction to an appropriate authority to get such grievances redressed within the time to be fixed by the Lokpal. (12) Every public authority shall review and revise its Citizens Charter at least once every year through a process of public consultation to be held in the presence of a representative of Lokpal. (13) Lokpal may direct any public authority to make such changes in their citizens charter as are mentioned in that order and that public authority shall make such changes within a month of the receipt of such order. Provided that such changes shall have to be approved by at least a three member bench of Lokpal. (14) There shall be at least one officer of the Lokpal in each district to perform the functions of Lokpal under this chapter. This officer shall be called a Judicial Officer. However, in such places where there is more concentration of central government offices, there shall be more Judicial Officers as may be required. Such number of Judicial Officers shall be appointed by Lokpal as are required to ensure timely disposal of appeals under this chapter. These Judicial Officers maybe retired judges, retired civil servants or any other categories of people. (15) A social audit of each Judicial Officer shall take place every six months, in which he shall present himself before the public, present the data related to his functioning, respond to public queries and incorporate suggestions from public in his functioning. The public hearing shall be attended by a senior officer from Lokpal. (16) No case can be closed by Judicial Officer till the citizens grievance is redressed or the case

is rejected by the Judicial Officer. (17) Complaint against non performance or corruption of a judicial officer under this chapter could be made to either Lokpal bench or to independent complaints authority provided in Jan Lokpal Bill. Proposal No. 2: Alternately (if this proposal is accepted, this bill should be brought simultaneously along with the Lokpal Bill) If the government wishes to bring a separate bill to deal with citizens charters, we request that the Uttarakhand model for the same should be adopted wherein the citizens charters have been provided through a separate bill. However, the violation of the same by various levels of officers in the same department is required to be strongly dealt with by judicial officers. In Uttarakhand these judicial officers are selected, appointed and controlled by Lokayukta. If the central government wants, these judicial officers could be selected, appointed and controlled by independent Public Grievance Commissions. However the Public Grievance Commissions should never be burdened with the work of hearing appeals as that system is bound to collapse under its own weight. The job of Public Grievance Commissions should be to appoint as many judicial officers as is required to ensure timely disposal of appeals and to ensure easy geographical access to citizens. The job of Public Grievance Commissions should be to control these judicial officers and not to hear any appeals. The State Public Grievance Commission shall be responsible for the judicial officers in the government departments of the respective state and Central Public Grievance Commission shall be responsible for the judicial officers in central government departments. The details of this proposal would work as follows: 1. Failure by an officer to provide service according to citizen charter should lead to first appeal to his immediate boss. Second appeal should go to head of that department. If the citizen is still dissatisfied, the appeal should lie before a judicial officer stationed in the same district/block. The State Public Grievance Commission should be given the power to appoint as many judicial officers as is required at district or block level from retired judges/ bureaucrats or similar categories of people. If a grievance reaches judicial officer of Public Grievance Commission, judicial officer should have the following duty: a. To compulsorily fix responsibility and impose penalty against guilty officials which should be deducted from their pay and paid to aggrieved citizen as compensation. The penalty should be imposed at the rate of Rs 250 per day of delay upto a maximum of Rs 25000 for each grievance.

b. In addition to the above, the judicial officer would also have powers to order additional compensation on account of actual costs, loss suffered and mental harassment. c. Repeated violation of citizen charter by any officer should be deemed to be an act of corruption and should be referred by judicial officer to Lokpal/Lokayukta. In the alternate, any citizen may also approach Lokpal/Lokayukta with such complaints. 2. Judicial officers should have a duty to get grievances resolved within 30 days of its receipt. However, in those cases where the cause of action would cease to exist the grievance should be redressed in shorter periods. In emergency cases, it should be completed within 48 hours. 3. Orders of judicial officers would be final and no appeal would lie against their orders in any court of law or in state Public Grievance Commission. However complaints against non performance or corruption of judicial officers would lie before State Public Grievance Commission or Central Public Grievance Commission as the case may be. Such complaints would be heard by respective commissions in open public hearing and orders passed within 30 days of receipt of such complaints. If the complaint is proved the commission shall order dismissal of the said judicial officer. In case of corruption, the commission shall refer the matter to Lokpal/ Lokayukta. 4. Selection of members of Public Grievance Commission: As mentioned earlier, the governments bill provides for inadequate number of members in selection committee and is silent on the composition of search committee and the selection process. Therefore we recommend the following : a. The Selection Committee shall consist of the following:(i) The Prime Minister of India, who will be the Chairperson of the Selection Committee. (ii) The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha (iii) Two judges of Supreme Court of India and two permanent Chief Justices of the High Courts selected by collegium of all Supreme Court judges (iv) The Chief Election Commissioner of India (v) The Comptroller & Auditor General of India (vi) The last 3 Chairpersons of Public Grievance Commission.

b. The Selection Committee shall select the Chairperson and the other members of the Public Grievance Commission from out of a short list prepared by the Search Committee. The Chairperson shall be a person with extensive knowledge of law. c. A Search Committee shall consist of 10 members. 5 of its members shall be selected by the Selection Committee from amongst the retired Chief Justices of India, the retired Chief Election Commissioners and the retired Comptroller and Auditor Generals with impeccable reputation of integrity, who have not joined any political party after retirement and who are not holding any office under any government. The 5 members so selected shall, through consensus, co-opt another 5 members from the Civil Society in the search committee. d. The Search Committee before preparing the short list will invite nominations from such eminent individuals or such class of people, whom they deem fit, for the position of Chairperson or the members of the Public Grievance Commission. e. Only persons with impeccable integrity and record of public service particularly in the field of fighting corruption shall be eligible for being considered for nomination. f. The recommendations about nominees should, interalia, contain details of any allegations faced by that candidate under any law, details of his work against corruption in the past, reasons why that person is suitable for the job and any other material that the search committee may decide. g. The search committee, using any other means, shall collect as much information about the background and past achievements of these candidates. h. Such nominations as are received shall be put on a web site for inviting comments from the people with regard to the suitability or otherwise of the nominees. i. The Search Committee after taking into consideration the comments/information received from the public shall prepare, preferably through consensus, the short list of 3 times the number of persons to be appointed as members of the Public Grievance Commission.

j. Any nominations to which objections are raised by any 3 members of the Search Committee shall not be included in the short list. k. Before sending the short list to the Selection Committee, the Search Committee will get the names of the short listed persons put on a public web site to enable people to send any relevant information/comments about the shortlisted persons. l. The Selection Committee shall, after considering all relevant information about the short listed candidates, select the required number of persons preferably through consensus. However, a person shall not be selected if 3 members of the Selection Committee disapprove such names. m. The Selection Committee after selecting the persons to be appointed as members or Chairperson of the Public Grievance Commission shall ascertain their willingness to serve as members or Chairperson, as the case may be, before recommending the names to the President. 5. Removal of members of Public Grievance Commission: As mentioned earlier, the governments bill is silent on the grounds and procedure for removal of Public Grievance Commission members. Therefore we recommend the following : The Chairperson or any other member of the Public Grievance Commission shall only be removed from his office by the President, on the recommendation of the Supreme Court on any of the following grounds after the Supreme Court, on the complaint of any person, held an inquiry and found that he could on such ground be removed : i. ii. iii. iv. b. that he has been guilty of misbehavior; or that he is unfit to continue in his office by reason of infirmity of mind or body; or is adjudged an insolvent; or engages during his term of office in any paid employment outside the duties of his office. In any such proceeding the Supreme Court may also direct the suspension of such Chairman or member. c. On receipt of recommendation from the Supreme Court, the President shall forthwith

a.

remove the Chairperson or the member, as the case may be. d. Supreme Court shall, as far as possible, make its recommendations within 3 months of receipt of complaint under this section. e. If the complaint is frivolous or has been made with malafide intentions, Supreme Court may impose a fine or an imprisonment upto one year or both on the complainant.

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