Civil Services Board

Civil Services Board

• Recently, the Punjab government has set up a three-member Civil Services Board (CSB) for transfers and postings of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers in the state.

Key Points

• CSB:
• The CSB is headed by the Chief Secretary of a state and has senior most additional chief secretary or chairman, Board of Revenue, Financial Commissioner, or an officer of the equivalent rank and status as a member.
• The CSB provides for the state to follow the Centre’s guidelines on giving a fixed tenure of at least two years for cadre officers.
• If anyone recommends the transfer of the officers before the completion of tenure, then the board will examine and affect it. The final authority in this regard is the Chief Minister.
• Benefits:
• If the officials have a fixed tenure they will be able to provide better administration.
• They will also feel safe and try to stick to the rules instead of pleasing political bosses.
• Every official requires 3-6 months to get into the routine at his/her new place of posting. If they stay there for two years, it would mean better delivery and stable tenure to people.
• Issues Involved:
• If the tenure of bureaucrats is fixed, it may create functional and administrative problems.
• The officers may overstep the authority and jurisdiction of the state government.
• It may make them less answerable and accountable to legislators.
• With the fixed tenure rule, the political executives feel their influence has been reduced to nothing since all the powers to examine a recommendation for a transfer lies with the CSB.
• The bureaucrats feel the urge to go to courts for effective implementation of guidelines in letter and spirit.
• E.g. Haryana had the CSB in place but the guidelines are not followed there.
• Background:
• The Punjab government’s notification is based on a 2014 order issued by the Central government. The order was aimed at providing stability of tenure and checking political interference.
• Punjab is the 20th state to adopt the CSB.
• In October 2013, the Supreme Court had also mandated minimum tenure for bureaucrats, to insulate the bureaucracy from political interference and to put an end to frequent transfers of civil servants by political bosses.
• Frequent and arbitrary transfers of officers before completion of a reasonable tenure on any post have always been considered as a major reason for the declining standards of administration.
• IAS officers like Ashok Khemka, Durga Sakthi Nagpal, and Kuldip Narayan, among others, have allegedly been victims of arbitrary suspensions and transfers.

Way Forward

• A healthy working relationship between Ministers, MPs, MLAs, and civil servants is critical for good governance. Therefore, the state needs to take every stakeholder of governance in confidence.
• The state can learn from the loopholes of other states in implementing the fixed tenure rule.