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A PIL has been filed by Bhartiya Matdata Sangthan on 27th June in the Supreme Court under article 32 of the Indian Constitution seeking direction to the government to provide a citizen charter in each department, establish a grievance redressal commission and notify the grievance redress officer of every department. The petition further prayed that that right to time-bound service should be declared as an integral part of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution. Furthermore, the petition also prayed for the court’s directions to the Central government to ascertain the feasibility of reintroducing the Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of Grievance Bill, 2011, which had lapsed due to the dissolution of Lok Sabha.
The petition emphasized the government’s failure to provide time-bound services to its citizens. It has not only failed to appoint the Lokpal at the centre and the Lokayukta in all the states but has also failed to establish a citizen charter in each government department. The numerous shortcomings of several existing citizen’s charters were also analyzed in the petition. The petitioner further reasoned that a majority of these shortcomings were a result of the citizen’s charter being a voluntary scheme and not legally enforceable. It then went on to compare the Indian approach with the international standards and schemes used in foreign jurisdictions such as those in the UK, Malaysia, Canada and Australia to highlight a plethora of flaws in the Indian administration. It linked all this with the plague of corruption corroding the entire society and used India’s 81st rank in the Corruption Perception Index, 2015 to further substantiate the argument. It relied on the apex court judgment of Subramanian Swamy v. Manmohan Singh (2013) to highlight the role of corruption in threatening the constitutional governance of any country. The petition further relied on a network of SC judgments to establish its point.
The decision for appointments of Lokpal and Lokayukta was passed on 27.08.2011 and that for Citizen’s charter on 19.12.2011, but nothing has happened till date. The petition concluded that the only possible way to achieve the golden aims set out in the preamble of the constitution would be by eradication of corruption which is ruining the foundations of our society.
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