1. Mah. Act No. XXI of 2006

Very few people know that the Government of Maharashtra had promulgated the Maharashtra Government Servants Regulation of Transfers and Prevention of Delay in Discharge of Official Duties Ordinance, 2003, on 25th August, 2003. Now, after a gap of around 3 years the said Ordinance has been replaced by Mah. Act No. XXI of 2006 which is gazetted on 12th May, 2006. Further, by a separate Gazette Notification No. SRV. 2004/O.C.R. – 15/2004 / 12 dated 25th May, 2006, the said Act has been brought into force. For the benefit of our members and readers, we are publishing separately in the Review the said Act and the Notification on which date, the said Act has been brought into force.

2. In all, the said Act contains IV Chapters and 16 sections. Important provisions of the said Act are highlighted and explained below for the information of all concerned.

1. The said Act shall apply to all Govt. servants in the State services including the All India Service Officers of the Maharashtra Cadre.

2. Section 2(a) defines "Citizens Charter" means a list of facilities or services rendered by the office or Department, together with the time limit for providing such facility or services to the general public.

3. Section 6 deals with Transferring Authority. Here below is the Table showing Groups of Govt. Servants and the Competent Transferring Authority:–

N.B:- Two provisos are added to section 6 below the Table which is not dealt with here.

4. Section 8 deals with prevention of delay in discharge of official duties. Section 8(1) calls for preparation of citizens charter by every office or Dept. within a period of 6 months from the date of commencement of this Act; i.e., 25th May, 2006. To my mind, no office or Dept. has come out with citizens charter as envisaged under this Act. Section 8(2) says that if no final decision is taken within the period specified in the citizens charter by the concerned authorities, the responsibility for inaction shall be fixed on them and an action mentioned in the relevant Act, Rules or Regulations shall be taken against them. However, it should be noted here that the responsibility fixation will arise only after citizens charter are published under the Act. Let us hope that the citizens charters are brought out by every office or Dept. as early as possible to meet the objective of the said Act. Already, it may be stated that they have breached the legal provision of the said Act.

5. Section 10 deals with disciplinary action. Section 10(1) says that every Government servant shall be bound to discharge his official duties and the official work assigned or pertaining to him most deligently and as expeditiously as possible. Provided that, normally no file shall remain pending with any Government servant in the Dept. or office for more than seven working days. Provided further that, immediate and urgent files shall be disposed of as per the urgency of the matter, as expeditiously as possible, and preferably the immediate file in one day or next day morning and the urgent file in four days. We do not know whether this time-table for disposal of files has been widely circulated and / or published by way of Circulars by the Government for the benefit of its subjects. In the absence of its wide publicity, the ideal provisions of law will remain only on the statute book and for academic interest only.
    

6. We therefore request our enlightened members to take advantage of the above law and wake-up the Government machinery from its sluggishness and make them active to serve the society, by using the weapon of the said Act, in addition to RTI Act.

2. RTI Act, 2005

Our professional brothers requested me to obtain information regarding pending references from the Bombay High Court. Accordingly, I filed the application under the RTI Act, on
9-10-2007 seeking the information on the following two points:–

1. Kindly give year-wise information till date regarding pending references registered under the Sales Tax, Central Sales Tax and Allied Laws administered by the Sales Tax Department, as per the record maintained at the Bombay High Court.

2. Also, give information regarding any action plan or time table, if any, drawn by the Hon’ble Bombay High Court, about the disposal of such pending references.

2. In response to the application, the Section Officer of the Board Dept. of the High Court, vide letter dated 26-10-2007 gave the following information: -
    

3. "As regards query No. (i) a statement showing the pendency of sales tax references as on 30th Sept. 2007 is enclosed.
    

4. As regards query No. (ii) as per assignment all the sales tax references are appearing chronologically before the Division Bench."

3. Say "No!" to corruption, on the Eve of Vigilance Awareness Week

Part-I

Under the above campaign for a week commencing on 12th November every year, the Head of the Dept. takes and administers the oath ‘Say "No!" to Corruption’. Despite the above yearly ritual, there is no remarkable improvement in corruption eradication or controlling its widespread effect in all walks of life.

2. In this connection, as you know, where a State Government official asks for a bribe for performing official duty and if you do not wish to bribe him, you are asked to lodge a complaint with Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB). The bribe money so decided is required to be arranged by the complainant and deposited in advance to lay a trap by the ACB, so that the person asking for the bribe is caught red-handed. Obviously, in such a situation, the complainant’s money given to ACB to arrange a trap is thereafter deposited in the Court by way of evidence. And the money is returned to the complainant on disposal of the case. This procedure was discouraging the complainant to approach the ACB to lay a trap for the bribe seeker official. Now, this position is publicly accepted by the Home Minister Shri R.R. Patil in a TOI Report dated 14-11-2007, which we are publishing as an extension of this column. Indeed the whole approach in this connection by the Government so far, is highly unacceptable to any sane mind. Anyway, the dead slow machinery of the Government realized this sad position and is going to change it on the eve of ‘Vigilance Awareness Week’ celebrated last week, as per the promise of Home Minister Shri. R.R. Patil.

Part-II