GS4 PYQ (Mains Answer Writing): Citizens' Charter, Official Secrets Act | UPSC Mains: Ethics, Integrity & Aptitude PDF Download

(A) Explain the basic principles of citizens' charter movement and bring out its Importance. (UPSC MAINS GS4)

It has been recognised the world over that good governance is essential for sustainable development, both economic and social. The three essential aspects emphasised in good governance are transparency, accountability and responsiveness of the administration.
The “Citizen’s Charters initiative” is a response to the quest for solving the problems which a citizen encounters, day in and day out, while dealing with organisations providing public services. The concept of Citizen’s Charter enshrines the trust between the service provider and its users.
The concept was first articulated and implemented in the United Kingdom by the Conservative Government of John Major in 1991 as a national programme with a simple aim: to continuously improve the quality of public services for the people of the country so that these services respond to the needs and wishes of the users.
Principles:

The basic objective of the Citizen’s Charter is to empower the citizen in relation to public service delivery.
The six principles of the Citizen’s Charter movement as originally framed were: 

• Quality: Improving the quality of services; 
• Choice: Wherever possible; 
• Standards: Specifying what to expect and how to act if standards are not met; 
• Value: For the taxpayers’ money; 
• Accountability: Individuals and Organisations; and 
• Transparency: Rules/Procedures/Schemes/Grievances

Importance of Citizens’ charter and its principles:

• A Citizen’s Charter is the expression of an understanding between citizens and the provider of a public service with respect to the quantity and quality of services the former receive in exchange for their taxes. It is essentially about the rights of the public and the obligations of the public servants. As public services are funded by citizens, either directly or indirectly through taxes, they have the right to expect a particular quality of service that is responsive to their needs and is provided efficiently at a reasonable cost. 
• The Citizen’s Charter is a written, voluntary declaration by service providers about service standards, choice, accessibility, non-discrimination, transparency and accountability. It should be in accordance with the expectations of citizens. Therefore, it is a useful way of defining for the customers the nature of service provision and explicit standards of service delivery. 
• A further rationale for the Charters is to help change the mindset of the public official from someone with power over the public to someone with the right sense of duty in spending the public money collected through taxes and in providing citizens with necessary services. However, the Citizen’s Charter should not simply be a document of assurances or a formula which imposes a uniform pattern on every service. 
• It is meant to be a tool kit of initiatives and ideas to raise the level of standards and service delivery and increase public participation, in the most appropriate way. 
• The Charter should be an effective tool to ensure transparency and accountability and should help deliver good governance if implemented vigorously by the government departments.

Critical reflection on nature of sanction:

• However, these promises are not enforceable in a court of law, thus its implementation depends on the moral reasoning of the individuals. Charters are both ethically and morally binding on public authorities but these are not legally binding decisions. The content of the charter is not justiciable. 
• A citizen cannot sue an organization for not abiding by its self-proclaimed standards of service embodied in a citizen’s charter. The charter may thus be seen as only emphasizing the moral dimensions of civil service accountability. Publication of citizen’s charter on the walls and website has a demonstration effect. 
• It educates people. The moment people get to know their entitlements, information hierarchy breaks down to some extent. It brings in black and white the duty and rights of officers and people respectively. This parity in knowledge itself puts public officers in a discomfort. They come under scanner regarding the efficiency of work. 
• Despite absence of legal sanction, the sheer presence of public eyes activates moral compass of the officer. Public shaming is a key source of motivation for people to do well. Nobody appreciates social boycott or downgrading in the eyes of people. The possibility of being asked questions and subsequent embarrassment by civil society makes officer’s work for the spirit of the service.

Topics Covered - Citizen Charter

(B) There is a view that the official secrets act is an obstacle to the implementation of the Rights to Information act. Do you agree with the view? Discuss. (UPSC MAINS 2019)

Recently, the government has sought action against The Hindu newspaper and news agency ANI under Official Secrets Act, 1923 for publishing documents related to India’s deal to buy 36 Rafael jets from France. Judiciary however made it crystal clear and dispelled the doubts many of us have regarding Officials Secrets Act being an obstacle in effective implementation of Right to Information Act.
Following are the provisions that clarify what happens when OSA and RTI act come into interaction and have conflict: 

• Whenever there is a conflict between the two laws, the provisions of the RTI Act override those of the OSA. 
• Section 22 of the RTI Act states that its provisions will have effect notwithstanding anything that is inconsistent with them in the OSA. 
• Similarly, under Section 8(2) of the RTI Act, a public authority may allow access to information covered under the OSA, “if the public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests”. 
• Section 24, which mandates even security and intelligence organisations to disclose information on corruption and human rights violations.

Inference about OSA being an obstacle in implementation of RTI Act:

• One needs to understand that when RTI movement was gathering momentum, the debate between need for secrecy and need for transparency already existed. Beyond a point, it was not acceptable to those leading the movement to accept only dilution of OSA but they demanded a full-fledged RTI Act. 
• Hence, the way RTI Act has been crafted and provisions put very much takes care of the fact that OSA must not become a roadblock in releasing the information. If we closely read above provisions, it becomes quite clear that OSA, for one, is not an obstacle. In case of conflict, law is clear to give way to RTI. But yes, there are many other issues that don’t allow for effective implementation of RTI Act.

We will discuss them as follows: 
Issues in effective implementation of RTI Act: 

• While the Act has been clear in defining the responsibility of the appropriate Government, with respect to creating awareness on the Act, there has been lack of initiative from the Government’s side. The efforts made by appropriate Governments and Public Authorities have been restricted to publishing of rules and FAQs on websites. These efforts have not been helpful in generating mass awareness of the RTI Act. As compared to RTI Act the common citizens (and disadvantaged communities) are significantly more aware of other Government schemes focused on socio-economic development. 
• As per the Act, the information has to be provided within the stipulated time. However as per our survey it was highlighted by the PIOs that they are challenged to provide the information within the stipulated time due to inadequate record management procedures with the Public Authorities. It is a known fact that the record keeping process within the Government is a big challenge. 
• This situation is further aggravated due to non-availability of trained PIOs and the enabling infrastructure (computers, scanners, internet connectivity, photocopiers etc.). Public Authorities need to meet the requirements of the RTI Act to review their current record keeping procedures and other constraints and plan out the resources. 
• The training of PIOs is a big challenge primarily due to a) huge number of PIOs to be trained b) frequent transfers of PIOs to other posts. The training institutions also possess a huge constraint with respect to the availability of training resources. Also, it was observed that in the current manner of providing training, there is a low involvement of the Public Authority and an inadequate sense of urgency in getting their PIOs trained. 

The situation can be summarized as follows: 

• The current record management guidelines at Centre and in most states are not geared to meet the requirements specified under the RTI Act. 
• There is lack of any electronic document management system in any of the Departments (basis the Information Provider Survey). 
• Majority of the PIOs surveyed do not even maintain the list of RTI applications electronically. 
• As has been mentioned earlier, the issue of implementation of the RTI Act at an operational level rest with the Public Authority. The appropriate Government and Information Commission can play only a facilitative and adjudicative role. Unless the Public Authorities assess the issues of implementation and identify resources required, there would not be any focus on implementation. 
• During the information seeker survey it was noted that there is no centralized data base of RTI (at the State/Centre level) applicants (which was one of the reasons resulting in delay in conducting the survey). Given the current situation, neither the State Government nor the State Information Commission is in a position to confirm the number of Public Authorities within a Department and therefore the details on the number of applications filed. 
• One of the most important roles of the Information Commission is to monitor and review the Public Authority and initiate actions to make them comply with the spirit of the Act. However this has been one of the weakest links in the implementation of the Act. It is acknowledged and appreciated that the Information Commissions have been primarily been spending most of their time in “hearings” and disposing of appeals. 
• However monitoring the Public Authority for compliance of the Act is also an important aspect of the role of the Information Commission, which could result in reducing the number of appeals. 
• The pendency at the Information Commission is a huge challenge. Unless and until the pendency is kept at manageable level, the objective of the Act would not be met. High pendency of appeals is due to non-optimal processes for disposing of appeals and complaints. 
• The benefits of setting up regional offices far outweigh the initial capital costs involved in setting them up.

Conclusion 
Rather than getting carried away by draconian provisions of OSA, the need is to look at the entire process of RTI act and mend the loopholes as highlighted above. Improvements at levels of people, institutions and government functionaries is needed.

Topics Covered - RTI