ASSIGNMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY

TOPIC : FAILURE OF RIGHT TO SERVICE ACT

SUBMITTED TO : MISS BHAVYA SHARMA

[ASSISTANT PROFESSOR]

SUBMITTED BY : MILAN SINGH

SECTION : L1504

REG NO : 11503076

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1|P a g e
S.N PARTRICULARS PAGE NO.
O
1. INTRODUCTION 3

2. WHAT IS RIGHT TO SERVICES 4

3. HOW IT WORKS 4-5

4. OBJECTIVES OF THE ACT 5

5. MAJOR FEATURES OF THE ACT 5-7

6. COMPARISON WITH OTHER STATES 7-8

7. REASONS FOR FAILURE OF ACT 8-12

8. CONCLUSION 12-13

2|P a g e
 INTRODUCTION

Effective, efficient and prompt service delivery has always been a concern of Governments. 1 Due
to bureaucratic apathy and delays, the common man, who is entitled to avail hassle-free and
timely public services and information thereof, has to face lot of problems and pay bribe to avail
the needed services. The Right to Service Act is a key administrative reform initiative, built on
the idea of the Citizen Charter - while Citizen Charters define the quality of public services; the
Act takes it a step further by making a citizen’s right to public service within the stipulated time
legally binding, failing which the concerned officials can be penalized. Accordingly, the Right to
Service Act represents the commitment of the particular state towards standard, quality and time
frame of service delivery. Right to Service act legislation ensures delivery of time bound services
to the public. It aims to reduce corruption among the government officials and to increase
transparency and accountability.

BASIS OF RIGHT TO SERVICE ACT

The Right to Public Service derives its moral and ethical basis from the Gandhi’s philosophy. In
this connection Mahatma Gandhi’s famous statement (In a speech in South Africa in 1890) –

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are
dependent on him. He is not an interruption of our work; he is the purpose of it. He is not an
outsider of our business; he is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is
doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity to do so”2 is worth emulating by governments.

Madhya Pradesh was the first Indian state to legislate a Public Service Guarantee Act named
“Madhya Pradesh Lok Sevaon Ke Pradan Ki Guarantee Adhiniyam” in August, 2010 and Bihar
was the second to enact this Act on 25 July, 2012. That has been followed by enactments of
Right to Service Acts in the States of Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala,
Uttarakhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, J&K, Odisha, Assam,
Gujarat, West Bengal, and Goa. The Madhya Pradesh Act won the UNPSA (United Nation
Public Service Award) for 2012 from among 483 nominations from 73 countries under the
1
Available at : Study of right to services act of selected Indian states by Atal Bihari Vajpayee institute of good
governance and policy analysis. Last visited on 20 March 2020
2
Available at : https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8284155-in-a-speech-in-south-africa-in-1890-mahatama-gandhi.
Last visited on 25 March 2020

3|P a g e
category „improving the delivery of Public Services‟. In MP, the Department of Public Service
Management was created to give impetus to the implementation of the “Madhya Pradesh Lok
Sewaon Ke Pradan Ki Guarantee Adhiniyam”3.

CONCEPT OF RIGHT TO SERVICES

Right to Public Services Legislation in India comprises statutory laws which guarantee time-
bound delivery of various public services rendered to citizens and provides mechanism for
punishing the errant public servant if they are deficient in providing the stipulated services. In
simple words Right to Service legislation ensures delivery of time bound services to the public.
If the concerned officer fails to provide the service in time, he will have to pay a fine. Thus, it is
aimed to reduce corruption among the government officials and to increase transparency and
public accountability.4

WORKING OF THE ACT

The common frame work of the state legislations includes, granting of "right to public services”,
which are to be provided to the public by the designated official with in the stipulated time
frame.

The public services which are granted as a right are generally notified through Gazette
notification. Some of the commonly provided public services, including issuing caste, birth,
marriage and domicile certificates, electric connections, voter’s card, ration cards, copies of land
5
records, etc., within the fixed time frame.

On failure to provide the service by the designated officer, the aggrieved person can approach the
First Appellate Authority. The First Appellate Authority, after making a hearing, can accept or
reject the appeal by a written order stating the reasons and intimate the same to the applicant. It
can order the public servant to provide the service to the applicant.

An appeal can be made against the order of the First Appellate Authority to the Second
Appellate Authority, who can either accept or reject the application, by stating the reasons for the

3
Available at : www.aigpa.mp.gov.in Last visited on 09 April 2020
4
Available at : www-vakilno1-com.cdn.ampprojectorg last visited on 27 March 2020
5
Right to Service Act 2011

4|P a g e
order and intimate the same to the applicant. It can order the public servant to provide the needed
service to the applicant and/or can impose penalty on the designated officer for deficiency of
service without any reasonable cause. Penalty rates vary from state to state. Besides, it may
recommend disciplinary proceedings. The applicant may be compensated out of the penalty
imposed on the officer.

The appellate authorities has been granted certain Civil Court powers while trying a suit under
Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, like production of documents and issuance of summon to the
Designated officers and appellants State of M.P. v. Ramesh and ANR6.

OBJECTIVES OF THE ACT

 Corruption free public services

 Public services within stipulated time which is described in act
 Provide hassle free service to citizens without any harassment
 Positive relationship between state police and individuals
 E-governance in whole country with the help of effective knowledge and latest
technology
 Public services must be granted as a matter of right of citizens
 Enhance the accountability, transparency and reduce inconsistency in service mechanism

FEATURES OF THE ACT

Firstly Departments which are covered by this act and Services which are there for public
as a matter of right: The list of the departments and services that are to be covered under this
act will be provided through notification which will be updated from time to time. The current
list of services includes water connections, issuing ration cards, death certificates, electricity
connections, driving licenses, attestations, mark sheets, etc. The services covered depend on
several factors such as demand from the citizens, the willingness of the departments or even their
current efficiency. The department covered under this act includes Revenue Department, Human

6
Criminal Appeal No. 1289 of 2005-2011

5|P a g e
Resource Development, Transport Department, Police, Labour Department and Administration
Department.

Secondly the prescribed Time Period which is enshrined in act for making a public service
time bound service without any delays: Time period assigned for providing services depends
on state to state. Different stipulated time period depends on several factors such as the volume
of application and departmental complexity in that state etc. For measuring the time period,
criteria decided is, the time taken for submitting an application to designated officer or to any
authorized or responsible officer to the time taken for providing the applicant with an
acknowledgment receipt. Like in Rajasthan under Janani Shishu Suraksha Yojana (JSSY), the
birth certificate is made immediately after the woman gave delivery but in the case of Punjab, it
took around 7 days for granting a birth certificate.

Thirdly Nodal Departments: The nodal department made under authority of government has
the main role in assisting the government in providing efficient services to the public and
decreasing the burden of the department. These nodal departments differed as per specific state
and are decided as per the number of applications and demand of services from such departments
in that state. Some of them include Administrative Reforms Department, General Administration
Department, Department of Home, Department of Revenue or Department of Information
Technology.

Fourthly the main weapon is Appeal: Every state has its own rules to appeal on bad services,
unreasonable ground or non-complied services are provided by the department. For instance, in
the State of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh two-tier appeal system is in practice, that
means if the application is rejected by designated officer, the applicant can file an appeal with
First Appellant Officer (FAO) within 30 days from rejection or if prescribed limit expires. If the
application is rejected by the FAO, the applicant can appeal for the second time with the Second
Appellant Authority (SAT) within 60 days of rejection 7.  In the case of Punjab, Haryana and
Uttrakhand there is a three appeal system where a final appeal is made to the special commission
set up by the state whose decision will be considered final. On the other hand, FAO or
designated officer can also file the revision to the nominated officer as provided in the
7
Available at : http://amritsarcorp.com/RTS_Service_Act.pdf Last visited on : 10 April 2020

6|P a g e
legislation. Indian Railway Construction Co. Ltd. V. Ajay Kumar 8 Rule of Law requires that
government operate within the confines of the law; and that aggrieved citizens, whose interests
have been adversely affected, be entitled to approach an independent court.

Initial Application: Application received by Designated Officers (DO) and DO are provided
with two options either to accept the application and provide service or to reject the application
and intimidate reason for same in the prescribed time limit.

First appeal: Citizens must contact the First Appellant Officers (FAO) within 30 days from the
day of rejection intimidation to file the first appeal. The FAO may confirm the DO’s rejection or
order to extend the service.

Second appeal: A second appeal is made with the Second Appellant Authority (SAT) within
sixty days from the date of the FAO’s decision. The Second Appellant Authority holds the power
to punish any officer who fails to comply with services without sufficient cause.

Penal provisions: Every government officer who does not comply with the rules mentioned will
be liable to be penalized.  In major states like UP, Bihar,  Orissa etc the penalty is of Rs. 250 per
day with the total amount not exceeding Rs. 5000. While in Delhi, the penalty is Rs. 10 per day
with total amount not exceeding Rs. 200. In Karnataka it is Rs. 20 per day with a total not
exceeding Rs. 500. In Himachal Pradesh, there is no per day penalty but the total amount of fine
ranges between Rs. 1000 to Rs. 5000.9

COMPARISON OF KEY PROVISIONS OF RIGHT TO SERVICE ACTS

OF DIFFERENT STATES

There is no one universal act for whole country under which whole country can be governed
when it comes to right to services act. But it was practically not possible to govern all states
under one central act. The problem of each and every state somehow differs with geographical
conditions and somehow state has also the power to implement its own act. Due to these reasons
every state individually enacted their act separately. Other factor is that this act is directly in
8
AIR 2002 SC 2676
9
Available at : httpp://blog.pleaders.in/right to service act/ Last visited on 05 April 2020

7|P a g e
relation with police department so it is clear from that point that police is the part of state subject
as per my opinion it was also the one reason to enact this act separately. The common provisions
of the Right to Service Act which are almost similar across different states in India are as
follows.

1. Guarantee of service delivery within a stipulated time frame - The “right to service” is
defined as the right to obtain service within the stipulated time limit. All the State Acts have
similar provisions regarding notifying “services” and “stipulated time line for delivery of
service.” Each Act varies significantly in terms of the services notified and their time lines.

2. For the time bound delivery of services : a designated officer has been mentioned in the
Acts, so as to bring accountability in delivery of services and fix responsibility in case of delay.

3. Appeals : If citizen fails to get the service in the prescribed time limit, there is provision for
two appeals in all the Acts.

4. Penalty : All State Acts prescribe penalties for delay in providing services. Penalty amount
varies from State to State. Most of the States have provision of minimum penalty of Rs 250 and
maximum Rs 5000.

5. Limitation period for appeal : In almost all the States Acts, the first appeal must be filed
within thirty days the second appeal must be filed within sixty days of issuance of the First
Appeal order.

6. Second Appeal : In most of the states, the second appeal lies within the concerning
department. States like Punjab and Uttarakhand has provision of independent “Right to Service
Commission” for ensuring proper implementation of the Act

7. Construction : Under the various Acts, compensation is provided to the aggrieved citizen at
the discretion of the appellate authorities.10

10
Avaible at : www.aigpa.mp.gov.in Last visited on 03 April 2020

8|P a g e
 REASONS FOR THE FAILURE OF THE ACT

It can directly be said that the right to service act has totally or badly failed in INDIA though
there are some factors where it lacked and didn’t performed up to the mark or as expected by
govt. and public. There are various factors which are responsible for the failure of the Right to
service act in INDIA. They are as following;

 Stereotype thinking towards the police or negative picture of police in the minds of
public
The stereotype thinking of public towards the police became a big obstacle in the success
of the right to services act. All the personnel’s who are working under this act for
granting the assured public services are mainly from the police department, it can be said
that there is a gap between police and normal citizens which Is not abridged by this act.
Though the aim or duty of the police is public service but in some state the negative
picture in the mindset of peoples along with the negative attitude of the police
personnel’s became one valid for the failure of the right to service act in country.

 Didn’t performed as per the standards

The right to service act has set the very high standards in relation to public services but at
a ground level or in reality these standards didn’t matched with the services provided by
the officials and service providers. The law makers had put several of terms and services
without any reality or ground level check which resulted in failure of the act. Just take an
example of providing online services in relation to different aspects, for providing the
online services some states didn’t even afforded the latest technology for providing the
services due to lack of funds. Even in some centers the kind of server which they are
using for providing the services are that much bad that no one can think about the same.
Some examples;11
a. Computerization – There should be an ample availability of personal computers in the
government officers and also the proper peripherals concerned with it. This
computerization would ensure data retention and storage in a safer context and easy
transferring capabilities.

11
Available at : https://www.slideshare.net/altacitglobal/right-to-service-act last visited on 23 April 2020

9|P a g e
 b. Networking – The government organization should properly be connected through a
hub that would result to sharing of information inflow of data among different
government entities and easy transfer of related data.
c. Online presence– Mere networking won’t fully cater to the needs of better
implementation of RTS [right to service]online presence is also necessary and for that a
proper website, web pages containing the information about RTS structure contact details
reports publications objectives and vision statements should be made.12

 Demand side sensitization and awareness among citizens about the provisions of the
Acts and its functioning/application.
Lack of the awareness among citizens of the country again one of the reason for the
failure of the act. Because citizens are the ones for whom these services have initiated by
government. One factor played major role here that is literacy rate of the country. The
peoples of our country are even not aware about their rights then how will they know
about the services started for them by the government. Here both are culprit’s
government for not creating the awareness about the scheme and services and citizens are
negligent here. If government would have done some street plays {nukkad nataks},
student workshops etc then results for the same act would have been different in that
case. When citizens are not aware about the services being provided to them then how
come they know about the functioning and application procedure for the same that too
being a illiterate. These small factors created a big difference thus act resulted in failure.

 Supply side sensitization, awareness and training of service providers.

Supply side has also put their equal contribution in the failure of the act. The one major
reason for the same is the overburdening of the work on workers due to less number of
working staff in practical field which resulted in total failure. Jointly some other reasons
are also here like untrained service providers who were not able to provide services as per
promises. All in all inexperience, attitude of corrupted officers, overburdening, lack of
training and less staff with lack of awareness were major reasons for failure when we
calculate it from supply side.

12
www.lawjournals.org International journal of law ISSN: 2455-2194

10 | P a g e
  Addressing capacity related challenges-shortage of manpower and financial
resources.
Truly independent appeal bodies must be designated solely for right to public service acts
will likely prove too expensive to be cost-effective, especially if the number of appeals
under these acts continues to be minimal. Instead, the government should consider
creating independent administrative courts or tribunals that can take appeals concerning
compliance not only with right to service acts, but a wider range of government programs
from the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to the
Integrated Child Development System. These tribunals should have the power to both
grant awards to claimants, as well as levy penalties against officials.

 Grievance redressal mechanisms /appeal mechanisms.

The grievance mechanism of the act is not up to the mark. The standards which law
makers have settled didn’t match the reality which resulted in failure of the act. More
Investment is required in grievance redress and accountability mechanisms and others
such as public hearings by top level officials, grievance redress officers, auditors, and
anti-corruption prosecutors. The credible threat of sanction by a combination of these
factors is likely to be the most effective tool to improve implementation. On paper they
have provided the grievance redressal mechanism though it has not totally failed but
somehow responsible for the failure of the act. This sector requires more investment for
fruitful results otherwise it will be also termed as a law on paper.13

 Penal provisions for officials for the wrong delivery of services

Although by this act monetary penalizing to officials, for wrong delivery of services, has
been considered as a great mechanism for stopping a conventional cycle of impunity and
unaccountability, but it is still unsure how effective this mechanism would be. If we look
at State of Maharashtra or Madhya Pradesh, there were same service programs having a
monetary penal theory in place by different names were running, but the strategy failed.
This does not mean that monetary penalizing against bureaucrats is ineffective, but it is

13
Available at : https://www.myadvo.in/blog/right-to-service-from-government-bodies/ last visited on 12 April 2020

11 | P a g e
 also not a surety, that it will be a successful delivery system. The success of this act
depends not only on penalty provisions, but it also involves political and administrative
accountability. Broadly speaking, reforms are needed to improve structures of
department, control and re-sourcing. Political reformation should be made so that local
politician gets power to hold local officials accountable. Penal provision will restrict the
officials from doing their duty of providing service. We need reforms that direct
institution and officials to provide public service in a responsible manner, not in fear. The
fear in the minds of officials while providing the services somehow became the reason of
the failure of the act.

CONCLUSION

12 | P a g e
Right to service act was brought about with the intention of making the services right of citizens
and making the administration more responsive and effective. Various states, departments and
ministries formed the same to have an enforcing impact and thereby aiding the achievement of
the specified aims. But with the kind of prevailing deficiencies in right to services act as
mentioned in the analysis it is near to impossible to serve the aims, as the fault lies in the
foundation itself. The step so taken to create a transparent society with zero corruption was great
but not as greatly formed and implemented as to be a success. Therefore the right to services act
was definitely a great step but not a great success.

Everything has its own limitations and so does the right to services act which can be altered by
working on the points where we lacked.. Another thing that is required to be done is rethinking
on the aspect as to whether right to service act must be different in different states or there should
be a uniform act for whole of the country. And if it is state wise you opt then there must be some
set standards that cannot be done away with. There must be proper review and monitoring of the
acts and in case of any deviation action must be taken as soon as possible. Also, if required
assistance from external agencies can be taken in respect to formulating the charter and
strategizing its launch.

Finally, lawmakers and officials should consider how policy design affects public service
delivery. For example, the poor design of the Below Poverty Line system means many people
who should be on the BPL list are denied placement because of arbitrary quotas imposed from
above. This is the source of many complaints at local administrative offices taking away time
and energy from service delivery. Our constitution provides fundamental rights that there should
be equality among all citizens but due to this bad practice of corruption a common man can’t
avail his basic right. We all are aware that democracy stands for “Of The People, By The People
And For The People but in India without effective implementation of this legislation it would be
like Off The People, From The People And Buy The People i.e. bribing an govt. servant to get
their work done in the quickest possible form and taking away rights of honest and socially or
economically backwards which is indeed a matter of great concern.

13 | P a g e