Ethics case study

Based on
Current affair
Psychology Attitude: content, structure, function; its influence and relation with thought and behaviour;
moral and political attitudes; social influence and persuasion.

Aptitude and foundational values for Civil Service

Emotional intelligence

Sociology Human Values – lessons from the lives and teachings of great leaders, reformers and
administrators; role of family society and educational institutions in inculcating values.

Ethics - in private and public relationships.

Philosophy Contributions of moral thinkers and philosophers from India and world.

Governance Public/Civil service values and Ethics in Public administration

Probity in Governance
 Ethical Governance
• Spirit of Public Service
• Civil service values
• Ethical laws, rules,
Social level Value conflict regulations.
Individual level
• Justice EI • Tools of ethical
• Dignity and Honour
• Equality governance:
• Autonomy/Freedom § Probity
• Fraternity Persuasion • Rights (& Implied
• Interdependence § Accountability
Tolerance duties)
• Ethical Ecosystem § Transparency
• Value inculcation
• Public Good § Codes of Ethics,
• Attitude
• Peace Codes of Conduct
§ Citizen’s Charters
§ Work culture
Social Contract Public Interest § People’s participation
Common Good • Quality service delivery –
Sarvodaya e-governance
Trusteeship • Corporate governance.
Veil of ignorance • Challenges of corruption.
 Why people do unethical act?

Internal reasons

§ Emotion
• Negative emotion of greed compels us to amass wealth through illegal means.
• Absence of empathy and compassion leads to abdication of responsibilities by designers, architect and engineers.
• Lack of dedication (emotion + commitment)
§ Lack of fully developed conscience
• Ethical blindness towards our actions.
• We don’t examine our life as asked by Socrates.
• Absence of ‘moral compass’
§ Wrong Cognition – eg: “little bit of corruption will not hurt anyone”. SC has said corruption is worst form of violence.
§ Attitude
Negative attitude develops due to negative emotion and wrong cognition.
• Lack of respect for law
• Apathy for poor
• Circumvention of law
• Hedonism
 Why people do unethical act?

External reasons
§ Lack of social influence to maintain integrity.
§ Absence of ethical ecosystem.
§ Narrow “perception of good life” in society.
§ Poor implementation of laws
§ Crony capitalism – nexus between politician, builders and
bureaucrats.
§ Lack of accountability
§ Lack of active participation of citizens
The Supreme Court has banned mining in the Aravalli Hills to stop the degradation of the forest cover and to
maintain ecological balance. However, the stone mining to still prevalent in the border district of the affected
State with the connivance of certain corrupt forest officials and politicians. Young and dynamic SP who was
recently posted in the affected district promised to himself to stop this menace. In one of his surprise checks
with his team, he found a loaded truck with stone trying to escape the mining area. He tried to stop the truck
but the truck driver overrun the police officer, killing him on the spot, and thereafter managed to flee. Police
filed an FIR but no breakthrough was achieved in the case for almost three months. Ashok who was the
Investigative Journalist working with a leading TV channel, suo moto started investigating the case. Within
one month, Ashok got a breakthrough by interacting with local people, stone mining mafia and government
officials. He prepared his investigative story and presented it to the CMD of the TV channel. He exposed in his
investigative report the complete nexus of the stone mafia working with the blessing of corrupt police and
civil officials and politicians. The politician who was involved in the mafia was no one else but the local MLA
who was considered to be very close to the Chief Minister. After going through the investigative report, the
CMD advised Ashok to drop the idea of making the story public through electronic media. He informed that
the local MLA was not only the relative of the owner of the TV channel but also had unofficially 20 percent
share in the channel. The CMD further informed Ashok that his further promotion and hike in pay will be
taken care of in addition the soft loan of 10 lakhs which he has taken from the TV channel for his son’s
chronic disease will be suitably adjusted if he hands over the investigative report to him.
a) What are the options available with Ashok to cope up with the situation?
b) Critically evaluate/examine each of the options identified by Ashok.
c) What are the ethical dilemmas being faced by Ashok?
d) Which of the options, do you think, would be the most appropriate for Ashok to adopt and why?
e) In the above scenario, what type of training would you suggest for police officers posted to such
districts where stone mining illegal activities are rampant?
a) What are the options available with Ashok to cope up with the situation?
b) Critically evaluate/examine each of the options identified by Ashok.
c) What are the ethical dilemmas being faced by Ashok?
d) Which of the options, do you think, would be the most appropriate for Ashok to adopt and why?
e) In the above scenario, what type of training would you suggest for police officers posted to such
districts where stone mining illegal activities are rampant?
Options available to Ashok include:

a) Hand over the investigation report to the CMD.

b) Quit his job and forget about the investigation.
c) Discussing the issue with other senior journalists and Civil society organizations and act
accordingly.
d) Anonymously report the findings online or on other media channels.
e) Use techniques of persuasion on CMD to convince him that the report will benefit him as
well.
f) Take the report to the anti-corruption agency like Lokpal and petitioning at the National
green tribunal through an NGO
Ethical dilemmas being faced by Ashok
Ethical dilemmas being faced by Ashok

a) Emotion of anger, brotherhood, fraternity for dead officer Vs emotion of

love for his son.
b) Values of courage, dedication in professional sphere Vs value of empathy
and compassion in personal sphere.
c) Professional wellbeing Vs personal wellbeing by safeguarding his integrity.
d) Moral action vs diffusion of responsibility
e) Loyalty towards company Vs responsibility towards environment and
society.
A senior law enforcement officer was driving his vehicle in a very rash and erratic manner. The toll
officer on duty at a toll plaza tried to stop the vehicle to collect the toll tax. However the officer
speeded up and crashed passed the toll gate. The toll officer immediately called at the next traffic
intersection. Suspecting that the law enforcement officer is possibly drunk, traffic police officer calls
the patrolling group. They came and subject the officer to breath analyzer. The suspicion turns out
to be correct.

All this action took about one hour. In the mean while the officer was throwing tantrums and
dropping
names. He also made few calls and tried to slap a constable on duty. But the constable on duty
remained undeterred. At one point he also tried to explain that due to some official urgency he was
speeding up.

On the arrival at the police station, the SHO took the note of the situation but just before filing the
case, he gets a call from his superior to release the officer without any arrest or fine.

Analyze the situation from different perspectives and explain what action shall SHO take in midst of
such a dilemma?
The case presents the difficulty officials face in performing their duty in context of pressure from superiors. It also
shows how powerful people try to circumvent the law and violate the doctrine of rule of law.

Values and issues involved in the case:

• Integrity vs. social wellbeing of the SHO

• Respect for rules, laws and authority
• Safety of general public due to rash driving
• Courage and dedication of constable in performing his duty
• Integrity and probity of superior of SHO
• Rule of law and equality before law
• De-motivation to lower officials where their decisions are overruled
• Image and reputation of traffic police department
• Work culture of the department.
• Inner conscience vs. external authority
SHO would be in dilemma to either uphold rule of law and equality before the law or listen to the oral
order of the superior. Both the choices have certain merits and demerits.

From the perspective of the officer, he should be released, without any arrest or fine. He might be thinking
that he has the freedom to do whatever he likes. He may feel that, the matter is very small and it shouldn’t
be blown out of proportion. He might be thinking that he would easily get away from this, because of his
connections.

From the perspective of the SHO, the officer has committed an offence and he must be booked under law.
There is pressure from the higher authorities, to release the boy, but the SHO needs to perform his duty
impartially. His honesty, integrity and dedication to services are at stake. Handling such pressure is part of
duty of the SHO and he must deal with it effectively. Not filing the case will be against the established law.
SHO won’t be able to answer his conscience. Credibility and image of traffic police department may also
get tarnished when things will come in open. Work culture would be destroyed and other officials will be
encouraged to misuse their office.
But the structure of the department remains stable only because orders from seniors must be adhered to.
Hence SHO much balance his conscience, duty to uphold law on one hand with authority of superiors on
other hand.
From the perspective of the Constable, a case must be registered against the boy, as he was caught with
sufficient proof. He is performing his duty by reporting the matter. If no case is registered, and boy is let off,
he would feel de-motivated to work with honesty and impartiality.
The toll company has the right to collect taxes.
Considering these, the SHO should register a case against the boy, as letting him go without any case would
mean dereliction of duty. It would set a trend, which would go against the service rules of the police. Further,
there cannot be selective imposition of law, depending upon stature of the person. Law should be imposed
equally against everyone. Doing this will also help in motivating his juniors to work with full dedication to the
public services.
If he is forced to release minister’s son, then he must ask for a written order from superior and make it clear
to others in the department that law is same for everyone.
Shivashankar is heading the implementation of vaccine implementation programme for COVID-19. There has been
resurgence in the spread of the virus and timely vaccine shots, especially in crowded metropolitan areas in
extremely important.
In a routine quality check inspection, Shivashankar’s team found many batches of vaccine which were of suboptimal
quality. On further lab test it was discovered that they were just plain water. Shivashankar got angered by the
incident and reported the matter with the highest officials of the health ministry. The health secretary called him
and told him to silently administer those vaccines. He also gave him some reasons to convince you:
a) Vaccine and drugs have huge placebo effect. Even water can have positive psychological impact on people.
b) It will promote the culture of taking vaccines.
c) There is shortage of vaccine and this is the only way to instill sense of equality among people. Prioritizing one
group over other will become a governance challenge.
Shivashankar came out of the secretary’s office confused. Do you think there are some merit’s in the secretary’s
arguments? What should be Shivashankar’s course of action?
The above case raises question on ethical governance – can falsehood be used to carry out
governance with good intentions.

Secretary’s argument – ethical analysis

• Truth has its own way of getting known. No philosophy, idea, thought can sustain on falsehood.
As Gandhiji said “honesty is the best policy”.
• If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such
explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way. - Emile Zola
• It is against human dignity to try and influence behaviour based on wrong information. We must
rather try to develop common good on the principle of truth that will be sustainable and
acceptable to all.
• Corruption is addictive and has demonstrative effect. One act of corruption in administration will
only further amplify corruption.

Even small corruption destroys integrity and work culture.

Shivashankar’s course of action
• He must be truthful, protecting his dignity and avoiding any crisis of conscience.
• He must make an ethical report on the consequences of the fake vaccine delivery. This will
increase his persuasive power.
• He must use Emotional Intelligence to warn the secretary of legal action that can be taken
against him for misguiding the whole administration.
• If internal change doesn’t happen, he must act as a whistle blower. He must bring facts in public
domain. He can take help of media to expose the false vaccine drive.
• As per the social contract government must honor people’s dignity and must base the
administration of truth and justice. Shivashankar must uphold this principle.
People’s wisdom must be given utmost trust and credibility in the process of governance.