Needed, an Indian Legislative Service

Since the first Parliament in 1952, Secretaries-General of Rajya Sabha are usually parachuted from civil services and other services from time to time. On September 1, 2021, Dr. P.P.K. Ramacharyulu became the first Rajya Sabha Secretariat staff member who rose to the position of Secretary-General. However, he was replaced in less than 3 months.

Need for an independent secretariat:

Article 98 provides for separate secretariats for two houses of the Parliament. It is based on the principle that the secretariat should be independent from the executive.

The Secretary-General has a rank equivalent to Cabinet Secretary. They enjoy privileges such as freedom from arrest, immunity from criminal proceedings, and obstruction of their rights would amount to contempt of house. They are mandated with many parliamentary and administrative responsibilities which require vast knowledge of parliamentary procedures, practice and precedents. Most civil servants lack this aspect of expertise.

Situation in Lok Sabha:

Unlike Rajya Sabha, the Lok Sabha had nine of its staff (including lateral-entry officers) raised to Secretaries-General to date.

Issues with appointing civil servants as Secretary-General:

1. Conflict of interest:  Civil Servants come with the long-held baggage and the clout of their past career.
2. Breaches Separation of Power: Officials mandated with exercising one area of power may not expect to exercise the others.
3. Reduces answerability of the executive: Parliament must have technical and human resource competency to be an effective body for providing meaningful scrutiny and to make executive accountable. However, bureaucracy prevents that from happening.

Need for an All-India Service:

1. Presence of variety of law making bodies: Ranging from Panchayat, Block Panchayat, Zila Parishad, Municipal Corporations.
2. Robust legislative institutions require well trained staff in place.

Hence, a common service can build a combined and experienced legislative staff cadre, enabling them to serve from across local bodies to the Union Parliament. Under Article 312 Rajya Sabha can pass a resolution to this effect. For example – in the UK, the Clerk of House of Commons is always appointed from the legislative staff pool created for serving the Parliament.

Source: This post is created based on the article “Needed, an Indian Legislative Service” published in The Hindu on 23^rd March 2022.