“Right is duty well performed”. The Right to Service Act has empowered people to seek hassle free, corruption-free, and time-bound service delivery mechanisms in government offices. The main objective of this Act is to deliver time-bound services without any hassle, which also improves the credibility of government offices. This act ensures fast work and brings more transparency and credibility to the official workings of government departments. One can say that this Act is one step ahead of the Right to Information Act, 2005, and that this Act is a sharp-edged weapon to eliminate corruption in government offices, bring transparency to official working, and enhance the accountability of public servants.
In India, there are statutory laws that guarantee the timely delivery of a variety of public services provided by the government to citizens. These laws also include mechanisms for punishing errant public employees who fail to provide the services required by law. The purpose of the RTI Act is to improve transparency and public accountability while decreasing corruption among public servants. On August 18, 2010, Madhya Pradesh became the first Indian state to implement the Right to Service Act, and on July 25, 2011, Bihar became the second state to do so. Similar legislation has been introduced in a number of other states, including Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, and West Bengal, to implement the citizen’s right to service.
Corruption is the root cause of the non-compliance of duties by government servants on time. It has been observed that corruption is on the rise, and the officials embarrass the people by wasting their time and not fulfilling their duties on time. They demand money or seek other financial benefits from the people visiting their offices in consideration of their routine job, and they don’t complete their task until they get paid for doing it. Sometimes, they let the people visit the office again and again, but they didn’t accomplish their job. The right to get service done in a time-bound manner may have some deterrent effect, due to which the officers must accomplish their job within due time. Registration of a birth certificate, approval of a map for the construction of any building, installation of an electricity meter, etc. are all some of those services that are routine in nature but very difficult to get done.
“While the Declaration of Rights was before the National Assembly, some of its members remarked that if a declaration of rights were published, it should be accompanied by a Declaration of Duties. The observation discovered a mind that reflected, and it only erred by not reflecting far enough. A Declaration of rights is, by reciprocity, also a Declaration of duties. Whatever is my right as a man is also the right of another; and it becomes my duty to guarantee as well as to possess.”[3]
In India, the Right to Service Act is not fully developed yet. Some States have enacted this legislation, but others have not yet. The foremost States enacting this law are Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Orissa, Assam, Gujrat, West Bengal, Goa, and Maharashtra.
People are also not fully aware of their rights. They didn’t know how to use their right to get the services done on time from the government officials, which otherwise they were not ready to do easily.
The Citizen’s Charter and Grievance Redressal Bill 2011, also known as The Right of Citizens for Time-Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of Their Grievances Bill, 2011 or the Citizens Charter Bill, was proposed by Indian central legislation. It was tabled by V. Narayanasamy, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances, and Pensions, in the Lok Sabha in December 2011. The bill lapsed due to the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha.
Madhya Pradesh became the first state in India to enact the Right to Service Act on August 18, 2010, and Bihar was the second to enact this bill on July 25, 2011. After that, several other states like Delhi, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Orissa, Assam, Gujrat, West Bengal, Goa, and Maharashtra have introduced similar legislation for effectuating the right to service to the citizen. In Punjab, it is named “Right to Service Act, 2011”. In Delhi, it is named the “Delhi (Right of Citizen to Time Bound Delivery of Services) Act, 2011”. And in other states, it is named under different names and comes into force on different dates.
With an ambition to provide delivery of services to the people of the states within stipulated or reasonable time, the Punjab Govt. notified the Right to Service Ordinance on July 14, 2011. The Ordinance came into force on July 28, 2011, when 67 services were notified under its provisions. Soon after, the Punjab Right to Service Act-2011 [4] (PRTS Act-2011) was passed by the State Assembly and thus, came into effect on October 20, 2011.
As per Section 12 of the PRTS Act-2011, there is a provision to constitute the Punjab Right to Service Commission (PRTSC), consisting of 1 Chief Commissioner and 4 Commissioners who would look after the task of effective implementation of the Act.
PRTSC has been entrusted with the task of making suggestions to the state government for ensuring better delivery of services. The Commission will also hear revision applications against the orders of the 2nd Appellate Authority. The Commission has been constituted since November 23, 2011.
Different States have notified different services under their enacted Acts. Generally, there are 65 services that were notified by the different governments, while starting the act. But now these services have increased to 351 services. There is a provision for the government to include more services in the ambit of this act in the future as well.
The following are some examples of services, along with the days allocated for their completion within due time. In case of default, the officials liable to complete the task, may be penalized as per Statutory provisions.
“Today everyone wants to know what his rights are, but if a man learns to discharge his duties right from childhood and studies the sacred books of his faith, he automatically exercises his rights too”. The Right to Public Services legislation in India comprises statutory laws that guarantee time bound delivery of services for various public services rendered by the Government to citizens and provide mechanisms for punishing the errant public servant who is deficient in providing the service stipulated under the statute. Right to Service legislation is meant to reduce corruption among government officials and increase transparency and public accountability.
The common framework of the legislation in various states includes the granting of “rights to public services”, which are to be provided to the public by the designated official within the stipulated time frame. The public services that are to be granted as a right under the legislation are generally notified separately through a gazette notification. Some of the common services which are to be provided within the fixed time frame as a right under the Acts includes issuing caste, birth, marriage and domicile certificates, electric connections, voter’s cards, ration cards, copies of land records, etc.
On failure to provide the service by the designate officer within the given time or rejection to provide the service, the aggrieved person can approach the First Appellate Authority. The First Appellate Authority, after making a hearing, can accept or reject the appeal by making a written order stating the reasons for the order and informing the applicant of the same, and can order the public servant to provide the service to the applicant.
An appeal can be made from the order of the First Appellate Authority to the Second Appellate Authority, who can either accept or reject the application by making a written order stating the reasons for the order and intimate the same to the applicant, and can order the public servant to provide the service to the applicant or can impose penalty on the designated officer for deficiency of services without any reasonable cause, which can range from Rs. 500 to Rs. 5000, or may recommend disciplinary proceedings. The applicant may be compensated out of the penalty imposed on the officer. The Appellate Authorities have been granted certain powers of a civil court while trying a suit under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, like the production of documents and the issuance of summonses to the Designated officers and appellants.
The Right to Service Act is one step ahead of the Right to Information Act of 2005 and the Prevention of Corruption Act in making government offices more hassle-free, corruption-free, and efficient. The procedure for Trial and investigation under the Prevention of Corruption Act is lengthy and time-consuming. While the Right to Information Act of 2005 proves a milestone in bringing transparency to the official workings, The Right to Service Act will prove another milestone in removing corruption from government offices. But it will take time, as the public is not fully aware of this Act. The powers are completely in the hands of the public under the provisions of this Act. The Public officer is duty bound to do his duty within the stipulated time, with no other option to avoid the penalty. The Right to Information Act, 2005, brings only transparency, but the Right to Service Act makes the work fast (in a reasonable time).
If this act is passed in every state Assembly of India and as a Center Govt. Act (in both Upper and Lower House) also, and by awareness programs, we make this Act familiar to every citizen, then every public servant will have a fear in his/her mind while performing his duty. He or she will not keep pending any matter, as he or she knows that it would attract a penalty in contravention of this Act.
Secondly, this will remove corruption from the offices. I think a corruption-free India is the dream of every citizen. Corruption is the main hindrance to the development of the nation. Earlier, the government officials had a routine to keep the matters pending for so many months with them, and people opted for the method of “Money Mantra” to do the work easier or even during off-hours working hours. In that case, these public servants give their personal attention and serve the people in their off time also, because they know that they will get extra money for that duty. So, this is a routine in the government offices to make the case pending and collect the money to do the duty fast. This act will stop this practice. So, this Act will prove a strong weapon to remove corruption from government offices and ensure fast working in these offices.
Due to a lack of awareness, this act is not well known to everyone. Even this act has not been passed by some states in India till now. In states where this Act is passed by the government, there are not so many complaints lodged by the People. The government should arrange for awareness seminars on the Right to Service Act at public places. Colleges, societies, and Other Institutions should come forward for the arrangement of these seminars, which will bring more awareness to the public and create a fear in the minds of public servants to perform their duties within the stipulated time. The author makes an appeal to every citizen and all readers of this article to start a new wave of publicizing this Act to unknown persons (especially illiterate persons). If everybody comes forward and joins hands to popularize this legislation and make it more effective, surely one day our country will be corruption free and the working environment of our government offices will be different from today.
[1] Director and Controller of the online portal of https://juscuriam.com/
[2] Gandhi on freedom, rights and responsibility, available at: https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/freedom.htm (Visited on August 20, 2023).
[3] Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man
[4] Punjab Clears Right to Service Act, available at: Hindu.com
(Visited on August 20, 2023).