Civil Services of India


In India, the Civil Service is the collection of civil servants of the government who constitute the permanent executive branch of the country. This includes career officials in the All India Services, the Central Civil Services, and various State Civil Services. The civil service forms the basis of the Government, without which there is no administration. They act as the main channel to articulate people's needs and implement government policies on the ground. They provide the necessary inputs, identify policy areas, analyse various alternatives, offer multiple solutions to societal issues, and give robust advice to the ministers, policy makers, and legislators.
As of 2010, there were 6.4 million government employees in India at all levels within the central and state governments. The services with the most personnel are with the Central Secretariat Service and Indian Revenue Service.
Civil servants in a personal capacity are paid from the Civil List. Article 311 of the Constitution of India protects civil servants from politically motivated or vindictive action. Senior civil servants may be called to account by the Parliament. The civil service system in India is rank-based and does not follow the tenets of the position-based civil services.

History

The present civil services of India are mainly based on the pattern of the former Indian Civil Service of British India. During the British Raj, Warren Hastings laid the foundation of the civil service and Charles Cornwallis reformed, modernised, and rationalised it. Hence, He is known as 'the Father of civil service in India'.
Cornwallis introduced two divisions of the Indian Civil Service—covenanted and uncovenanted. The covenanted civil service consisted of only Europeans occupying the higher posts in the government. The uncovenanted civil service was solely introduced to facilitate the entry of Indians at the lower rung of the administration.
With the passing of the Government of India Act 1919, the Imperial Services headed by the Secretary of State for India were split into two—the All India Services and the Central Services.
The All India and Central Services were designated as Central Superior Services as early as 1924. From 1924 to 1934, the administration of India consisted of 10 All India Services and 5 central departments, all under the control of the Secretary of State for India, and 3 central departments under joint Provincial and Imperial Control.
The highest paid civil servant in India during the British Raj was Chairperson of the Railway Board and had the highest salary until 1959.

Women in civil service during British India

No women were ever formally recruited into the Imperial Civil Service between 1858 and 1947. The service was exclusively male until its final years. Women were appointed only at the level of clerks, concentrated in the lower echelons of the uncovenanted civil service.
Women were recruited to Imperial Secretariat Service but were disqualified for higher posts in the various departments under the control of the Governor-General of India like Imperial Secretariat Service. In the Imperial Police, there were no women who were recruited as its members. Also, for the Imperial Forest Service, there were no women recruited as its members.

Medals, honors, and awards in civil service during British India

During British rule in India, civil servants were receipients of orders of chivalry namely - Order of the Indian Empire, Order of the British Empire, Imperial Service Order, Order of the Star of India and Knight Bachelor. They were also awarded the title of honor Rai Bahadur, civil medals such as Kaisar-i-Hind Medal, Delhi Durbar Medal and Delhi Durbar Medal.

21st century

The present modern civil service was formed after the partition of India in 1947. It was Sardar Patel's vision that the civil service should strengthen cohesion and national unity. The values of integrity, impartiality, and merit remain the guiding principles of the Indian civil services.
By the early 21st century, especially in Indian media, Indian civil servants were regularly colloquially called 'babus', while Indian bureaucracy is called 'babudom'.
The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, located in New Delhi, is unofficially the 'Ministry of Civil Services'. The Ministry is responsible for training, reforms, and pensions for the civil service system in India. A significant number of Indian civil servants have been recipients of the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Vibhushan civilian awards in recognition of their contributions to public administration and governance.

Framework, provision and principles

Constitutional provision

The Constitution, under Article 312 gives authority to the Rajya Sabha to set up new branches of the All-India Services with a two-thirds majority vote. The Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, and Indian Forest Service have been established under this constitutional provision.

Guiding principles

Values

A member of the civil service in discharge of his/her functions is to be guided by maintaining absolute integrity, allegiance to the constitution and the law of the nation, patriotism, national pride, devotion to duty, honesty, impartiality and transparency.

Code of ethics

The Government of India promotes values and a certain standard of ethics of requiring and facilitating every civil servant:
  • To discharge official duty with responsibility, honesty, accountability, without discrimination, and with political, religious, and social neutrality.
  • To ensure effective management, leadership development, and personal growth.
  • To avoid misuse of official position or information.
  • To serve as instruments of good governance and foster social and economic development.

    Purpose, role, and responsibilities

The responsibility of the civil services is to run the administration of India. The country is managed through several central government agencies in accordance with policy directions from the ministries. Civil servants are the actual makers of Indian law and policy. They work on behalf of the elected government and cannot publicly show their disinterest or disapproval for it. It is mandatory for them to form certain rules and policies according to the government's views and interests. However, they cannot be removed by any state or central government, but can only be retired.
Among the members of the civil services are administrators in the central government and state government; emissaries in the foreign missions/embassies; tax collectors and revenue commissioners; civil service commissioned police officers; permanent representative and employees in the United Nations and its agencies; and chairmen, managing directors, and full-time functional directors and members of the board of various public-sector undertakings, enterprises, corporations, banks, and financial institutions. Civil servants are employed by various agencies of India and can also be appointed as advisors, special duty officers, or private secretaries to ministers of the Union and the State Government.

Head of the Civil Services

The highest-ranking civil servant in India is the Cabinet Secretary, who functions from Cabinet Secretariat. He is the ex-officio Chairman of the Civil Services Board; the chief of the Indian Administrative Service and head of all civil services under the rules of business of the Government of India. He also holds the 11th position in the Order of Precedence of India. The position holder is accountable for ensuring that the Civil Service is equipped with the skills and capability to meet the everyday challenges it faces and that civil servants work in a fair and decent environment.

Recruitment

The Civil Services Board is responsible for the entry-level recruitment and subsequent job promotions below the rank of Joint Secretary to the Government of India. The recruits are university graduates or above, selected through the following rigorous system of specialisation-based examinations for recruitment into respective specialised departments:
All appointments in the rank of Joint Secretary to Government of India and above, other major appointments, empanelment, and extension of tenure are done by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. Lower appointments are handled by the Civil Services Board.

Central Administrative Tribunal

For settling various administrative disputes, the Central Administrative Tribunal can be approached. For instance, citizens can approach CAT to obtain permission to sue corrupt or inept civil servants, and civil servants can approach CAT for unfair dismissal.

Civil Services Day

The Civil Service Day is celebrated on 21 April every year. The purpose for this day is to rededicate and recommit themselves to the cause of the people. It is observed by all Civil Services. This day gives civil servants the opportunity for introspection and thinking about future strategies to deal with the challenges being posed by the changing times.
This date was chosen to commemorate the day in 1947 when Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first Home Minister of Independent India, addressed the probationers of Administrative Services Officers. On this occasion, all officers of the Central and State Governments are honoured for excellence in public administration by the Prime Minister of India. The 'Prime Minister's Awards for Excellence in Public Administration' is presented in three categories. Under this scheme of awards instituted in 2006, all the officers, individually or as a group or as an organisation, are eligible. The award includes a medal, scroll, and a cash amount of. In case of a group, the total award money is subject to a maximum of per person. For an organisation the cash amount is limited to.