In a democratic arrangement if the judiciary is burdened with the responsibilities of discharging tasks that are the exclusive domain of the executive, it is a symptom of ill health of the said democracy. There are numerous PILs pending with the State High Court. A close look at these reveals that there are recurrent complaints of inefficiency and slackness on the part of administrative machinery of the State. If it were not so, there would not arise the need for the petitioners to knock at the door of justice.
State administration has developed the culture of trivializing the orders of the court. Secretaries of various departments are not taking its notices and orders seriously because they do not implement them and do not submit status reports as desired by the court. The question is whether it is the policy of the Government not to pay heed to the court orders and not to translate these into practice or is there rank apathy and disinclination towards respecting the orders of the court. In fact there is breakdown of sorts in business relations between the judiciary and the executive. This is very damaging to the interests of the State. The scenario of executive feeling impervious of judicial directives must come to an end. 147 departmental enquiries are pending with different departments and 145 officials are indicted in cases of embezzlement and financial irregularities. Hundreds of employees in CAPD and other departments have been charged with malpractices, bribery and misappropriation of funds. Yet the General Administrative Department delays the process that would bring all these culprits to book. The reason is that there is nexus between the culprits and those who are supposed to conduct inquiry into their practices. Remarks made by the Divisional Bench on Government’s response to its orders indicate that the intention is to undermine the authority of the court and not submit to its directives. If this trend prevails, the Government will be in the soup. There are clear hints by the DB that corruption and inefficiency are on the rise in these report and Government should immediately take concrete steps are taken to stem the tide.
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