Public Officers also Accountable
IN a recent judgement (), the Patna High Court observed, "the law is well settled that the public officers have to be also held accountable for their acts of omission and commission." Some gems from the judgement:
1. In a modern society no authority can arrogate to itself the power to act in a manner which is arbitrary.
2. It is unfortunate that matters which require immediate attention linger on and the man in the street is made to run from one end to other with no result. Even in ordinary matters a common man who has neither the political backing nor the financial strength to match the inaction in public oriented departments gets frustrated and it erodes the credibility in the system.
3. The concept of public accountability and performance of functions takes in its ambit, proper and timely action in accordance with law. Public duty and public obligation both are essentials of good administration whether by the State or its instrumentalities.
4. it is a known fact that in transactions of Government business, no one would own personal responsibility and decisions would be leisurely taken at various levels.
5. Greater the power to decide, higher is the responsibility to be just and fair.
6. Every officer in the hierarchy of the State, by virtue of his being `public officer' or `public servant', is accountable for his decisions to the public as well as to the State. This concept of dual responsibility should be applied with its rigours in the larger public interest and for proper governance.
In this case, the Court had directed recovery of over Rs. 14 lakh from Central Excise officers.