Mumbai activists' call to use Right to Service Act gathers steam

Times of India: Mumbai: Wednesday, May 07, 2014.

A citizens' movement calling for the widespread use of the Right to Service Act is gathering steam in the city with proponents of the Right to Information (RTI) working hard to promote the use of this virtually unknown Act.

A year after India passed the landmark RTI Act in 2005, Maharashtra passed an equally significant, yet virtually unknown law that complements the RTI Act the Government Servants Regulation of Transfers and Prevention of Delay in Discharge of Official Duties Act, 2006, popularly called the Right to Service Act.

Under this Act, "no file shall remain pending with any government servant in the department or office for more than seven working days". For files that do not need to be transferred to another department, a decision, as well as necessary action, must be taken in 45 days. For those files that need to be transferred to other departments, action must be taken within three months.

The Act also talks of a penalty for civil servants who neglect their duties.

Shailesh Gandhi, former central information commissioner, advocates the use of this Act alongside RTI. "This appears to me to be an Act which may empower citizens and could help to bring accountability and better governance. I have used it to bring accountability in matters of corruption," says Gandhi, adding that citizens can use it with the RTI Act for better governance and the delivery of timely services.

"If an application, representation or complaint has been pending with a government office for over 90 days, complain to the secretary of the department and demand that action be taken against the officers responsible for the delay as per the provisions of this Act. Alternatively, an RTI application could be made and then a compliant could be filed against the officers," he adds.

The Right to Service Act also helps citizens hold the government accountable for arbitrary transfers of government officials. The Act states that "no government servant shall ordinarily be transferred unless he has completed his tenure of posting..." It also says that, every year in January, the "competent authority shall prepare a list of government servants due for transfer in the month of April and May". The Act says that, under ordinary circumstances, the transfer of government servants should take place only once a year.