Chief secretary is the head of the civil administration in the state or union territory, an officer who represents not just his own service but all services within the civil administration but the incident of the Delhi chief secretary being assaulted has raised many questions.

The responsibilities chief secretary looks into are:-

1. Guardian of the morale of the civil services and in particular the All India Services
2. Design and continuous improvement of administrative systems
3. Human resource development in the civil services
4. Preserve integrity, neutrality and responsiveness in the civil services
5. As a holistic representative of the government, ensure an integrated image of the government internally and externally
6. Install and activate appropriate long-term planning, implementation and evaluation systems.
7. Supreme court judgements:- P. Royappa (1974) – The post of Chief Secretary is lynchpin in the administration and smooth functioning of the administration .
8. Salil Sabhlok (2013) –It may be necessary for Chief Minister of a State to appoint a ‘suitable’ person as a Chief Secretary because both the State Government or the Chief Minister and the appointee share a similar vision of the administrative goals and requirements of the State.
9. The CS has to show leadership while overseeing that public interest is preserved in letter and spirit. It is his duty to run an efficient administration and give the CM fair and impartial advice.

Why the feeling that chief secretary is not needed:-

• The question has arisen because to many of today’s Chief Ministers it does not seem to matter who the Chief Secretary is or how long he or she stays in the job.
• In the Supreme Court judgment it dismissed the petition of an IAS officer against his supersession for promotion as Secretary to the Government of India and it remarked that “it is the privilege of the master to choose his cook.”
• This has enabled Chief Ministers to promote officers to the Chief Secretary’s grade and pick and choose the Chief Secretary from them as per their whims and fancies without having to supersede an officer openly on merits but for disagreeing with the leaders.
• Transfers of these officers based on Chief minister’s wish raised questions whether the post should actually exist.

How to strengthen the mechanism:-

• Whenever cases of apparently unfair treatment of senior public servants by the political executive comes up before the Courts, the likely adverse impact of such treatment on the quality of administration and service to the public may also be given due weight instead of taking a narrowly legalistic, rule-based view
• For the appointment/removal of the Chief Secretary, adopt a mechanism similar to the one suggested by the National Police Commission for the appointment/removal of the DGP.
• The UPSC should acquire powers to do an annual State-wise review of how the All India Services cadres in each State are managed and place it before Parliament for a discussion

Conclusion:-

Civil services are essential for the smooth functioning of the democracy and is a vital tool for governance of India which is visible in multiple implementation of programmes, policy formulation etc.