'Crores Of Public Money Spent': Kerala High Court Directs Audit Of Vigilance Tribunals After Noting Only 5 Cases Disposed Of Annually

The Kerala High Court has ordered the State government to conduct a performance audit of the two Vigilance Tribunals formed under the State Civil Service (Vigilance Tribunal) Rules, after noting that the maximum five cases were disposed off by the tribunal annually while the expenditure incurred exceeded Rs. 1 crore. This the court said executive must remember that public money amounting to Crores had been spent for this purpose, adding that the government totally failed to exercise its powers to adapt to the changes envisaged by the Kerala Civil Service (Vigilance Tribunal) Rules 1960, and this in its own way is an abuse of power. The high court was considering a plea seeking a time-bound disposal of a vigilance enquiry pending since 2021 pertaining to allegations of corruption relating to creation of forged pattayam by one B.A. Muhammed with the connivance with a person who was the General Manager of the Plantation Corporation of Kerala Ltd. While admitting the plea earlier, the court had then directed the Tribunal to dispose of the matter in a time-bound manner. In compliance with this direction, the Tribunal had disposed of the matter. Crores of public money spent, Govt failed to adapt to changes envisaged under RulesThe petitioner submitted that number of cases pending before the Vigilance Tribunals is very low, but there is unnecessary delay in the disposal of the matters. Meanwhile the government counsel said that an average of 4-5 cases are disposed of by the tribunal annually and the amount spent on salaries alone for the functioning of the Vigilance Tribunal in a financial year exceeds an average sum of Rs. 1 crore based on the data disclosed in the Annual Administration Reports of the Tribunal.The counsel said that Government Departments are not properly utilizing the service of the Vigilance Tribunal, leading to the under utilisation of the institution and the intention of the Statute has not been achieved. After considering the submissions, Justice K. Babu in its order referred to statistics regarding the disposal of cases from the year 2015 to 2023 by the two tribunals and noted that "maximum number of cases disposed of is five per year".It noted the government counsel's submission that even though Rule 4 specifically provides that all cases relating to Gazetted Officers involving corruption in the discharge of their official duty shall be referred to the Tribunal, no Government Departments have so far, referred any such matters to the Tribunal, except for the Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau. The court referred to a Government Order and a Government Circular and remarked that the same indicated that the Administrative Department and heads of Departments are not adhering to the instructions issued for utilizing the service of the Vigilance Tribunals, nor to the mandate of the KCS Vigilance Tribunal Rules, 1960.It thus said:"It appears from the reports submitted by the Government that the average disposal of cases by a Tribunal in a year is only five, and that the number of enquiry cases pending before each Tribunal is less than ten. The Government itself has conceded, as evident from the extracted circular and Government Order, that the various administrative departments and heads of departments are not adhering to the mandate of the Rules or to the instructions issued in this regard.Now a serious question arises: why should the Government retain these Tribunals? It is reported by the Additional Chief Secretary to Government that in the financial year 2022-23, the expenditure towards salary incurred for the functioning of the Vigilance Tribunal, Kozhikode amounted to Rs.1,00,57,000/- (Rupees One Crore and Fifty Seven Thousand only). It is high time that the Government has a responsibility to ensure that the purpose and object of the KCS (Vigilance Tribunal) Rules are accomplished. The Government also has a duty to closely monitor the working of the Statute and must have a continuous and a real time assessment of the impact of the Statute. The Executive should bear in mind that the public money amounting to Crores have been spent for this purpose. The KCS (Vigilance Tribunal) Rules, framed in 1960, were intended as a measure to compact corruption among public officers. The system was adapting to a change. What is discernible is a total failure on the part of the Government to exercise its powers to adapt to the changes envisaged by the KCS (Vigilance Tribunal) Rules, 1960. Failure to use that power by the Government to adapt to the change in its own way is an abuse of power". High time for govt to see if "failed tribunals" are neededThe court further said that reviewing and assessing the implementation of a Statute is an integral part of Rule of Law and such a review is to understand the reasons for failure, if any, and address it quickly. "The High Court is fully justified in giving directions to the Government to conduct performance audit of a Statute. As...

'Crores Of Public Money Spent': Kerala High Court Directs Audit Of Vigilance Tribunals After Noting Only 5 Cases Disposed Of Annually

Anamika MJ

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