Civil Services in India

The Collector who signs your ration card rules, the police officer who registers your FIR and the clerk who stamps your property papers are all civil servants. They do not face an election, yet they carry out most of what the Government decides. What protects them from being sacked for refusing a minister’s illegal order, and what protects you when one of them asks for a bribe? This topic explains how the civil services are organised and controlled, and where the law steps in when they go wrong.

In two minutes

Civil servants run the administration under constitutional rules on recruitment, tenure and dismissal (Arts.309–312), are held accountable through ministers, courts and watchdogs, and are prosecuted for corruption under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Administrative Law on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.