The story so far:
On August 17, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) advertised lateral recruitment for 45 posts at the ranks of joint secretary, director, and deputy secretary in different ministries and departments. The move led to an outrage as quota benefits are not applied for such “single post” recruitments. The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, termed the recruitment an “anti-national step” as it was “openly snatching away” the reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in government jobs. Following the backlash, on August 20, Union Personnel Minister Jitendra Singh wrote to the UPSC Chairperson to cancel the advertisement. Hours later, the UPSC cancelled the advertisement.
What is the reason for lateral hires?
As per the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), lateral recruitment is a government initiative to achieve the twin objective of bringing in fresh talent as well as augmenting the availability of human resources at middle management levels for specific assignments keeping in view their specialised knowledge and expertise in their domain area.
Was this the first time such a recruitment was being done?
No. Since 2019, as many as 63 posts have been filled through the lateral route. At least seven officials quit their jobs midway. The positions are open to candidates from the private sector, State government and public sector undertakings, autonomous bodies, statutory organisations, universities, and recognised research institutes. The tenure can range from three years to five years.
In 2021, for three posts of joint secretaries, 27 posts of director, and 13 posts of deputy secretaries, the Commission received a total of 295 applications, 1,247 applications, and 489 applications respectively. The UPSC recommended candidates for 31 posts and the remaining 12 posts became infructuous, the 2021-22 annual report of UPSC noted.
What is the genesis of the policy?
In 2017, the NITI Aayog, in a report titled India-Three Year Action Agenda, 2017-18 to 2019-20, regarding ‘Civil Services Reform,’ suggested lateral entry inductions.
“Today, rising complexity of the economy has meant that policymaking is a specialised activity. Therefore, it is essential that specialists be inducted into the system through lateral entry. Such entry will also have the beneficial side-effect of bringing competition to the established career bureaucracy,” the report stated.
The advisory body said government officers may be encouraged to gain expertise in specific areas and the current system of rapid rotation of officers may be replaced by a system of longer postings according to specialisation.
It added, “Such a system will bring top talent and energy into the government and will lend new dynamism to the ministries.” For tax reforms, NITI Ayog recommended that the tax boards be given considerable flexibility to bring outside technical staff laterally to utilise the available information to ensure tax compliance. On February 10, 2021, the PM criticised the work culture of IAS officers, questioning what objectives could be achieved by surrendering the country to “babus.”
Under the Congress-led UPA government in 2005, the second Administrative Reforms Commission also recommended lateral entry into government service.
Is there a shortage of All India Services officers?
In December 2021, the DoPT moved a proposal to amend the Indian Administrative Service (Cadre) Rules 1954 to depute IAS, Indian Police Service, and Indian Forest Service (IFoS) officers to the Centre without necessarily taking the State government’s nod. The proposal was mooted as the Centre was facing an acute shortage of AIS officers.
According to a 2023-24 parliamentary panel report on the DoPT, only 442 IAS officers were working with the Union government, against the required strength of 1,469.
According to existing norms, States have to depute AIS officers to Central government offices, but it cannot be more than 40% of the total cadre strength. In 2020, the DoPT sent a letter to the States, that it was unable to fill vacancies in various Central ministries. Around 40% or 390 Central Staffing Scheme posts are at the joint secretary level (more than 19 years experience) and 60% or 540 such posts are at the rank of deputy secretary (nine years) or director rank (14 years of service).
Were such appointments made during the term of the previous governments?
Former PM Manmohan Singh was inducted as Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in 1971; he served as the Chief Economic Adviser from 1972-1976; then he became the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and later the Finance Minister.
Retired diplomat Nirupama Menon Rao said on X, “... When we set up the various civil services, post-independence, our first Prime Minister brought in a number of lateral entry officers into the Services. Strength lies in numbers and we had none. The system did work and helped tide over scarcity, and of course, simultaneously, our recruitment through the UPSC examination system began to add up and reinforce the numbers. Today, we need more specialists and ‘experts’ in the system.”
Another retired IAS officer said, “Earlier also lateral entrants were recruited. But these were not many joint secretary/director posts per se which were being filled en masse. If they advertised 45 posts, they should have followed the roster system (of DoPT) to apply reservations.”
Reservation in government jobs is implemented via DoPT’s 13-point roster policy or quota by rotation. The roster system takes each department as a unit and not the ministries as a whole. For example, if a joint secretary rank post has been advertised in a particular Ministry, the reservation rules will not apply as against the cumulative vacancies in all ministries. Mr. Jitendra Singh said that eligible candidates from reserved categories are considered along with other eligible candidates for lateral entry, “however, reservation is not applicable to such single post appointment.” According to retired IPS officer Yashovardhan Azad: “Efforts to bring experts in the moribund bureaucracy started much earlier. Their contributions are stellar — the green, white, nuclear, space and economic revolutions were all brought in by the likes of M.S. Swaminathan, Verghese Kurien, Homi Bhabha, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Manmohan Singh and Montek Singh Ahluwalia. But the entrenched ‘babu’ mafia never allowed outsiders. In fact, the ‘babus’ went to the best universities and countries on taxpayers’ expense, ostensibly to modernise the system but came back writing papers how to entrench it while tinkering with it here and there. In UPA I and II, lateral entry was tried but it failed.”
