Penalty for incorrect answer
An official who does not hesitate to give a wrong answer even to a question raised by the Supreme Court cannot be expected to deliver justice to ordinary citizens. In this context, the Supreme Court’s decision to impose a fine of Rs 25,000 on the Centre for providing incorrect information in the dredger corruption case is fully welcome. This should also be taken as a strong warning by government officials. Most mistakes by officials do not happen because of work pressure. Instead, they are often the result of a lack of sincerity and commitment to duty, along with sheer negligence and an attitude of indifference towards the suffering of common people. When such behaviour is combined with the belief that no punishment will follow any mistake, irresponsibility among officials is bound to increase.
It would be wrong to place all officials in the same category. There are officers who work with complete merit and dedication. However, such officials usually receive no encouragement, often not even from their own departments. It is therefore not surprising that the number of such committed officers is declining. Central government officials provided incorrect information to the Supreme Court in connection with the investigation into the dredger corruption case involving former DGP Jacob Thomas. In November, the State Vigilance had provided the Union Home Ministry with a list of officials designated to travel to the Netherlands as part of the investigation. However, the Centre informed the Supreme Court that it had not received the list.
The truth came out only after the State government’s counsel submitted a copy of the letter sent by the State to the Centre before the Supreme Court, proving that the Centre’s claim was false. The court then directed Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju to clarify the actual facts. When the case was taken up again the same afternoon, the Additional Solicitor General admitted on behalf of the Centre that the earlier reply was incorrect and that the letter had indeed been received. He told the court that officials in the Home Ministry had made a mistake and requested leniency, citing the heavy workload of officials handling thousands of cases. However, the court did not accept this explanation. It observed that a single officer does not handle thousands of cases alone and that the Central government has appointed enough officials for such work.
In the modern digital age, officials no longer need to manually search through files as in the past. A simple computer search would have revealed the letters sent by the State. Yet, without making even this basic effort, and without understanding the seriousness of a query from the Supreme Court, officials gave an incorrect reply. The court has directed that the Rs 25,000 fine be recovered from the officials responsible, after identifying them. This order must be strictly implemented. Officials who work irresponsibly, casually, and with negligence are a burden on the country.