Ministers refuse to give up discretionary powers -Governance Now

Ministers refuse to give up discretionary powers

66 out of 84 ministries/departments ignore governments order to frame guidelines on regulating discretionary powers that are often misused

Brajesh Kumar | July 16, 2013

A year after the government directed all central ministries to disclose their minister’s discretionary powers and frame guidelines to regulate them, the order has not been complied by 66 of 84 department/ministries, including ministries of railways, defence, and environment.

The department of personnel and training (DoPT) had issued the order on April 16 last year after it accepted a group of minister’s recommendations on ways to tackle corruption.

With its order not implemented, the DoPT sent another circular on July 13 this year, asking the errant ministries to come up with guidelines at the earliest.

“All ministries/departments were requested for putting in place regulatory parameters for exercise of discretionary powers of ministers and putting them in public domain so as to minimize arbitrariness in exercise of such powers and to send a copy of the guidelines. However, no reply/information have been received from your ministry/department so far,” the July circular, issued to the defaulting ministries, noted.

The misuse of discretionary powers by ministers have long been considered an important cause of corruption and there have been calls for scraping these powers, which includes, among others, allotment of gas pumps, gas coupons, quota for admission of students from Bhutan and Nepal to medical college, appointment of non-functional directors of banks, chairman to PSUs, samitis, NGOs, cooperatives, boards, etc.

An example of misuse of such powers came to light during the investigation of the railway appointment scam involving Vijay Singla, the nephew of former railway minister Pawan Bansal.

According to the CBI, which is investigating the case, Rahul Bhandari, the private secretary of Bansal and Vijay Singla and prime accused in the case, charged a fixed amount as commission on each of the 2,000 of 12,000 tickets set aside every day under the discretionary quota of the railway minister.
Earlier, in 2011, the urban development minister in the Odisha government was accused of offering flats and land parcels to sitting and former judges as well as IPS officers and bureaucrats at concessional rates by using the minister's discretionary quota.

The same year, the government formed a group of ministers (GoM) to deliberate on the arbitrary use of discretionary powers and come out with ways to tackle the misuse of these powers by ministers. One of the terms of reference (TOR) of the GoM was to consider and advise on "Relinquishing discretionary powers enjoyed by ministers at the centre”.

The GoM recommended that all ministries/departments should frame regulatory guidelines for exercise of discretionary powers and putting them in public domain to minimise arbitrariness in exercise of such powers.

Comments

Other News

Before India voted, the framers worried about the referee

“We are making a Constitution forever and not only for today.” Shibban Lal Saksena said this in the Constituent Assembly on June 15, 1949. He was warning that a ruling party might one day choose a loyalist to run India’s elections. Seventy-seven years later, the Supreme Court is wrestli

Delhi moves to real-time traffic management

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi, has approved implementation of the ITMS Project by Delhi Police at an estimated cost of Rs.1,789.52 crore, inclusive of taxes. The project will cover 42 identified traffic corridors and will be implemented in three

MDR on UPI: Can sustainability come without weakening the network?

The extraordinary transaction volumes and value (₹29.82 Lakh crore in August 2026 alone) of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) have made it not only an Indian success story, but a global one. In 2024, UPI accounted for nearly 49% of the world’s real-time payment transaction volume, with more th

The Xi-Trump summit: The unending rivalry

Diplomacy is akin to an art, wherein the summitry, conflict resolution and negotiations form apt constituents of the entire context of deal making and “playing for keeps” in the international arena. The Xi-Trump summit in Washington last week, in which the American president broke all conside

“Indians, yet treated like outsiders”

Moving to Delhi-NCR for education can be an exciting experience for students from Northeast India. It gives us a chance to meet new people, experience a different culture and become more independent. But living away from home also comes with challenges that people who have not experienced them may not al

Import duty on major edible oils cut

The government has reduced the Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on major imported crude edible oils with a view to moderating domestic edible oil prices, providing relief to consumers and mitigating inflationary pressures arising from the sharp increase in international edible oil prices.