Ch – 5 Working Of Institutions (Part 1)

To make democracy work, leaders have to work with or within institutions. In this chapter, we will discuss about the roles of the three major institutions – legislature, executive and judiciary.

We will learn how a major policy decision is taken with the help of an example:

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A Government Order:

• On August 13, 1990, the Government of India issued an Order numbered O.M.No.36012/31/90-Est (SCT) which was important and became a source of controversy for several years.
• It was mentioned in that order that 27% of the vacancies in civil posts and services under the Government of India are reserved for the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC).
• Till then, job reservation was only available for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

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The Decision Makers:

• This order was a result of a long chain of events.
• To determine the criteria to identify socially and educationally backward classes in India, the Second Backward Classes Commission headed by B.P.Mandal was appointed by the Government of India in 1979.
• This commission was famously known as “Mandal Commission“.
• The Commission submitted its report in 1980 and one of the recommendations was to reserve 27% of government jobs for the socially and educationally backward classes.
• The recommendations were discussed in the Parliament.
• In the Lok Sabha election of 1989, the Janata Dal promised that if it came to power then, the Mandal Commission recommendations will be implemented.
• The Janata Dal won the election and its leader V.P.Singh became the Prime Minister.
• On 6 August 1990, a formal decision to implement these recommendations was taken by the Union Cabinet.
• On the next day, V.P.Singh informed this decision through a statement in both Houses of Parliament.
• The decision of the Cabinet was sent to the Department of Personnel and Training.
• The senior officers drafted an order and it was signed by an officer on the behalf of the Union Government.
• Thus, the order was born on August 13, 1990.
• The people and associations who opposed this order, filed a case to declare the order invalid and stop its implementation.
• These cases were bunched together and came to be known as “Indira Sawhney and others VS Union of India” case.
• Eleven judges of Supreme Court heard arguments of both sides and finally the judgement was passed, in 1992, by majority that the order was valid.
• But the Supreme Court judges asked the government to modify the order so that the well-to-do persons among the backward classes will be excluded from this reservation.

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Need For Political Institutions:

• Government has to undertake many responsibilities and to fulfil these responsibilities, special arrangements are made which are known as “Institutions“.
• A democracy works well when all institutions function according to the work assigned to them.
• Several institutions that we saw in the above mentioned example are:
  • Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers are institutions that take major policy decisions.
  • The Civil Servants are responsible for taking steps to implement the ministers’ decisions.
  • Supreme Court is an institution where disputes are heard and resolved.
• Institutions involve rules and regulations which has to be followed by all.
• It also involves meetings and committees which can sometimes delay the decision making process.
• But to keep the spirit of democracy alive, institutions are important as they involve a wider set of people.