Minister has to be at helm of affairs in govt dept: Court

Bureaucrats must realise that an elected representative has to be at the helm of affairs of a government department as a minister is responsible not only to his electorates but Parliament as well, the special 2G court said today.
Special judge O P Saini, while noting that if a minister does not perform he risks being "eclipse of his political career", said that former telecom secretary D S Mathur was "bent upon" to not let then telecom minister A Raja do anything.
He referred to the statements of one of the senior officers of the Department of Telecom (DoT) who had deposed before the court that he had seen Raja shouting at and arguing with Mathur in December 2007.

"What a Minister shall do with such an obstructive and dithering secretary, except to shout at him? A Secretary must realize that as per the constitutional scheme of things, an elected representative has to be at the helm of affairs of a Government department," the court said.
"A minister is a hard core politician, who is responsible to his electorates as well as to Parliament. He has also to retain the faith of the Prime Minister to stay in council of Ministers. He has to perform to the maximum within the time at his disposal," it said.
The judge said that if Raja was working against the government policies, Mathur could have informed the Cabinet Secretariat or the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) about it.

"Nothing of this sort was done by D S Mathur. A secretary is a secretary to the Government of India and not to his ministry alone," the court said.