SC seeks 21 states' replies to a plea on civil service reforms

"Why they have not filed the responses? They (states) are directed to file their responses in one month," a bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra said on being told that out of 36 respondents, only 15 states, including the Centre, have responded to its notices.

During the hearing, senior advocate K Venugopal appeared for petitioners, former Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramanian and 82 other retired bureaucrats, and said, "Some of the states do not want interference."

"The idea is to improve the situation and this is not an adversarial kind of litigation. We will also ask them (the states which have not responded) to respond," the court said and sought to know as to whether the Hota Committee report on on civil service reform has been acted upon.

"The report has not been acted upon," Venugopal replied.

The court then also asked the Centre to file a status report after considering the replies of all the state governments on issues raised in the PIL and fixed February 20 for further hearing.

The apex court had issued notices to the Centre, state governments and the Union territories on the PIL, also filed by former Indian Ambassador to the US Abid Hussain, former Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami, former Election Commissioner T S Krishna Murthy, former IPS officer Ved Prakash Marwah, and former CBI directors Joginder Singh and D R Kaarthikeyan. (More)