The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre that henceforth all affidavits presented to it should be filed by an officer of the rank of Joint Secretary or above belonging to the All India Service.
In the past, in high profile cases, the court insisted that the affidavit should be filed by a senior official, be it Secretary or Joint Secretary in any of the Union Ministries, Chief Secretary or Administrator in a State/UT, or Director of autonomous bodies under the Central or State Governments. But for the first time this unwritten rule was enforced by Chief Justice JS Khehar, who felt that when an Under Secretary, who hardly has knowledge of a subject, files an affidavit in the top court, it undermines the dignity of the court.
Although no written order was passed by the Bench comprising the CJI, Justices NV Ramana and DY Chandrachud, they told Additional
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to convey this instruction to all Government departments. The trigger came when the Court was hearing a PIl relating to NGOs which received public funds but never bothered to give an account of how it spends the money. .
The Centre’s affidavit to the PIl was filed by an Under Secretary in the Ministry of Rural Development who stated there was no mechanism to audit accounts of NGOs who failed to submit returns. It later emerged that the Government did enjoy power to audit NGOs and voluntary organisations as per Rule 210-212 of General Financial Rules 2005 prepared by the Ministry of Finance.
Upset by the Government’s response, the bench said, “What more can we expect from an Under Secretary. We think you (Centre) undermine the dignity of this court when an Under Secretary files a reply. Somebody of the rank of Joint Secretary, Director, who has knowledge, must file the affidavit. “ ASG Mehta gave an assurance to abide by this rule following which the court did not record it in its order.