Mahendra Prasad Singh

The changing sociopolitical profile of local political elites (mukhias) in Bihar A study of the 1978 and 2001 panchayat elections

This article seeks to examine the changing sociopolitical profile of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) representatives in Bihar. It argues (a) that the political assertion of the upper backward caste-Yadavas, Koeris and Kurmis-in Bihar dates back to the pre-Mandal period; (b) that the OBCs are not a homogeneous sociopolitical community, since they comprise both dominant and deprived castes; and (c) that the upper castes, despite losing political ground at the level of the Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha, have been able to retain their foothold at the grassroots level as demonstrated by their substantial representation in the PRI elections of 2001. This has significant implications for political economy in a period of democratic devolution and decentralised development. More importantly, it explains the violence-ridden politics of the state: besides social and economic disparities there is considerable mismatch between political dominance in the upper tiers and at the grassroots levels of Indian society.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was created in the onrush of such agencies following the paradigm shift from Indian Socialism to business liberalism and globalisation in 1991. The study of its functioning shows it to be less than adequately autonomous and less than sufficiently overseen by the parliament and its committee system. As a regulatory mechanism for the information and communication technology sector, TRAI’s importance cannot ever be overstressed in the context of the gradual transformation of India’s industrial society into information and knowledge society. In a way, in the long trajectory of the transformation of the public sphere in the course of the transition from feudal oligarchy to bourgeois democracy, the telecom space can be seen as the new frontier to be explored and harnessed in expanding and deepening democracy. The existing structure of TRAI falls short on the parameters of transparency, efficiency, autonomy and accountability, calling for reforms.

Book review: Ramchandra Guha, India after Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy

Ramchandra Guha, India after Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy. New Delhi: Picador India, 2017, 10th Anniversary Edition. XXXV + 919 pp., ₹799.

Administrative Reforms in India

The broad thrusts of administrative reforms in India have aimed at three basic goals: improving the efficiency of administration internally and in relation to service delivery to the citizens; maimaining the thin· line of demarcation between political neutrality of administration and party politics; and curbing corruption. The major problem that administrative reforms in India face is the abysmal record of lack of implementation of the series of reports of the various commissions. Still much is left to be done to initiate simple administrative and institutional refonns to improve delivery of public services, reduce scope for corruption and increase ministerial accountability. The article highlights the need for a radical bottom up approach in administrative reforms.

Experiencing the State

Cornelia faced enormous odds when she tried to practise at the Calcutta High Court where she was repeatedly insulted and humiliated for being a woman. She was notallowed to appear, nor permitted to use the Bar library though .she had the same professional qualifications as her male colleagues and her expertise in drafting was privately acknowledged. Gooptu shows the professional isolation Cornelia endured so bravely. But she maintained her professional integrity and was shocked by the unscrupulous behaviour of the male lawyers who were only interested in earning money.

India Independent: The First Half Century of Political Development and Decay

India in 1997 completed 50 years oflndependence as a new multi-national nation-state. Is it an occasion for celebra.tion or lament? Any balance-sheet that we seek to draw seems to be cancelled out by indefinitive pluses and minuses. If she has turned the comer on the food front and graduated from ship-to-mouth existence in the 1960s to self-sufficiency in grain, nutritional levels even for the middle classes are still shockingly low. If she is hailed as a nation with the third largest community of scientists and technocrats in the world, she is still vulnerable to international pressures for high-tech and defence supplies. If the largely agrarian country of the 1950s is today counted as among the top ten industrialized economies of the world (in terms of value-added in manufacturing in millions of current dollars in 1987), and the sixth economy of the world in terms of the value of Gross Domestic Product measuring the purchasing power of the rupee currency at home, the disastrous failure of.the public sector-led strategy of industrialization has today brought India back to the initial point of departure for economic development where, according to Jagdish Bhagwati, 1 promise once again counts for more than the achievements. The new economic policy is really a new pipe-dream with attendant uncertainties rather than the end of the tunnel. Indias economic take-off is still in the future. In the last 50 years while the area and expenditure of the governments expanded enormously, public expenditure in the social sector health, education, social services, etc. has been grossly inadequate. A_nd despite 50 years of planned economic development, economic inequality has increased instead ofbeing reduced, and the number of pee>ple below the poverty-line is on the increase. To quote Amartya Sen:

Book reviews and notices : HAROLD A. GOULD, Grassroots politics in India: A century of political evolution in Faizabad district. New Delhi: Oxford and IBH, 1994. xi + 519 pp. Maps, tables, notes, appendices, bibliogr., index. Rs. 795

This is the inaugural volume of a new series that intends to ’represent’ ’religious practices in diverse contexts’, as described in the written or oral traditions. The focus is on materials previously untranslated into a Western language, and to bring out ’the richness and diversity of religious expressions’. The introductory essay by Richard Davis on India’s religious traditions (’Great’ and folk) is in the chronological mode and covers familiar ground from vedic to modern times. The four sections of the volume, containing forty-five readings, are thematically organised. The themes include songs of devotion and praise, rites and instructions, remarkable lives and edifying tales, and traditions in transition and conflict. Each reading is preceded by an introductory note. I found some of these notes more interesting than the readings themselves. The choice of materials results in an emphasis on traditional India. The book would have been richer if attention had been given to contemporary developments (like Santoshi Ma and Sathya Sai Baba). Most of the contributors are teachers of comparative religion in North American universities. Personally, I learnt about several sources in this book for the first time, such as a mid-18th century text by a Muslim poet of western India, who imagined and described India as a Muslim holy land. Altogether, a rich and informative though not always exciting volume.

Administrative Powers: Administrative Act

‘Administrative act’ (Verwaltungsakt) is a core concept of the German administrative law.1 It covers most of the actions of the administrative authorities through which they affect the legal interests of an individual. The origin of this concept is traced from the French concept of acte administratif from which it was borrowed by the German jurists and developed into a German concept since 1826 onwards. To begin with it covered all measures of the administration whether taken under the private or public law. But slowly its scope was confined to the administrative measures in the area of public law and was finally defined by Professor Otto Mayer in his monumental work on German administrative law in 1895 as an ‘authoritative pronouncement of the administration which in an individual case determines the rights of a subject.’2 The concept so defined was applied by the administrative courts and further refined in the later juristic writings but it did not find its mention in any legislation till after the World War II when the expression ‘administrative act’ was used in some laws on administrative courts. Later it also found its mention in article 129 (1) of the Basic Law and several sections of the Law on Administrative Courts of 1960. Finally, on the basis of the existing law and practice the concept has now been defined in Sect. 35 of the Law of Administrative Procedure of 1976 in the following words: Administrative act is every order, decision or other sovereign measure taken by an authority for the regulation of a particular case in the sphere of public law and directed at immediate external legal consequences.

Nature, Scope, and Growth of German Administrative Law

Nearly a century and three quarters ago the German jurist Friedrich Karl von Savigny propounded the thesis of the uniqueness of each legal system as a manifestation of the spirit or common consciousness of the people with whom it has naturally and spontaneously evolved.1 Any merits or demerits of this thesis apart, the ever increasing social intercourse among different peoples and their interdependence supported by spectacular scientific advancement since then have brought them so close to one another that the thesis has simply become untenable inasmuch as no legal system today can either claim complete uniqueness or maintain total exclusiveness uninfluenced by the ideas, notions, and practices originated in other legal systems. As late as 1885 the British constitutional lawyer A. V. Dicey concluded that administrative law was a peculiar feature of the continental countries unknown to common law.2 But soon thereafter, much to his disliking, he had to admit the emergence of droit administratif in England — the motherland of common law.3 Today administrative law is admittedly as much an academic discipline and a practical reality in the common-law world as in the continental. Of course, differences in the two systems may be traced with respect to the origin and growth of administrative law, instrumentalities of its manifestation, and many matters of detail. Such differences cannot be ruled out, rather do exist, even among the common-law or continental countries inter se.4 But the central theme that runs through administrative law is the same everywhere.

Liability of the Public Authorities

Liability of the public authorities to compensate an individual for any loss or injury caused to him may arise in several situations. It may arise for a breach of contract, a tort, expropriation or quasi-expropriation of property, sacrifice by an individual in the public interest (Aufopferung) or under any other special situation contemplated in a legislation. The following discussion is, however, confined to the tortious liability of the public authorities and other cases of liability will be mentioned only so far as they explain or supplement the tortious liability.