NEW DELHI: The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), the premier designated recruitment agency of the Central Government, has incurred the wrath of a Parliamentary Standing Committee for failing to appear before it.

Under the garb of being a Constitutional body, the UPSC cannot refuse to appear before the Committee, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice said in its report.

It observed that representatives of constitutional bodies such as the Election Commission of India and even the apex court of the nation appear before the Committee to place their views on demands for grants of their organisations. The panel found no cogent reason why the UPSC "may be accorded any exception."

"The Committee is of the considered opinion that the UPSC, under the pretext of Constitutional status, is trying to hide its inefficient working due to which many governmental organisations are headless for years together because the UPSC has not bothered to recommend the right candidates. Many institutes of the Department of Culture are examples of apathy of the UPSC. There are even instances when the UPSC recommended some names for appointment, but when the process of appointment started, it withdrew its recommendation. The National Archives of India and even the premier investigating agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), are suffering shortage of staff due to the apathy of the UPSC," the panel noted.

It said that the UPSC, being a Constitutional body, should uphold high standards of "transparency and accountability." But strangely, it was projecting itself as being above the law of the land and it did not want to give information under the RTI Act. It did not want to reveal how it was spending public money given to it and it was accountable to none, the panel said. "This attitude of the UPSC is reprehensible and falls within the purview of the breach of privilege of Parliament, since this Committee itself acts as Parliament."

It recommended to the Government to deliberate upon the situation at the highest level and take necessary action to ensure that such a grave lapse and subversion of democratic norms set forth by the Constitution did not recur.

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