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SLAS exclusive domain in public service dismantled in SC ruling
View(s):The Supreme Court, in a landmark judgement this week, has ruled in favour of personnel from the All-Island Services being selected for public sector positions that were till now in the exclusive domain of officers from the Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS).
The three-judge bench headed by Justice Yasantha Kodagoda PC and including Justices A.H.M.D. Nawaz and Kumudini Wickremasinghe gave the judgement after considering a fundamental rights petition filed on behalf of four groups of public servants belonging to the All-Island Services – the Sri Lanka Planning Service, Sri Lanka Ayurveda Medical Service, Sri Lanka Agriculture Service and Sri Lanka Education Administrative Service.
The petition arose from a gazette notice on December 23, 2013, to replace the Service Minute of the SLAS on October 28, 2005.
This service minute contains, inter alia, a list of 381 posts which only officers of the SLAS shall be entitled to hold. These posts have been classified under different grades of officers of the SLAS who would be entitled to hold such posts.
The grievance of the petitioners pertaining to this Service Minute of the SLAS stem from the fact that certain posts previously assigned to certain other All-island Services, have been exclusively assigned to officers of the SLAS and a similar provision has not been made identifying posts in the public sector to be exclusively assigned to be held by officers of the other All Island Services such as those being represented by the petitioners.
They alleged that the posts which the All-Island Services should be entitled to hold, have now been exclusively assigned to officers of the SLAS and that the identification of posts to be exclusively held by officers of the SLAS had been decided in an arbitrary or unreasonable manner.
In its lengthy judgement, the Bench noted that the duty to provide to the court reasons for the impugned decision lay with the respondents. The respondents included past and current members of the Public Service Commission as well as several ministry secretaries.
The SC held that a rational basis for the determination of the posts to be exclusively held by officers of the SLAS was not disclosed to the court. The only purported explanation provided was that, based on the job functions of the relevant posts and service requirements, the director general of the Department of Management Services determined that only officers of certain grades of the SLAS would be eligible to hold the posts as listed in the related gazette notice. The specific criteria for each post used for such determination was also not disclosed to the court.
In these circumstances, Justice Kodagoda, in agreement with the other two justices, wrote that he is compelled to conclude that objective criteria for the selection of posts to be exclusively filled by SLAS officers were not disclosed to the court because objective criteria had not been applied in that regard and thus there was none to be disclosed.
“Therefore, the irresistible inference to be drawn in that regard is that the decision-maker had acted arbitrarily and unreasonably in determining that only officers of the SLAS should be entitled to hold the listed posts.”
The court also declared the gazette notice a nullity effective from the date of the judgement and will therefore not affect the legality of appointments to posts made from December 23, 2013, up to the date of the judgement.
For two years from the date of the judgement, the Public Service Commission shall be entitled to make appointments to posts listed in the gazette notice based on an identification of necessary competencies to hold each such post and an assessment of competencies of All-Island Services officers who may want to be appointed to such posts.
The PSC is directed to, in compliance with Article 55 of the Constitution and in consultation with relevant officials of the public sector, including the Secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration and DG of Management Services, prepare afresh and publish new minutes of the SLAS.
The court said that in doing so, the PSC shall be guided by objective considerations, including the principles contained in the judgement, in a manner that would enable the commission to identify and determine for each post the competencies necessary for a public officer to be able to successfully discharge the job functions of each post and the method to be adopted to assess such competencies, enabling the commission to be able to identify and appoint the most suitable officer to each such post.
Ideally, before finalising corresponding decisions, the PSC shall afford an opportunity to representative groups of officers of the several All-Island Services to express their views regarding such formulation of competencies and assessment method.
The new minutes have to be completed within two years from the date of this judgement, the court said.
The ‘All-Island Services’ include the Sri Lanka Engineering Service, Sri Lanka Administrative Service, Sri Lanka Planning Service, Sri Lanka Scientific Service, Sri Lanka Agriculture Service, Sri Lanka Accountants Service, Sri Lanka Education Administrative Service, Sri Lanka Animal Production and Health Service, Sri Lanka Medical Service, Sri Lanka Architecture Service and the Sri Lanka Ayurveda Medical Service.
Appointments, emoluments receivable, grades and promotions of officers belonging to each of these services are governed by their respective service minutes.
A large number of positions, including almost all senior managerial, administrative and other high positions in the public sector (excluding posts of heads of government departments who, unless otherwise provided, are appointed by the Cabinet of Ministers and certain other posts allocated for officers of ‘Closed Services’), are held by officers of these ‘All-Island Services’. These top positions in the public service include those with designations such as additional secretaries, senior assistant secretaries and assistant secretaries to ministries, commissioners, and directors, the court observed.
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