Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limited All rights reserved. R Srinivasan 4 min read 17 Oct 2025, 09:06 am. IST The draft Kerala Right to Public Service Bill, 2024, approved by the state cabinet last month, is another attempt at rights-based legislation. (AI-generated image for representational purposes) Summary Kerala’s draft law promises time-bound public services, digital delivery and fines for delay, but past experience raises doubts about whether it can really transform bureaucracy. Kerala is set to become the first of India’s 22 states and Union territories with Right to Public Service legislation to bring the law into the digital age and, more importantly, give it some real teeth. The draft Kerala Right to Public Service Bill, 2024, approved by the state cabinet last month, is another attempt at rights-based legislation. India already has a right to food and a right to education; now, Kerala citizens will additionally enjoy the right to time-bound delivery of public services, guaranteed by law. The draft bill, which has been cleared for introduction in the legislature, replaces the 13-year-old Kerala State Right to Service Act, 2012. It differs from the existing law in two important ways. First, it brings citizen-government interactions into the digital age, giving legal sanction to electronic modes of service delivery as well as to online grievance submission and redressal. Second, and perhaps more importantly, it strengthens accountability for timely service delivery by imposing financial penalties on public officials for delays outside of mandated, publicly reported timelines. Penalties for delays range from ₹1,000 to ₹10,000 for designated officers, recoverable from their salaries, and up to ₹15,000 for appeal delays. Interestingly, the Bill also establishes a direct link between citizens and the bureaucracy by providing for direct compensation to affected parties from the fines collected, instead of creating a separate budgetary provision. The new bill seeks to address several flaws in the old law. All departments are now required to notify each service they have to provide under the Act. Previously, this was left to departmental discretion – resulting in only a few innocuous services being notified, while many important services (those with potential for rent-seeking or harassment) were left out and therefore escaped legal scrutiny. It also introduces a second-level appellate authority, chaired by the state’s law secretary, to help overcome the intra-departmental protection of “brother officers”. Rules are not enough This is all well and good, but if we are to believe that legislation alone can solve intractable issues, we need to ask why the 2012 Act failed. In the nearly decade and a half that the earlier law was in effect, not a single punishment was imposed on a public official. If one were to conclude from this that service delivery was exemplary or that citizens had no grievances with the official machinery, there would have been no need to completely scrap the old law and draft a new one. Provisions such as the recognition of electronic communications could easily be added by amendment. The fact that a new law is being considered shows where the real problem lies – not in missing rules or penalties, but in a missing culture and mindset of service. What we call “civil service” in India is anything but, with so-called civil servants – equal and appointed – still operating with a colonial view of themselves as rulers rather than facilitators. Making laws work To change this, there must be a fundamental shift in how the state hires, evaluates and rewards its employees. Without a culture of accountability – where reward is linked to efficiency, performance and measurable outcomes rather than seniority – and unless the political stranglehold on the bureaucracy is loosened, the system is unlikely to change, no matter how many laws are passed. Take the biggest problem facing both citizens and businesses dealing with the machinery of government: corruption. India ranks 96th out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index. A December 2024 LocalCircles poll found that 66% of more than 9,000 businesses surveyed admitted to paying a bribe at least once in the previous year. More than half said they were forced to pay, while the rest described it as “rush money” to get their work done on time. This is the state of affairs despite a multi-layered anti-corruption framework. We have vigilance commissions at the center and in the states, an anti-corruption ombudsman in the form of the Lok Ayukta, and regular audits by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, a constitutional body that reports to Parliament. Yet between 2015 and 2023, the CBI secured convictions in only 35% of its cases. It is clear that laws alone are not enough. The key lies in implementation, and above all this requires political will. Otherwise, such legislation will end up like elephant tusks: more for show than for any real use. Get all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. more topics #mint snapview Read next story
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