new delhi twoandahalf years ago former cabinet secretary t s r subramanian led a band of 82 likeminded retired bureaucrats boasting of 3000 manyears of experience to seek an unusual relief from the supreme court bring in administrative reforms the apex court responded by saying this petition raises a very important question from issuing notice on the public interest litigation pil on march 4 2011 to delivering verdict on october 31 2013 the top court put in special effort to devise an antidote to politicization of the bureaucracy subramanian was elated as the court accepted two crucial suggestions of the petitioners ban on oral instructions from political bosses and superiors and fixed tenure in postings we approached the supreme court as the morale of the bureaucracy was at its lowest ebb civil servants were not doing the job expected of them under the constitution civil servants are the implementing agency of all policy decisions but they had lost their morale we petitioners knew where the shoe pinches he told toi the was nothing new in the reforms sought by the petitioners who had culled these from the santhanam committee report in 1962 jha commission report in 1986 and hota committee report in 2004 in addition there were suggestions on similar lines from administrative reforms commissions subramanian said these recommendations were extremely important but never received the attention they deserved from the political executive they deliberately ignored it this is because transfers and postings are the major weapons in the hands of politicians to keep the bureaucracy servile these are strong words but understandable given subramanians experience in the administrative service which he joined in 1961 and reached the top spot of cabinet secretary on august 1 1996 he retired from that post on march 31 1998 asked why politicians love to keep bureaucrats servile subramanian said that is because politicians feel governance is their personal business prominent among the petitioners were former ambassador to us abid hussain excecs tsk murthy and n gopalaswamy former manipur governor ved marwah exsecretary and environment panel chief bhure lal national advisory commission member n c saxena former special assistant to pm on international affairs keki daruwalla former ambassador to un arundhati ghose former trai chairman nripendra misra exib director arun bhagat exfinance secretary ajit kumar former maruti chief jagdish khattar excbi director d r karthikeyan and exnsg chief b s sial will the political executive give up the privilege of a servile bureaucracy subramanian said we will see if they dont implement the supreme courts judgment then it would be hitting at the root of rule of law in the country the supreme court is the final arbiter of everything under our constitution if the other wings of governance dont obey the supreme courts judgment then the stability of the country would be in grave danger