Case studies: administrative dilemmas

1 · VidBodh original20 marks250 words

Vikram Sethi is Superintendent of Police of a district. On 3 September, a twenty-three-year-old man named Deepak, arrested two days earlier in a motorcycle theft case, dies in the lock-up of Rampur police station. The arrest memo records him as healthy. The post-mortem, conducted at the district hospital, records cardiac arrest and notes no external injuries. Two constables come to Vikram separately and privately. Both say Deepak was beaten during interrogation on the night of 2 September by Sub-Inspector Naveen Kumar, who was attempting to recover a stolen consignment. Neither will give a written statement. Naveen Kumar has the highest detection rate in the district, was decorated last year for recovering a kidnapped child, and is regarded by the force as their best investigator. Deepak belonged to a marginalised community. His family has approached a civil liberties organisation and has not yet claimed the body. A local political leader tells Vikram that the family would accept a compensation settlement and that the district does not need an agitation before the festival season. Vikram's Inspector General observes that a case against Naveen Kumar would demoralise a force already thirty per cent below sanctioned strength, and that the medical evidence supports no such case. Vikram can order a magisterial enquiry, seek a second post-mortem by a board before cremation, place Naveen Kumar under suspension, or accept the medical finding. The body has been in the mortuary for thirty hours. (a) Identify the ethical issues involved. (b) What options are available to Vikram? Evaluate each critically. (c) Which would you adopt and why? (d) What systemic measures would reduce custodial violence without demoralising an investigating force?

The model answer is published the following morning.

2 · VidBodh original20 marks250 words

Ravi Deshmukh is District Magistrate of a Himalayan district. On 2 April, a national scientific institution submits a report on a glacial lake above the Chandan valley. The lake has expanded from 0.4 to 1.1 square kilometres since 2011 and is classified as potentially dangerous. The report recommends restricting new construction below the valley and preparing an evacuation plan. It states explicitly that no outburst can be predicted, and that the lake may remain stable for decades. The valley below holds eleven hotels, a 24 MW hydropower structure, and about four hundred households. The tourist season opens on 25 April and accounts for roughly seventy per cent of annual local income. Bookings for the season are already made. Hotel owners meet Ravi. They point out that a similar report on a neighbouring valley in 2019 led to an advisory, cancelled bookings, and no event has occurred since. They ask why livelihoods should be destroyed on a possibility. The state tourism department has promoted the district heavily this year and its secretary telephones to ask that nothing be issued before the season. An early warning system has been sanctioned and is eighteen months from installation. Ravi's predecessor received a comparable report in 2023 and filed it. There is no record of any action. (a) What are the options available to Ravi? (b) What ethical dilemmas is he facing? (c) Critically evaluate each option and state which you would adopt. (d) How should an administrator communicate a low-probability, high-consequence risk to a population whose livelihood depends on the risk being ignored?

The model answer is published the following morning.

3 · VidBodh original20 marks250 words

You are Chairperson of a state recruitment board that has conducted an examination for 12,400 posts. Nineteen lakh candidates appeared across two shifts on 7 December. On 9 December, credible evidence emerges that the second-shift paper leaked approximately five hours before the examination, circulating in three districts. Investigation so far identifies about 400 candidates who may have had access. The full extent is unknown, and your investigating agency estimates six to eight weeks to establish it. Cancelling the whole examination means nineteen lakh candidates appear again. Many travelled 300 kilometres or more; a substantial number are in their final year of eligibility by age. Re-examination would delay recruitment by at least a year in a state where these are among the few secure jobs available. Cancelling only the second shift leaves candidates assessed on different papers, and normalisation across shifts has been challenged in court before. Proceeding means some compromised candidates will be selected, and the fact of the leak is already public. Aspirant groups have been sitting outside your office for two days. Two candidates have attempted suicide in the state this week, reported in the press. The government wants results before the assembly session begins on 5 January. (a) Identify the ethical issues involved. (b) What options are available to you? Critically evaluate each. (c) Which would you adopt and why? (d) What is owed to a candidate whose examination is cancelled through no fault of her own?

The model answer is published the following morning.