Thiruvananthapuram: The state's administrative machinery has a knack to make a citizen's right sound as if it is a favour.
Take, for instance, Kerala's special marriage assistance scheme for the daughters of financially distressed widows. If the widow fails to submit the application at least one month before the marriage, she will be denied the support.
More problematic than the denial is the remedy. Kerala government has authorised the land revenue commissioner and the district collector to "pardon" the widow if these top officials find that there were genuine reasons for the delay. For her to receive such a "pardon", the poor widow will first have to submit an application for pardon ('maappapeksha').
Not just widows, every citizen has to mandatorily submit a 'maappapeksha', a pardon form, if there is delay in applying for various kinds of welfare assistance like scholarships, pensions, houses under Life Mission and even for securing mandatory government records like marriage registration certificate or birth certificate. There is even an application form called the "pardon form".
These have now been withdrawn. Not just the "pardon" forms but also the use of words like "pardon me" ('maappaakkanam/kshemikkanam') from official communication.
The Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department (P&ARD) has acknowledged the emotional consequence of the official insistence on 'pardon forms'. "It conveys the impression that a mere delay in submitting applications for welfare assistance or official documents is a serious crime," said additional chief secretary A Jayatilak in a circular issued to all department heads on May 17.
"Now that this has been brought to the attention of the government, the words "pardon the delay" in the application form will be changed to "decision on the application without considering the delay"," the additional chief secretary said, and added: "Keeping with this spirit, words like "pardon" (maappu), "kindly pardon me" (maappakkanam) and "pardon form" (maappapeksha) should be removed from application forms."
It was Palakkad-based social activist Boban Mattumantha who had brought this anomaly in official communications to the notice government. "To make a citizen in a free democracy to seek pardon from the government for a small delay in filing an application for what is rightfully hers is not just primitive but also reminds one of colonial times," Mattumantha said. "In the place of such words that humiliates we should have words that give citizens dignity," he said.
However, the P&ARD did not find any merit in his argument at first. Asking a citizen to seek pardon, the Department felt, is just a way of enforcing administrative discipline. "The requirement to submit a pardon form arises only when there is delay in filing the application," the office of the P&ARD additional chief secretary wrote to Boban on May 5, 2022. "This can also be seen as a directive to the citizen to secure his rights in a time-bound manner," the communique added.
Disappointed with the response, Boban took his case to the Human Rights Commission. He argued that the P&ARD came to such a conclusion without employing language experts.
The Human Rights Commission, therefore, forwarded the complaint to the Official Languages Department under the Kerala Legislative Secretariat. Boban's plea came back to the P&ARD with the expert opinion of the Official Languages Department last November.
Now, a year after it had first rejected Boban's plea, the P&ARD has realised that a delay in submitting an application was not so serious a matter to warrant something as ceremonial and dramatic as a pardon from the state. A 'State Pardon' sits fine with a criminal, not with a citizen seeking rights a little late
Boban was also uncomfortable with the idea of top officers granting pardon to citizens. "No one except the President of India and the Supreme Court Chief Justice have the right to grant mercy or pardon. Collectors or top officers cannot be vested with such a right," Boban said.
