Going Beyond Mere Accounting: The Changing Role of India's Auditor General

2013 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 801-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronojoy Sen
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Public Forum ◽  
Public Interest Litigation ◽  
Balance Sheets ◽  
Performance Audit ◽  
The Government ◽  
Auditor General ◽  
Changing Role

In early 2013, India's then comptroller and auditor general (CAG), Vinod Rai, while delivering a speech at Harvard University's Kennedy School, wondered whether his office should be confined to being “mere accountants.” That this question could be raised in a public forum, and that too outside India, spoke to the transformation in recent times of Rai's stature and the office that he held. The winds of change were reflected in the Indian Supreme Court's rejection in 2013 of a public interest litigation challenging the authority of the auditor general, who is a constitutional authority, to conduct performance audits of the government. Significantly, the Court ruled, the “CAG is not a munim [accountant] to go into the balance-sheets. The CAG is a constitutional authority entitled to review and conduct performance audit on revenue allocations . . . and examine matters relating to the economy and how the government uses its resources.”

Supporter, Activist, Rebel, Terrorist

2017 ◽  
pp. 97-114
Author(s):  
Bulut Gurpinar
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Fragile States ◽  
Fragile State ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Role Changes ◽  
The World ◽  
Changing Roles ◽  
The Government ◽  
Changing Role

Children have always been a part of the war for millennia but child soldiering is often portrayed as something rather new, as a side product of the Post-Cold War in most of the fragile states in the world. Underdevelopment is a feature of the fragile state and especially political violence is a common figure in such states. This paper argues that, children's role changes in fragile states, and further focuses on children in Syrian war and their changing role in the society. While the conflict was turning into a war the role of the children both in the society and in the conflict of which increasing tension was turning it into a war. And when the country, one of the fragile states in the world, collapsed, the government lost control and the children took the sides as terrorists. Given the brief information about the changing roles of Syrian children in this dynamically violent environment, this article will examine the transformation of the role of the children in the fragile state Syria.

Allies or Subversives? Adjudication and Democracy

2018 ◽  
pp. 79-114
Author(s):  
Sandra Fredman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Democratic Accountability ◽  
Public Interest Litigation

This chapter addresses the argument that human rights should be not be the responsibility of courts, but of the legislature. Instead of regarding courts and the legislature as mutually exclusive, however, it asks whether we can create a role for justiciable human rights which reinforces democracy. Section II considers democratic objections to justiciable human rights, and canvasses potential responses. Section III examines three ways to reconcile the role of courts with democracy: representation-reinforcing, dialogic, and deliberative theories. It concludes that courts should enhance the democratic accountability of decision-makers by insisting on a deliberative justification for the interpretation or limitation of rights. Section IV turns to objections based on lack of judicial competence to address complex, polycentric issues raised by human rights. Using the example of India’s public interest litigation, it examines ways in which the court structure might be adapted to address these concerns. Section V considers remedies and implementation.

scholarly journals The Role of Public Interest Litigation in the Achievement of Sustainable Waste Management in Ethiopia

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4735 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merhatbeb Gebregiorgs
Keyword(s):  
Waste Management ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Command And Control ◽  
Civil Procedure ◽  
Environmental Tax ◽  
Sustainable Waste Management ◽  
Public Interest Litigation ◽  
Procedure Code ◽  
And Control

This research assessed the role of public interest litigation in the achievement of sustainable waste management in the Addis Ababa Administration (AAA) of Ethiopia. It employed a single country case-oriented comparative research design, and data triangulation was used to establish the validity of the findings. The research first shows Ethiopia’s commitment to sustainable waste management, implementing environmental tax and the command-and-control instruments of the polluter-pays principle and public interest litigation within the context of environmental justice. Secondly, it shows that public interest litigation is one of the innovative techniques in the struggle against waste mismanagement across all legal systems. Thirdly, it demonstrates the potential role of public interest litigation in Ethiopia in encouraging the federal and regional environmental protection and management organs to implement environmental tax and command-and-control instruments. Fourthly, it uncovers that public interest litigation is not fully compatible with the Civil Procedure Code of Ethiopia. Fifthly, it shows the failure of the judiciary system of Ethiopia to accommodate environmental courts and tribunals that flexibly and innovatively adopt public interest litigation. Sixthly, it reveals that, in Ethiopia, the scope of public interest standing is highly restrictive for Civil Society Organizations (CSO). Finally, it implies that the legal viability and administrative feasibility of environmental public interest litigation in Ethiopia is in its infancy, and its crystallization is partly contingent on the cautious review of the Civil Procedure Code and CSO laws and on greening the judiciary system.

scholarly journals The Changing Role of Tourism Policy in Singapore's Cultural Development: From Explicit to Insidious

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 231-242
Author(s):  
Can-Seng Ooi
Keyword(s):  
Social Engineering ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Cultural Dynamics ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Economic Support ◽  
The Government ◽  
City State ◽  
Changing Role

In the last three decades, Singapore has transformed from a cultural desert to a global arts city, thanks significantly to tourism. The Singapore Tourism Board was proactively shaping the cultural dynamics and policy of Singapore until 2012. But since then its official role in the country's arts and cultural development almost disappeared. The disappearance of tourism interests in cultural development stems apparently from years of resistance, dialogues, and negotiation. This study argues that the tourism authorities are still maintaining influence in the cultural dynamics and development of Singapore by reframing its involvement. It insidiously asserts its influence by enticing members of the arts community with resources, opportunities, and economic support to participate in the tourism industry. This article provides a dialogical understanding of how tourism has shaped Singapore's cultural dynamics. Cultural dynamics and tourism development in Singapore must be understood within economic and social engineering perimeters defined by the government. The tourism authorities do not only work with other government authorities, they use similar techniques in managing and controlling cultural development in the city-state. The Bakhtinian Dialogic Imagination is the heuristic that organizes and structures the complex and dynamic tourism–culture relations in this study. Three dialogical concepts—carnivalesque, heteroglossia, and polyphony—are used. Besides documenting the ongoing evolution of tourism in the cultural development of Singapore, this study questions the effectiveness of the arm's length approach to managing cultural development. The Singapore case shows that there are subtle economic and political ways to go round that principle.

Opening up Appointments

2018 ◽  
pp. 96-108
Author(s):  
Madhavi Divan
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Public Interest Litigation ◽  
Deep Dive ◽  
Judicial Appointments ◽  
High Courts ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Lay Members ◽  
Opening Up

This essay takes a deep dive into the role of the civil society in the judicial appointments process. It begins with the observation that the superior courts in India, during the last few decades, have assumed an activist role. Public interest litigation on issues which have the potential to impact various sections of society are being entertained by the Supreme Court and the High Courts. This essay argues that India should not stay far behind from including members of the civil society, or ‘lay’ members in the judicial appointments process. It is also argued that the inclusion of lay people in the appointments process would positively impact the cause of diversity in appointments. In this context, this essay espouses the cause of civil society members in the judicial appointments process, and shields their inclusion in the National Judicial Appointments Commission from the allegation of violating the independence of the judiciary.

scholarly journals Law Of Environment In India: Problems And Challenges In Its Enforcement

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (II) ◽  
pp. 17-26
Author(s):  
Ashish Verma
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Pollution Control ◽  
National Development ◽  
Indian Constitution ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Government ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Indian Perspective ◽  
Indian Scenario

There is no deficiency of available legislations on environmental protection in India but enforcement of these legislations has been far from satisfactory. There is urgent need for the effective, successful and well–organized enforcement of the Constitutional mandate and other environmental legislations or laws in India. The creative and innovative role of India Judiciary and National Green Tribunal [NGT] has been significant and laudable in this era. Pursuant to the provisions contained in Articles 48–A and 51–A[h] of the Indian Constitution, various Public Interest Litigations have been instituted in the Supreme Court against several industries for failing to provide sufficient pollution control and also against Pollution Control Boards to direct them to take proper measures to ensure pollution control in Indian perspective. For the purpose of effective, successful and well–organized enforcement of these legislations, it is required to set up an Adjucatory Body in each State in India, which should consist of legal as well as technical experts. Caring for regulating and protecting the environment is essentially a desire to see that national development should proceed along the rational sustainable laws. Protection of the environment and keeping ecological balance in Indian scenario unaffected is a task which not only the Government but also every individual, association, society, industry and corporation must undertake. It is a social compulsion and fundamental duty enshrined in Article 51–A[g] of the Indian Constitution.

scholarly journals China's Evolution from Socialist Legality: The Expansion in the Role of Judges and the Redress of Grievances

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Zia Akhtar
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Judicial Review ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Public Interest Litigation ◽  
Administrative Reforms ◽  
Independent Judiciary ◽  
Judicial Administration ◽  
New Framework

The Chinese state implemented a conscious transfer to a market economy after 1977 when the Four Modernisations were inaugurated and the new Constitution promulgated in 1982 raised the possibility for the separation of powers. The new framework introduced judicial review into the structure of the legal system that was to provide redress of grievances from mal administration. The transition to a new leadership in 2011 allowed the National Peoples Congress to enact administrative reforms, and further amendments to the Chinese Constitution in 2018 have promulgated the Judges Law. The judicial reforms promote the values of an independent judiciary and there is an effective machinery of justice which promotes judicial review. This paper argues that the centralisation of power by the Communist Party does not preclude the functioning of judicial administration that conforms to rule of law and an emerging trend of public interest litigation and participatory justice.

The Minister for Coordination of Defence and Early Rearmament, 1936–1937

2018 ◽  
pp. 175-197
Author(s):  
Christopher W. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Private Profit ◽  
The Government

This chapter looks at the appointment of a minister to oversee defence planning (Thomas Inskip), but mainly focuses on the lack of progress in 1936 and how this was allowed to occur. The work of Lord Weir – perhaps the most influential civilian adviser in the government – and the bottlenecks in construction he sought to alleviate are discussed. Finally, the role of the Royal Commission on the Private Manufacture of Armaments, which was effectively derailed despite enormous public interest in removing private profit from warfare, is examined.

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