Grants, Accounts and Audit

In one line

Sections 32 to 35 provide that the Central Government shall make grants to the Commission and the State Government to a State Commission, that the accounts are kept as prescribed and audited by the Comptroller and Auditor-General, and that the audited accounts go to the legislature.

The four sections

Section 32, grants by the Central Government. The Central Government shall, after due appropriation made by Parliament by law, pay to the Commission by way of grants such sums of money as it may think fit for being utilised for the purposes of the Act. The Commission may spend such sums as it thinks fit for the purposes of the Act, and those sums are treated as expenditure payable out of the grants.

Section 33, grants by the State Government, in the same terms, for a State Commission.

Section 34, accounts and audit. The Commission shall maintain proper accounts and other relevant records and prepare an annual statement of accounts in the prescribed form in consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India. The accounts are audited by the Comptroller and Auditor-General at intervals specified by him, and the audited accounts together with the audit report are forwarded annually to the Central Government, which lays them before each House of Parliament.

Section 35, accounts and audit of a State Commission, in the same terms, laid before the State Legislature.

What is strong about the scheme

Two things, and they should be conceded.

The audit is independent. The Comptroller and Auditor-General is a constitutional authority under article 148 with security of tenure, and audit by that office is not a formality.

And the audited accounts reach the legislature. The scheme parallels section 20's reporting obligation, so the Commission's finances are on the same public record as its recommendations.

What is weak, and why it matters

Three points, and this is the argument.

The amount is at the Government's discretion. The words are such sums of money as it may think fit, so there is no formula, no minimum and no entitlement.

The grant comes from the body most often inquired into. The Central Government is the respondent, directly or through its agencies, in a substantial proportion of the Commission's work, and it decides the Commission's budget.

And the same is true at the State level with less insulation. Section 33 places a State Commission's funding with a State Government whose police force generates most of the complaints the Commission receives.

Combined with section 11 at the Centre and section 27 in the States, under which the investigating staff are made available by the same governments, the institution depends on the executive for both its money and its investigators.