The citizen and the government: rights, duties and channels of voice

Detail

1. Why citizen action matters: the two goals

• Citizens speak to the government for two main reasons:
• Transparency: people can freely see what the government does and how it spends public money.

• Accountability: people in power must explain their decisions and answer for them.

• Without transparency, citizens cannot know what to question. Without accountability, questioning changes nothing.

• The Class 7 chapter lists six channels that ordinary citizens can use. They are set out below.

2. Channel 1: Grievance redressal

• Grievance redressal means a formal way to complain about a public service and get the problem fixed.
• Where to complain:
• the grievance office of the department concerned;
• vigilance commissions, which deal with corruption and misconduct by officials;
• CPGRAMS (Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System) at pgportal.gov.in, an online portal for complaints to Union ministries and departments;

• state portals: most states run similar systems for state-level complaints.

• The time limit has been cut:

• In August 2024 the Union Government issued Comprehensive Guidelines that cut the time to resolve a grievance from 30 days to 21 days [2].
• If a case will take longer, the citizen must get an interim reply [2].
• Every ministry must have a dedicated grievance cell [2].
• Appellate officers handle escalation if the citizen is not satisfied [2].

• Ministries must also look for the root cause of repeated complaints and act on citizen feedback [2].

• Performance:

• As on 31 January 2026, Union ministries took 15 days on average to dispose of a grievance, against the 21-day limit [3].
• About 70 lakh grievances were resolved over three years (2022–24) [4].

3. Channel 2: The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005

• RTI is a legal right that lets any citizen ask a public authority for information. The authority must reply under the Act.
• Typical questions:
• How much money was spent on a road?
• Who are the beneficiaries of a scheme?

• What stage has a project reached?

• Case study: Bagepalli, near Bengaluru (NCERT)

• A road and streetlight project was badly done.
• A citizen filed an RTI query about it.
• The officials now had to answer on record, and the work was completed.
• Lesson: RTI turns information into pressure for accountability.

4. Channel 3: The media

• Print, TV and social media carry citizens' problems to the government and to the public.
• Example: Indian Railways' @RailwaySeva account on social media. Passengers report problems such as dirty coaches or medical emergencies, and the railways reply directly.
• NCERT's "Before we move on" box notes that the media's job is to inform citizens about what the government is doing.

5. Channel 4: Civil society organisations (NGOs)

• Civil society organisations are groups of citizens outside government and outside business, such as NGOs, associations and movements. They raise public issues and often work with the government on them.
• Case study: the Silent Valley movement (Kerala)
• 1970s: a hydroelectric project was planned in Silent Valley, a rainforest in Kerala.
• Who opposed it:
  • the KSSP (Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad, a people's science movement);
  • scientists;
  • the poet Sugathakumari;
  • local villagers.
• What followed:
  • 1983: the Centre shelved the project.
  • 1984: the area was declared a National Park.
  • 1985: the park was inaugurated.
• Lesson: citizens, experts and writers working together can change a government decision. This also reflects the citizen's duty to protect the natural environment (Art. 51A(g)).

6. Channel 5: Writing to representatives

• Citizens can write to their MP (Member of Parliament), MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly), local body members or ministers.
• Representatives can raise the issue in the legislature, through questions or debates, or take it up with the department concerned.

7. Channel 6: Voting

• Voting in local (panchayat and municipal), state and national elections is the most basic channel.
• If a government does not answer to the people, voters can replace it at the next election. This is accountability at its widest.

8. Constitutional base

Provision	What it says	Amendment / case
Art. 326	Universal adult franchise: every adult citizen can vote, regardless of religion, caste, sex, wealth or education	61st Amendment (1988) cut the voting age from 21 to 18
Art. 350	Any person can submit a request for redress of a grievance to any officer or authority of the Union or a state, in any language used in the Union or that state	Original text
Art. 51A	Fundamental Duties, which are moral duties of every citizen and cannot be enforced in court	42nd Amendment (1976) added 10 duties; 86th Amendment (2002) added the 11th (Art. 51A(k): parents or guardians must give their child aged 6–14 the chance of education)

• Rights and duties go together. Rights give citizens a voice. Duties, such as respecting the Constitution and protecting the environment, complete the idea of citizenship.
• Family and community (Class 6) are the first school of citizenship. Children first learn sharing, care and community service there, before they meet the state.

9. Other formal channels

• Public petitions to Parliament: the Committee on Petitions
• Both Houses have a Committee on Petitions.
• What it does: it examines each petition referred to it and reports to the House on the complaint [10].

• How it works:

  • It hears the authorities it thinks fit, including the petitioners and the ministries concerned [10].
  • It suggests remedies, either to fix the specific case or to stop such cases happening again [10].
  • It can also go on on-the-spot tours to see the problem first-hand [10].

• NOTA ("None of the Above")

• In PUCL v. Union of India (2013) the Supreme Court said voters must have the option to reject every candidate.
• Why: this negative voting pushes parties to put up candidates of good character [11].
• How it was put into effect: NOTA was added to EVMs and ballot papers through the Conduct of Election (Amendment) Rules, 2013, issued on 15 October 2013 [8].
• Exam trap: the ECI later withdrew NOTA from elections to the Rajya Sabha and State Legislative Councils [9].

10. Limits and debates

• RTI pendency: large backlogs of appeals at Information Commissions delay answers and weaken RTI.
• RTI (Amendment) Act, 2019:
• Before 2019, the RTI Act itself fixed a 5-year term for the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and Information Commissioners (ICs), at both Union and state level [5][6].
• The 2019 Act removed this. Their term and salary are now set by the Central Government through rules [5].
• The RTI Rules, 2019 set a 3-year term [6].
• Monthly pay under these rules [6]:
  • CIC (Union): ₹2,50,000;
  • ICs (Union): ₹2,25,000;
  • CICs and ICs (states): ₹2,25,000.

• The debate: critics say this lowers the independence of the commissions.

• DPDP Act, 2023 (Digital Personal Data Protection Act):

• It amended the RTI Act's Section 8(1)(j), the exemption for personal information.
• The government says the change balances privacy with the right to information and does not block disclosure [7].

• Critics fear it widens the grounds for refusing information.

• FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act): its limits on foreign funding constrain NGOs, and so affect civil-society pressure.

• Misinformation: false news on social media can distort public debate and mislead voters.

11. NCERT project idea

• Ask your parents how they dealt with the government in the past year, for example ration, electricity, a birth certificate or property tax.
• Sort each contact by level of government: local (panchayat or municipality), state or Union.

Prelims Hooks

• 61st Amendment (1988) cut the voting age from 21 to 18. Universal adult franchise is in Art. 326.
• Art. 350 lets a person submit a grievance in any language used in the Union or the state. Do not confuse it with Art. 350A (mother-tongue instruction) or Art. 350B (Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities).
• Fundamental Duties (Art. 51A): 10 duties came from the 42nd Amendment (1976). The 11th (51A(k), education of children aged 6–14) came from the 86th Amendment (2002).
• CPGRAMS (pgportal.gov.in) is run by DARPG. Its time limit was cut from 30 to 21 days in August 2024 [2].
• PUCL v. Union of India (2013) gave us NOTA, through the Conduct of Election (Amendment) Rules, 2013 [8][11]. NOTA is not used in Rajya Sabha or Legislative Council elections [9].
• RTI (Amendment) Act, 2019: the term and salary of Information Commissioners are now fixed by the Central Government through rules. The term is now 3 years under the 2019 Rules, down from 5 years under the Act [5][6].
• The DPDP Act, 2023 amended Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, which covers personal information [7].
• Silent Valley (Kerala): project shelved in 1983, National Park declared in 1984, inaugurated in 1985. KSSP and Sugathakumari led the campaign.
• The Committee on Petitions examines petitions from the public and suggests remedies to the House [10].

Mains Points

• Many channels make a "thick" democracy.
• Voting is accountability once every five years.
• RTI, CPGRAMS, petitions, the media and NGOs provide accountability every day.

• Bagepalli (RTI) and Silent Valley (civil society) show that steady citizen pressure can change outcomes.

• Transparency is under strain.

• The RTI Amendment Act, 2019 put the term and salary of commissioners under executive control [5][6].
• The DPDP Act, 2023 changed the personal-information exemption [7].
• Large RTI backlogs add to the problem.

• Reform: a fixed statutory term for commissioners, filling vacancies on time, and proactive disclosure (the government publishing information without being asked).

• Grievance redressal is improving.

• The time limit fell to 21 days and the average disposal time is 15 days [2][3].
• But speed is not the same as quality.

• Reform: measure how satisfied citizens are with the outcome, use root-cause analysis to stop repeat complaints [2], and connect state portals with CPGRAMS.

• Rights need duties. Fundamental Duties (Art. 51A), community service and informed voting (NOTA as a protest vote) build responsible citizenship. FCRA limits and misinformation can shrink the space for civil society, and this tension must be managed.