Roshan Ram­char­i­tar

If you be­lieve that any gov­ern­ment de­part­ment or au­thor­i­ty has un­fair­ly treat­ed you, you can take your com­plaint to the Om­buds­man.The Om­buds­man is a non-po­lit­i­cal, in­de­pen­dent of­fice cre­at­ed un­der the Con­sti­tu­tion.The main func­tion of the Om­buds­man is to in­ves­ti­gate cas­es of in­jus­tice aris­ing out of "mal­ad­min­is­tra­tion"' by gov­ern­ment de­part­ments or re­lat­ed bod­ies. Us­ing the Om­buds­man is a way of try­ing to solve a com­plaint with­out go­ing to court.

"Mal­ad­min­is­tra­tion" or "faults in ad­min­is­tra­tion" refers broad­ly to the way in which a gov­ern­ment de­part­ment or au­thor­i­ty has dealt with a sit­u­a­tion or reached a de­ci­sion in the ex­er­cise of its func­tions.This in­cludes mis­takes, de­lays, rigid­i­ty and care­less­ness in gov­ern­ment pro­ce­dure, or even the fail­ure to make a de­ci­sion on an ad­min­is­tra­tive mat­ter.

To in­ves­ti­gate a mat­ter one of the fol­low­ing must take place:

�2 a per­son who feels an in­jus­tice from a fault in ad­min­is­tra­tion has been done makes a com­plaint

�2 where a mem­ber of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tive refers a mat­ter

�2 where the Om­buds­man con­sid­ers an in­jus­tice has oc­curred

A com­plaint may be made in writ­ing or on­line through the of­fi­cial Web site of the Om­buds­man. It is free of charge.The Om­buds­man does not have to in­ves­ti­gate a mat­ter:

�2 which the per­son com­plain­ing has known about for more than a year

�2if the com­plaint is triv­ial; or

�2 if the per­son com­plain­ing does not have enough of a con­nec­tion with the mat­ter

Where the Om­buds­man de­cides not to in­ves­ti­gate or stops in­ves­ti­gat­ing a com­plaint, he or she must in­form the per­son who made the com­plaint.

Pow­ers and re­stric­tions

In in­ves­ti­gat­ing a com­plaint the Om­buds­man has ex­ten­sive pow­ers. These in­clude the pow­er to call wit­ness­es to give ev­i­dence, or to go in­to premis­es to call for and in­spect doc­u­ments dur­ing the in­ves­ti­ga­tion.How­ev­er, the pow­ers do not in­clude the pow­er to ques­tion gov­ern­ment pol­i­cy, but rather ad­min­is­tra­tive is­sues that arise from it.Al­so, the Om­buds­man is re­strict­ed by law from in­ves­ti­gat­ing cer­tain mat­ters, in­clud­ing:

�2 a case which is about to go to court or if court ac­tion has been start­ed

�2 mat­ters con­cern­ing deal­ings with for­eign gov­ern­ments and in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­i­sa­tions

�2 mat­ters re­lat­ing to the armed forces and fugi­tive of­fend­ers

�2 ac­tions tak­en in mat­ters con­cern­ing con­trac­tu­al and com­mer­cial trans­ac­tions in­volv­ing a gov­ern­ment de­part­ment or au­thor­i­ty

�2 mat­ters of ap­point­ments, re­movals, pay, dis­ci­pline, pen­sion and oth­er per­son­nel mat­ters in the Pub­lic Ser­vice

Where an in­jus­tice has been found the Om­buds­man must in­form the gov­ern­ment de­part­ment or body con­cerned of the re­sults of the in­ves­ti­ga­tion and the rea­sons for any find­ings. The Om­buds­man has the pow­er to make rec­om­men­da­tions to cor­rect the in­jus­tice and al­so to set a time lim­it to cor­rect it.

The Om­buds­man can­not force a gov­ern­ment body to com­ply with the Om­buds­man's rec­om­men­da­tions. How­ev­er, if the mat­ter is not cor­rect­ed, and is of suf­fi­cient pub­lic im­por­tance, the Om­buds­man must send a spe­cial re­port to Par­lia­ment on the case.Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the Om­buds­man must make an­nu­al re­ports on the per­for­mance of their func­tions, in­clud­ing sta­tis­tics of com­plaints re­ceived and the re­sults of in­ves­ti­ga­tions.