Admin Law Take Home

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF STUDY & RESEARCH IN LAW, RANCHI
CAT III
Administrative Law
Take-Home Assignment Phani Bhushan Laguri Roll No. 328 Section A
"Maladministration and Ombudsman : Critical Evaluation
The Office of the Ombudsman was established under the Ombudsman Act, 1980. The
Ombudsman is an independent and non-partisan office holder who oversees public
administration, which includes not only the public health service, but also the Civil Service and
Local Authorities. The Office deals with specific complaints from the public about administrative
injustice and maladministration. It has the power to investigate, report upon, and make
recommendations about individual cases and administrative procedures and it seeks solutions to
problems by a process of investigation and conciliation. The Ombudsman's authority and
influence derive from the fact that she is appointed by the President and reports to the
Oireachtas. In dealing with complaints the Office seeks to gather all information relevant to a
complaint, including, if necessary, the appropriate files from the body concerned. The
Ombudsman ensures that she hears both sides to a dispute. If, in the course of a preliminary
examination, she considers the complaint to be justified, she may request the body to review the
disputed decision. If warranted, she may initiate an investigation and may make an appropriate
recommendation for redress. The Ombudsman is conscious at all times of the need to be
impartial, objective and to observe the principles of natural justice.
Maladministration is the actions of a government body which can be seen as causing an

injustice. The term maladministration is not used in the Ombudsman Act, 1980. In many ways to
define the term would be to limit it. Basically it means "when things go wrong". The Act, clearly
lists certain actions or inactions, which if they adversely affect someone, may be considered as
maladministration which are as follows
(i) taken without proper authority,

(ii) taken on irrelevant grounds,
(iii) the result of negligence or carelessness,
(iv) based on erroneous or incomplete information,
(v) improperly discriminatory,
(vi) based on an undesirable administrative practice, or
(vii) otherwise contrary to fair or sound administration
An ombudsman is a person who acts as a trusted intermediary between either the state, elements
of state or an organization, and some internal or external constituency, while representing not
only but mostly the broad scope of constituent interests. Ombudsman is etymologically rooted in
the Old Norse word umbosmar, essentially meaning representative. In its most frequent
modern usage, an ombudsman is an official, usually appointed by the government or
by parliament but with a significant degree of independence, who is charged with representing
the interests of the public by investigating and addressing complaints reported by individuals.
Whether appointed by the legislature, the executive, or an organization, the typical duties of an
ombudsman are to investigate constituent complaints and attempt to resolve them, usually
through recommendations or mediation. Ombudsmen sometimes also aim to identify systemic
issues leading to poor service or breaches of peoples rights. At the national level, most
ombudsmen have a wide mandate to deal with the entire public sector, and sometimes also
elements of the private sector such as contracted service providers
Critical Observation
The most common criticism of the ombudsman system is that the function is not generally well
understood. There is relatively limited documentation and information about their work, often
confusion and uncertainty about their role, and with the proliferation of ombudsman offices in
different sectors, the confusion can be exacerbated. In spite of the key characteristic of
accessibility, ombudsman offices are frequently noted for their inaccessibility. Few citizens are
aware of the different ombudsman schemes, how to reach them and how to process a grievance.
Inaccessibility is the chief reason why ombudsman offices tend to be under-utilised, especially
by the most disadvantaged who are less likely to know of the existence of ombudsman and have
more difficulty in registering complaints or grievances.
Since the ombudsmans powers lie essentially in recommendation there is a genuine concern that
the ombudsman lacks teeth. For instance, the annual report (for many ombudsmen the only
public document issued) is often considered an inadequate instrument for influencing
administration procedures and practice, informing mass media and educating the public.
Moreover, the ombudsman is generally powerless to change or reverse decisions. In fact, some
believe that the ombudsmans powers as critic and reformer must be strengthened to influence
changes in legislation and policy and not just administrative procedure. The ombudsman should
be concerned not merely with laws or codes as they stand, but also as they might be.

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NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF STUDY & RESEARCH IN LAW, RANCHI

Take-Home Assignment Phani Bhushan Laguri Roll No. 328 Section A

"Maladministration and Ombudsman : Critical Evaluation

Maladministration is the actions of a government body which can be seen as causing an

(i) taken without proper authority,

(iii) the result of negligence or carelessness,

(iv) based on erroneous or incomplete information,

(v) improperly discriminatory,

(vi) based on an undesirable administrative practice, or

(vii) otherwise contrary to fair or sound administration

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