IOR/Q/11

The Royal Commission on the Superior Civil Services in India was appointed to enquire into the organisation and general conditions of service of the Superior Civil Services in India, the possibility of transferring any of their duties and functions to provincial services, and the recruitment of Europeans and Indians to the Superior Civil Services. The impetus for appointing the Commission was the growing discontent regarding the Public Services among both Europeans and Indians in the early 1920s. The political uncertainty in India and the increase in the cost of living had produced a sharp decline in European recruitment to the Indian Civil Service. For Indian political leaders the process of constitutional change was seen as proceeding at too slow a pace, and pressure was growing on the Government of India to accelerate Indianisation of the Services. The announcement of the appointment of the Lee Commission aroused the opposition of many Indian leaders who saw it as an unnecessary burden on Indian finances.

The majority of Government officials in India were divided into three classes, organised as Services: the Superior Services, the Provincial Services and the Subordinate Services. The Lee Commission concerned itself only with the Superior Services which were further divided into another two classes: the Central Services and the All-India Services. The Central Services dealt with the Indian States and foreign affairs, and with the administration of the State railways, with posts and telegraphs, customs, audits and accounts, and with scientific and technical departments, such as the Survey of India, the Geological Survey and Archaeological Department.

The All-India Services consisted of the Indian Civil Service, Indian Police Service, Indian Forest Service, Indian Educational Service, Indian Agricultural Service, Indian Veterinary Service, Indian Forest Engineering Service, Indian Medical Service and Indian Service of Engineers. Though working primarily under the Provincial Governments, it formed one Service recruited by the Secretary of State for India and with one basis of remuneration. Though assigned to one province, their members were subject to being transferred to any other province or to being borrowed from the provinces to assist in carrying out the central functions of the Government of India.

The Commission assembled in Delhi, India, on 4 November 1923. It consisted of Lord Lee of Fareham (Chairman), Sir Reginald Henry Craddock, Sir Cyril Jackson, N.M. Samarth, Sir Muhammad Habibullah, Hari Kishan Kaul, David Petri, Bhupendranath Basu and Professor Reginald Coupland of Oxford University. The Commissioners began by revising the provisional questionnaires which had been drawn up by Lord Lee. The two revised questionnaires, on the Organisation of the Services and on Service Conditions in the All-India Services, were then distributed by Local Governments and published widely in the Indian Press. The Commission received 1300 replies from around India, with around an additional 100 replies received from Britain on the basis of the provisional questionnaires issued by Lord Lee in England. A special questionnaire on European recruitment for the Indian Civil Service was also circulated among British Universities. From the replies received from around India, 411 official and non-official witnesses were examined orally, with over half giving their evidence in private.

Following preliminary and informal conferences at Delhi with the Secretaries to the Government of India in the Home, Legislative, Army, Foreign, Political, Industries and Labour, Education and Health and Lands Departments, and with other officers, the Commission travelled to Allahabad, Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Patna and Lahore in order to hear oral evidence from selected witnesses and hold private and informal conferences with Provincial Governments. Witnesses from the Central Provinces gave evidence at Bombay, those from Burma and Assam gave evidence at Calcutta, and those from the North West Frontier Province gave evidence at Lahore. No oral evidence was taken from witnesses from Baluchistan.

The Commission returned to Delhi in February 1924 in order to take the oral evidence of officials and heads of Departments in the Central Services serving under the Government of India. The Commissioners then retired to Mount Abu in Rajputana to write their report, which was signed on the 27 March 1924.

Among the Lee Commission's many recommendations, it felt that a proportion of 50% Europeans and 50% Indians should be attained in the Indian Civil Service within 15 years from the time of the new rate of recruitment it recommended coming into force. This was to be accomplished by recruiting on the basis of 40% Indians directly recruited, 40% Europeans directly recruited and 20% Indians promoted from the Provincial Services. The Commission also recommended the establishment of the Public Service Commission provided for by the Government of India Act, 1919, with functions relating to recruitment, disciplinary control and the protection of the Services from political influence.

In the area of the appointment and control of the Central Services, the Commission recommended limiting the Secretary of State's power of appointment to the Political Department, the Imperial Customs Department and the Ecclesiastical Department. Appointments to the rest of the Central Services would became the responsibility of the Government of India, although the Secretary of State would retain powers of superintendence, direction and control in regard to the field of administration in which the Central Services were employed. As far as the All-India Services were concerned the Commission recommended no change regarding appointment and control to Services employed in reserved fields of administration, but that no further recruitment should be made to the All-India Services operating in transferred fields. Instead personnel for these branches of administration should be recruited by Local Governments.