Revision summary
Ethical judgement uses twelve factors: facts, law, stakeholders, rights, consequences, justice, empathy, transparency, precedent, public interest, integrity, and courage. They stop a mood or a target from pretending to be a complete moral look. If a decision is illegal, the officer records and refuses the illegal part. If it is lawful but harsh, the officer seeks review, safeguards, and a less harmful lawful path. Harmonisation is a documented repair, not a silent private veto.
Model answer
Introduction
Ethical judgement is a structured look at a live case, not a mood. Twelve factors keep that look complete, and they also show how to repair a decision that has already gone wrong.
Body
Twelve factors
- Facts: what actually happened, including what is still unknown, so that rumour is not treated as a file.
- Law: the statute, rule, and binding court order that already frame the case.
- Stakeholders: who is helped or hurt, including those not in the room.
- Rights: fundamental and legal rights that cannot be bargained away as a convenience.
- Consequences: likely harm and benefit in the short and long run, including precedent for the next file.
- Justice: whether equals are treated equally and the worst-off are not used as a means.
- Empathy: the concrete experience of the weakest person affected, without replacing law with pity alone.
- Transparency: whether the reason can be shown to the citizen, the court, and the audit.
- Precedent: how similar cases were decided, so that today’s mercy is not tomorrow’s chaos.
- Public interest: the shared good, distinct from a loud faction or a minister’s impatience.
- Integrity: whether the officer’s private interest, gift, or fear is driving the pen.
- Courage: whether the right option is being avoided because it is costly to the career.
When ethical judgement is against the administrative decision
- First separate a truly illegal order from a lawful but harsh one.
- If the decision is illegal or unconstitutional, record dissent, ask for written orders, and refuse to implement the illegal part.
- If the decision is lawful but ethically poor, use review, stay within hierarchy, add safeguards, and propose a less harmful lawful alternative.
- Harmonisation is not a private veto; it is a documented attempt to bring the file back to rights, justice, and public interest.
- Example: a demolition notice that is legally served but timed before a festival and without rehabilitation can be paused for a hearing, shelter, and a speaking order, which keeps administration inside ethics.
- Example of refusal: an oral direction to register a false case must be declined; harmony here is law, not a compromise with the falsehood.
Flow diagram
Conclusion
The twelve factors force a complete look at facts, rights, and courage. When ethics and a live decision split, the officer documents, reviews, and, if needed, refuses the illegal piece rather than hiding the split.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Can the "Right to Information (RTI) Act" be a moral basis for good governance? If so, does it create a moral dilemma regarding the protection of individual privacy? Evaluate.
Next question in the 2025 paper (Q14). View answer →
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Must all twelve factors appear in every note?
In a short routine file some are light. In a rights-heavy file all twelve should be checked, even if only a few are written out.
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Is harmonisation the same as obedience?
No. Harmony can mean correcting the decision. Blind obedience to an illegal order fails law and several of the twelve factors.
Same topic · past papers
UPPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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