Revision summary
Poor material, illegal basement, green-belt theft and a blind inspector killed workers, including two children. Ethical issues are life, child labour, nexus, friendship, bribery and abuse of POSH as blackmail. Hush, scapegoat-only, and resignation-first are rejected. The course is seal, compensate, prosecute, independent enquiry, recusal of social friendship, and legal handling of any POSH complaint. A false complaint is met as intimidation and, if fabricated, as a crime — without weakening genuine POSH.
Model answer
Introduction
Four dead workers, two of them children, are not a public-relations event. Friendship, a minister’s kin, a bribe and a POSH threat are all pressure on the same hinge. The lawful ethic is a full enquiry, a sealed site, compensation, prosecution — and meeting a false POSH complaint in law, not by surrender.
Body
Stakeholders
- Dead labourers, injured workers, their families, and the two minors who should never have been on a night shift of this kind.
- Present residents and future mall users, whose lives sit under the same roof design.
- The builder, the previous Municipal Commissioner, the building inspector, and officials in the alleged nexus.
- The minister, the State government, and the city’s remaining green belt and slip road.
- Women employees of the Corporation, whose real POSH protections must not be cheapened by a blackmail threat.
- You, your family, and the office that will watch whether honesty survives a week.
Ethical issues
- Right to life (Article 21) of workers and of the city: a roof and an illegal basement are not “anomalies”; they are foreseeable killing.
- Child labour on a construction site: two minor dead are a separate statutory crime, not a footnote to a building-plan file.
- Corruption and nexus: poor material, extra basement, green-belt encroachment, and a blind inspector are one bargain, not four accidents.
- Conflict of interest: the previous Commissioner is a friend and senior. Recusal from personal defence of him, not recusal from the truth.
- Political capture: a minister’s relative as builder is a test of equal law, not of etiquette.
- Bribe: a fortune to hush is the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 in plain speech.
- POSH threat: the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013 is a shield for women, not a weapon to stop a collapse enquiry. A false complaint, if that is what is being advertised, is itself a wrong to be met legally — with an Internal Committee that is independent, and with criminal process for intimidation and for a fabricated charge where the facts fit. Surrender to blackmail would also betray every real survivor who will later need POSH.
- Colleagues’ “go slow”: loyalty to a cadre against dead workers is a corrupted virtue.
- Transparency versus hush: a government-instituted enquiry that you then starve is fraud on the Cabinet and on the dead.
Options
- Option 1: Hush, take the fortune, go slow, and hope the POSH threat dies.
- Merit: none that ethics can name; personal safety for a month.
- Demerit: murderous negligence unpunished, more deaths in the next rain, your own criminal exposure. Rejected.
- Option 2: Protect the friend, blame only the inspector and a contractor’s junior.
- Merit: cadre peace.
- Demerit: the permission on green belt and slip road has a signature. A partial scapegoat is another hush. Rejected.
- Option 3: Resign to avoid the POSH and the minister.
- Merit: personal exit.
- Demerit: the next Commissioner is chosen for pliability; the site stays open. Not the first tool.
- Option 4: Full professional enquiry, seal, compensate, prosecute, recuse friendship, and face the POSH threat through lawful procedure with protection and legal defence — no bargain.
Selected course
- Seal the site immediately; prohibit further work; preserve debris for forensic structural audit; video the extra basement and the green-belt bite.
- Medical care and compensation for the injured and the dead, without waiting for the builder’s mercy; minors’ families get the child-labour and fatal-accident statutory dues as well.
- Criminal law: causing death by negligence and, where knowledge of danger is shown, graver charges; PC-PNDT is irrelevant here — use IPC/BNS, CLPRA for the children, and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 for the inspector and any official who sold a yes.
- Building and town-planning: demolition or regularisation is not a private deal; illegal basement and green-belt/slip-road violation go through the statutory enforcement path, including reference to the State if the municipal code so requires.
- Enquiry: independent structural and vigilance teams; your friend is a witness and a possible accused, not an uncle to be briefed at dinner. Recuse from social contact on the case; do not recuse from supervising that the enquiry is real.
- Colleagues: a written direction that interference is a misconduct; transfer the inspector out of evidence custody.
- Bribe: refuse, record the offer, and put the builder’s words to the police / vigilance.
- POSH threat: inform the competent Internal Complaints Committee and the State local committee as the Act requires if a complaint is filed; do not destroy evidence, do not meet the builder’s “somebody” privately, do not hush the mall to buy silence. Intimidation and criminal conspiracy to file a false case are to be complained of to police with the builder’s hint on record. Support real complainants in the organisation so that the Act remains usable.
- Public: a factual briefing; names of the dead; no defamation of a woman who may still be a genuine victim — the threat and a genuine case are distinguished by evidence, not by panic.
- If an illegal oral order comes from the minister’s side, ask for writing, refuse the hush, and send the sealed-site file to the Chief Secretary and the government-instituted enquiry.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD COL[Collapse deaths] --> SEAL[Seal site] SEAL --> ENQ[Full enquiry] ENQ --> PROS[Prosecute builder inspector] ENQ --> REC[Recuse friendship not truth] BRIBE[Fortune to hush] --> REF[Refuse and record] POSH[POSH threat] --> LAW[IC and police not surrender]
Conclusion
The mall is a crime scene. Friendship, a minister and a POSH blackmail do not reopen it. Seal, treat, compensate, prosecute builder and inspector, put the previous Commissioner’s permission under the same light, and answer a false complaint in court and committee — never by surrender.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Case study. Parmal is a small but underdeveloped district. It has rocky terrain that is not suitable for agriculture, though some subsistence agriculture is being done on small plots of land. The area receives adequate rainfall and has an irrigation canal flowing through it. Amria, its administrative centre, is a medium sized town. It houses a large district hospital, an Industrial Training Institute and some privately owned skill training centres. It has all the facilities of a district headquarters. A trunk railway line passes approximately 50 kilometres from Amria. Its poor connectivity is a major reason for the absence of any major industry therein. The state government offers a 10 years tax holiday as an incentive to new industry. In 2010 Anil, an industrialist, decided to take benefits to set up Amria Plastic Works (APW) in Noora village, about 20 km from Amria. While the factory was being built, Anil hired the required key labour and got them trained at the skill training centres at Amria. This act of his made the key personnel very loyal to APW. APW started production in 2011 with the labour drawn fully from Noora village. The villagers were very happy to get employment near their homes and were motivated by the key personnel to meet the production targets with high quality. APW started making large profits, a sizeable portion of which was used to improve the quality of life in Noora. By 2016, Noora could boast of a greener village and a renovated village temple. Anil liaised with the local MLA to increase the frequency of the bus services to Amria. The government also opened a primary health care centre and primary school at Noora in buildings constructed by APW. APW used its CSR funds to set up women's self-help groups, subsidize primary education to the village children and procure an ambulance for use by its employees and the needy. In 2019, there was a minor fire in APW. It was quickly extinguished as fire safety protocols were in place in the factory. Investigations revealed that the factory had been using electricity in excess of its authorized capacity. This was soon rectified. The next year, due to a nationwide lockdown, the requirement of production fell for four months. Anil decided that all employees would be paid regularly. He employed them to plant trees and improve the village habitat. APW had developed a reputation of high-quality production and a motivated workforce. Critically analyse the story of APW and state the ethical issues involved. Do you consider APW as a role model for development of backward areas? Give reasons.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2020 · Q11). View answer →
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If a genuine POSH complaint also arrives, should you slow the mall case?
No. Run both. An ICC can sit without you bargaining the roof enquiry. Mixing them is what the builder wants.
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Must you personally jail your friend?
You must not bury his file. Investigation and court decide guilt. Your duty is evidence, recusal of intimacy, and no special pleading.
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Q12 · UPSC Mains 2025 · GS IV · 20 marks
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Ethics Case Studies
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Q11 · UPSC Mains 2025 · GS IV · 20 marks
Case study. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Program, MGNREGA was earlier known as National Rural Employment Scheme, NREGA. It is an Indian Social Welfare Program that aimed at fulfilling the 'Right to Work' provisions made in the Constitution. MGNREGA was launched in 2006 under Rural Employment Sector by the Ministry of Rural Development. Main objective of the program is to give legal guarantee of wage employment to the adult members of rural households who are willing to do unskilled manual labour work subject to a maximum of 100 days per year for every household. Every rural household has the right to register under the scheme, job card is issued to the registered, Job Card holder can seek employment; State Government shall pay 25% of minimum wage for the first 30 days as compensatory daily unemployment allowance to the families and of wage for remaining period of the year. MGNREGA work was undertaken by various Gram Panchayats. You have been appointed as an Administrator Incharge of the District. You have been given the responsibility of monitoring MGNREGA work undertaken by various Gram Panchayats. You are also given the authority to give technical sanctions to all MGNREGA works. In one of the Panchayats in your jurisdiction, you notice that your predecessor has mismanaged the Program in terms of: (i) Money not disbursed to actual job-seekers.(ii) Muster Rolls of the Labourers not properly maintained.(iii) Mismatch between the work done and payments made.(iv) Payments made to fictitious persons.(v) Job Cards were given without looking into the need of person.(vi) Mismanagement of funds and to the extent of siphoning of funds.(vii) Approved works that never existed. (a) What is your reaction to the above situation and how do you restore the proper functioning of MGNREGA Program in this regard?(b) What actions would you initiate, to solve the various issues listed above?(c) How would you deal with the above situation?
Ethics Case Studies
The first duty is to protect records, tell workers the truth, and stop further theft. Arrears must reach real job-seekers while ghosts, fake works and siphoned funds go to vigilance and the police. Job cards should be re-verified without stripping genuine households. The predecessor deserves due process, not a media hanging or a cover-up. Social audit, geotagging and a public dashboard keep the repair from rotting again.
Q10 · UPSC Mains 2025 · GS IV · 20 marks
Case study. Rajesh is a Group A officer with nine years of service. He is posted as Administrative Officer in an Oil Public Sector undertaking. As an Administrative Officer he is responsible for managing and coordinating various administrative tasks to ensure smooth functioning of office. He also manages office supplies, equipment etc. Rajesh is now sufficient senior and is expecting his next promotion in JAG (Junior Administrative Grade) in the next one or two years. He knows that promotion is based on examination of ACRs/Performance Appraisal of last few years (5 years or so) of an officer by a DPC (Departmental Promotion Committee) and an officer lacking requisite grading of ACRs may not be found fit for promotion. Consequences of losing promotion may entail financial and reputational loss and set-back for career progression. Though he also puts his best efforts in official discharge of his duties, yet he is unsure of assessment by his superior officer. He is now putting extra efforts so that he gets thumping report at the end of financial year. As Administrative Officer, Rajesh is regularly interacting with his immediate boss, who is his reporting officer for writing his ACR. One day he calls Rajesh and wants him to buy computer-related stationery on priority from a particular vendor. Rajesh instructs his office to initiate action for procuring these items. During the day, the dealing Assistant brings an estimate of Rupees Thirty Five Lakhs covering all stationery items from the same vendor. It is noticed that as per delegated financial powers, as provided in the GFR (General Financial Rules) as applicable in that Organisation, expenditure for office items exceeding Rupees Thirty Lakhs requires sanction of the next higher authority (boss in the present case). Rajesh knows that immediate superior would expect all these purchases should be done at his level and may not appreciate such lack of initiative on his part. During discussions with office, he learns that common practice of splitting of expenditure (where large order is divided into a series of smaller ones) is followed to avoid obtaining sanction from higher authority. This practice is against the rules and may come to the adverse notice of Audit. Rajesh is perturbed. He is unsure of taking decision in the matter. (a) What are the options available with Rajesh in the above situation?(b) What are the ethical issues involved in this case?(c) Which would be the most appropriate option for Rajesh and why?
Ethics Case Studies
Splitting ₹35 lakh into smaller bills to avoid the boss’s sanction is a GFR violation, even if it is a common trick. The ethical issues are career fear, a named vendor, and the habit of collective cheating. Rajesh’s options include splitting, lawful phasing, written illegal orders, or a proper sanction. The right choice is a single proposal to the competent authority and a competitive purchase. A promotion that needs a false indent is not worth the integrity it costs.
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