Revision summary
Vijay’s options are to leave at once, stay then go, stay through the peak, attempt a short hop, or freeze. The dilemma is filial duty versus the unique public role of a Deputy Commissioner in a still-killing disaster. Leaving at once risks command failure; using a relief helicopter for a funeral would be wrong. The best path is to stay through the life-saving window, delegate rites with the sister and a priest, and travel at the first true lull. Grief is not denied; it is sequenced after the right to life of those still in the open.
Model answer
Introduction
Vijay is the Deputy Commissioner of a hill district that a cloudburst has broken. Roads and phones are down. More than two hundred people are dead and thousands are hurt. His mother in Kerala has died, and the family asks him to come for the last rites. He has no other close relative in India. This is not a trick. It is the oldest civil-service wound: the State’s hour and the mother’s hour falling on the same night.
Body
(a) Options available to Vijay
First, he can leave at once for Kerala, handing the district to the Additional District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police, and hope the helicopter and camps run without him. Second, he can stay until the acute phase eases — roads partly open, the next rain pulse handled — and then go for rites, asking his sister to delay ceremonies if faith and law allow, or to perform them with a priest on video as many families did in the pandemic. Third, he can stay through the whole relief peak and accept that he may miss the funeral, requesting a cousin, a trusted neighbour, or the sister on a later flight to complete rituals, and performing his own shraddha when the district can spare him. Fourth, he can try a very short absence of a day if a special flight exists and if the Chief Secretary formally places a full charge, which in a cut-off hill district is often a fantasy. Fifth, he can collapse into indecision, which is also a choice, and a bad one.
(b) Ethical dilemmas
The dilemmas are filial piety versus public trusteeship; unique positional duty (only one DC is the crisis coordinator) versus replaceable son (rites can be done by kin and priest); personal grief versus the grief of five thousand injured; religious time (last rites soon) versus hydrological time (the next cloudburst). There is also integrity of emotion: pretending he does not hurt is false; abandoning the camps to prove he is a good son may be another falsehood. Confucius honoured the parent; the Constitution honours the right to life of the living who still need a boat. Both claims are real. That is why it is a dilemma, not a slogan.
(c) Critical evaluation of the options
Leaving at once honours the mother and may save Vijay from a lifetime of guilt. It risks command failure in a theatre where the DC’s name is the State. In a remote district, the ADM may be junior; helicopters need a single political-administrative face. The public will not parse his grief; they will see an empty chair.
Staying forever without any rite can look heroic and can break a person, and Hindu (or any) custom is not a toy. A middle path — stay while the rain is killing, delegate rites with a recorded blessing, go as soon as a named officer holds the night — respects both if it is honest, not a slow escape.
A one-day hop is ethically pretty and logistically cruel if it means a helicopter taken off a medical run. Using relief aviation for a funeral would be a scandal of means.
(d) Most appropriate option
The most appropriate course is to remain in the district through the life-saving window, formally vest operational charge in the next competent officer for defined hours, ask the sister and a priest to perform the rites with Vijay present on a satellite call if a link exists, and travel to Kerala at the first genuine lull, with the Chief Secretary informed so that the State owns the choice. This is Gandhi’s talisman (the face of the injured in the camp) plus honour to the parent delayed, not denied. It is role morality: the DC is not an ordinary son while the district is an open wound. When the wound closes, he must go home and weep. An officer who never weeps is not stronger. An officer who leaves a drowning block to prove a ritual clock is not more moral. He is absent.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD M[Mother's rites] --> D[Dilemma] C[Cloudburst district] --> D D --> S[Stay for life-saving window] S --> G[Go at first lull]
Conclusion
Vijay should hold the district while people are still being pulled from the slope, share the rites at a distance if he must, and go to Kerala as soon as a real lull and a named deputy exist. Duty to the living poor and honour to his mother can both be told in that order, not as a cancellation of either.
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Case study. In line with the Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in the Indian Constitution, the government has a constitutional obligation to ensure basic needs - "Roti, Kapda aur Makan (Food, Clothes and Shelter)" - for the under-privileged. Pursuing this mandate, the district administration proposed clearing a portion of forest land to develop housing for the homeless and economically weaker sections of the society. The proposed land, however, is an ecologically sensitive zone densely populated with age-old trees, medicinal plants and vital biodiversity. Besides, these forests help to regulate micro-climate and rainfalls; provide habitat for wildlife, support soil fertility and prevent land/soil erosion and sustain livelihoods of tribal and nomadic communities. Inspite of the ecological and social costs, the administration argues in favour of the said proposal by highlighting that this very initiative would provide housing to human rights as a critical welfare priority. Besides it, it fulfils the government's duty to uplift and empower the poor through inclusive housing development. Further, these forest areas have become unsafe due to wild-animal threats and recurring human-wild life conflicts. Lastly, clearing forest-zones may help to curb anti-social elements allegedly using these areas as hideouts, thereby enhancing law and order. (a) Can deforestation be ethically justified in the pursuit of social welfare objectives like, housing for the homeless? (b) What are the socio-economic, administrative and ethical challenges in balancing environmental conservation with human development? (c) What substantial alternatives or policy interventions can be proposed to ensure that both environmental integrity and human dignity are protected?
Next question on this syllabus topic (2025 · Q8). View answer →
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Is missing a parent’s funeral always unethical?
No. In a unique life-saving command it can be a tragic right. It remains a debt to be paid as soon as the command can be handed over.
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Should the State force him to stay?
The Chief Secretary should support the stay with a named deputy and later leave. Coercion without support is another cruelty.
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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
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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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