Delhi’s Minister for Information Technology (IT) Dr. Pankaj Kumar Singh chaired a meeting on Monday over the introduction and strengthening of a system-driven Auto-Appeal Mechanism under the Delhi (Right of Citizens to Time-Bound Delivery of Services) Act, 2011.
According to officials, the initiative is aligned with the recommendations of the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India, under the Deregulation Exercise – Phase II, which calls upon states to undertake regulatory and procedural reforms to enhance ease of doing business and ensure robust time-bound service delivery frameworks.
A review of the existing framework of the Delhi RTS Act was held during the important meeting. So far, 537 services have been notified under the Act and monitored through the e-SLA portal.
The current mechanism requires applicant’s intervention for initiating appeals in case of delay, and accountability is largely triggered after breach of timelines through manual inquiry. However, the proposed system-driven approach aims to enable automatic filing of appeals immediately upon expiry of prescribed service timelines (SLA), without requiring any action from the applicant.
Speaking on the occasion, the minister said, “Our objective is to build a proactive and citizen-centric governance system where accountability is automatic and transparent.”
“The Auto-Appeal Mechanism will ensure that delays are addressed by the system itself, without placing the burden on citizens. We will carefully study best practices from other States to develop a strong and sustainable framework for Delhi,” Dr Singh added.
The mechanism would further provide structured and time-bound escalation to the higher authorities, which going to be supported by real-time dashboards, amid transparent monitoring.
During the discussions held in the meeting, Haryana Right to Service framework, particularly its Auto-Appeal System (AAS), was kept as a standard model.
Notably, the Haryana model ensures automatic escalation, defined penalty provisions, and continuous digital oversight till the resolution of the issue is done.
In the meeting, adoption of similar features within national capital’s statutory and administrative structure was discussed.
Dr Singh directed the department concerned to conduct a study of all the best practices that have been opted by other states, prior to finalising the framework, to ensure Delhi’s model is legally robust, technologically advanced, and administratively effective.
An indicative implementation timeline of approximately six months was examined, subject to due approvals.