Paper c

CATALOGUING REPORTS

OF AD-HOC COMM I SSION S

Institute for Research in Economics and Social Growth, Delhi

N K GOIL

Emphasises the importance of adhoc commissionreports for research workers and the need fora proper organised collection. Examines thestatus and mode of creation of these commis-sions, in order to determine the headings forthe entries of their reports. Brings out theneed for using the name of the chairman of thecommission as a heading in the entries, in ad-dition to the corporate author heading. Sug-gests additional rules for incorporation inthe Classified Catalogue Code.

o INTRODUCTION

The Government of India frequently appointsmany Commissions and Committees to enquireinto various problems. For brevity, both ofthese will be denoted by the te r m "Commission".The reports of their findings are of eminenthelp to Research Workers. Research in SocialSciences will be incomplete without referenceto these reports. The data collected for thecompilation of these reports are of consider-able authenticity. Because, these Commis-sions are in a po s ition to collect data notordinarily available to other agencies and to anindividual research worker. Therefore, alibrary serving research in social sciences

16

should have a complete collection of such re-ports. But a collection of these documentsdevoid of scientific organisation will be oflittle service to those for whom they arecollected.

1 ORGANISATION

11 Classification

Scientific organisation of these documentsrequires the use of an ana.lyti co c syntb et icscheme of classification. It is really un-fortunate to find even to-day Hbr ae ian s preferr-ing arrangement based on factors other thansubject contents. For example, some preferto arrange such documents according to somesymbols given by their publishers. Becauseclassification is not the theme of this paper,I shall not go into the details of classification.

12 Cataloguing

Again, classification alone will not be suffi-cient. The service of the catalogue has to beinvoked to meet the multiple approach ofreaders. The following are the general linesof approach of readers to such documents.

1 Subject;2 Name of the Commission;

An lib sc

CATALOGUING REPORTS OF ADHOC COMMISSIONS C2132

3 Name of the Chairman of theCommission; and

4 Name of the appointing authority ofthe Commission.

Classification will take care of the firstapproach. The other approaches have to betaken care of by the catalogue. The buildingof a good catalogue is a condition precedent tothe making of these documents easily broughtto notice. If the catalogue is not built takingall these approaches into consideration, it ispossible that a document is in the library but itdoes not come to the notice of the reader. Sucha state of affairs will flout the first three Lawsof Library Science, viz:-

1 Books are for use;2 Every reader his or her book;3 Every book its reader.

2 CONSTITUTION

Before deciding how many and what type ofcatalogue entries are needed to satisfy the linesof approach of the readers as enumerated in 12,it is essential to know about the constitution ofthese Commissions.

21 Constitutional Provision

211 Mandatory

There is a provision in the constitution ofIndia for the obligatory appointment of certainCommissions by the President of Indian Republicafter a specific period.

2111 Finance Commission

Sec 280(1): -The President shall, within twoyears from the commencement of this Constitu-tion and thereafter at the expiration of everyfifth year or at such time as the President con-siders necessary, by order constitute aFinance Commission which shall consist of aChairman and four other members to beappomt ed by the President. "

2112 Language Commission

Sec 344(1): -The President shall, at theexpiration of five years from the commence-

V 7 N 1 Mar 1960

ment of this constitution and thereafter at theexpiration of ten years from such commence-ment, by order constitute a Commission whichshall consist of a Chairman, and such othermembers representing the different languagesspecified in the Eight Schedule as the Presidentmay appoint. and the order shall define the pro-cedure to be followed by the Commission. "

212 Optional

According to our Constitution, the Presidenthas also the option to appoint other commissions.

Sec 340(1): "The President may by orderappoint a commission consisting of such personsas he thinks fit to investigate the conditions ofscc iaIly and educationally backward classeswithin the territory of India and the difficultiesunder which they labour and to make recommend-ations as to the steps that should be taken by theUnion or any state to remove such difficultiesand to improve their condition and as to thegrants that should be made for the purpose bythe Union or any state and the conditions sub-ject to which such grants should be made, andthe order appointing such commission shalldefine the procedure to be followed by theCommi s sion. "

213 General

Further provision has also been made inthe Seventh Schedule of the constitution for theappointment of commissions for enquiries,surveys etc. for such subjects for which theCentral and State Governments are responsibleeither for deleberation or for execution.

2131 Union List

Section 94 of List 1 - i e the Union list- provides for" Inquiries, surveys and statis-tics for the purpose of the matters in this list".

2132 Concurrent List

Section 45 of List 3 - i e the ConcurrentList contains - provides for "Inquiries andstatistics for the purpose of any of the matterspecified in list 11 or 1117.

17

cn

22 Legal Provision

To make these provisions effective, theCommissions of Inquiry Act (1952) Was passedby the Parliament. Section 3 of this Act pro-vides "(1) The appropriate Government may,if it is of opinion that it is necessary so to do,and shall, if a resolution in this behalf ispassed by the House of the People or, as thecase may be, the Legislative Assemby of theState, by notification in the Official Gazette,appoint a Commission of Inquiry for the pur-pose of making an inquiry into any definitematter of public importance and performingin the notification, and the Commission soappointed shall make the inquiry and performthe functions accordingly." The provision inthe Act is very clear. A Commission has tobe appointed if a resolution to that effect ispassed in the Lok Sabha or the LegislativeAssembly of a State. The Commission ofEnquiry on Emoluments and Conditions ofService of Central Government Employees(India) (1957) Was appointed in this way, aftera resolution to that effect was passed in the LokSabh a, But in some cases, the Government atits own initiative may take cognisance of asituation (without the matter being moved inParliament or State Legislature) and appointa Commission of Inquiry. Plantation InquiryCommission (India) (1954) was appointed inthis way.

23 Departmental Provision

Many times executive organs of the Govern-ment take cognisance of a problem requiringmature deliberation by experts in that field ofknowledge for the enlightenment of the depart-ment. Such cognisances lead to the appointmentof an ad -ho c body of experts to enquire into thep;roblems. The expert bodi e s are known bydifferent names, such as:

1 Study group2 Working group3 Working party4 Team for study

The utility of the reports of the above bodies isequally important for re search in social sci-ences. Therefore such reports should be treated

18

GOIL

for cataloguing purpose in the same way asthose of Commissions/Committees.

24 Terms of Reference

When a Commission is appointed, the appoint-ing authority mentions in the S R 0 or Resolutionor Letter, the broad points of enquiry. Theseare called "Terms of reference". For example,the following terms of reference of the TaxationEnquiry Commission (India) (1953) were laiddown by the Ministry of Finance, Gtovernment ofIndia, in its resolution F 3(7)-B/53 dated 1_4_53:

1 To examine the incidence of Central, Stateand Local taxation on the various classes ofpeople and in different States;

2 To examine the suitability of the presentsystem of taxation - Central, State and Local- with reference to (a) the development pro-gramme of the country and the resources re-quired for it, and (b) the objective of reducinginequalities of income and wealth;

3 To examine the effects of the structureand level of taxation of income on capital for-mation and maintenance and development ofproduction enterprise:

4 To examine the use of taxation as a fis-cal instrument in dealing with inflationary ordeflationary situation;

5 To consider other relevant matters; and

6 To make recommendations, in particular,with regard to (a) modifications required in thepresent system of taxation, and (b) freshavenues of taxation. "

The Commission submitted its report in 1955.The report consisted of four volumes. Thecommission recommended many points andprocedures.

3 NATURE OF FINDINGS

Though these Commissions are appointedunder Constitutional or other Legal provisions,yet their findings are not mandatory. They areonly of recommendatory character. It is openfor the Government to accept them either inpart or in toto. The Government of India have

An lib sc

CATALOGUING REPORTS OF ADHOC COMMISSIONS

accepted partially the recommendations madeby the Commission of Enquiry on Emolumentsand Conditions of Servi.ce of Central GovernmentEmployees (India) (1957). The Government con-cerned can also refuse to accept even the main

recommendations of a Commission appointedby it. The U K Government has rejected themain recommendations of the 'Committee onthe Working of the Monetary System (U K)(1957). The above examples go to establishthat the views of a Commission are not theviews of the Government concerned. TheGovernment is only an appoi.nti.ng authority.The Government appointing a Commission isnot obliged to accept and own the recommenda-tions made by the Commission.

4 MODE OF CITATION: NAME OFCHAIRMAN

The dominant mode of citing a report is bythe name of the Chairman of the Commission.This is more so when the Chairman is a popu-lar and well known person. Here are fiveex arnp le s r-,

1 Taxation Enquiry Commission (India)(1953)

On page VI of the foreword to Agricul-tural problems of India by C B Mamoria, pub-lished by Kit ab Mahal in 1958, N G Ranga citesthis Commission as 'Mathai Commission'.

2 Village and Small-Scale Industries(Second Five Year Plan) Committee (India)(1955)

In his article entitled Clearcut policyfor small scale industries (Indian Express,23-10-59, 6 & 9) (Approach to the Third Plan10), Vaikunth Lal Mehta cites the aboveCommittee as 'Karve Committee'.

3 Team for the Study of CommunityProjects and National Extension Service(India) (1957).

In his article entitled Rural develop-ment: A fresh evaluation (Hindustan Times,30-10-59, 8) B G Rao cites the above team as'Mehta Team'.

4 Central Pay Commission (India) (1946)

The Commission of Enquiry on Emolu-ments and Conditions of Service of Central

V 7 N 1 Mar 1960

C51

Government Employees (India) (1957) cites theabove-mentioned earlier Commission asVaradhachariar Commission'.

5 Committee on the Working of the Mone-tary System (U K) (1957).

While summarising the report of theabove mentioned Committee on page 658 of itsissue of 29-8-59, the Economist (London)refers to the report of the above Committee as"The Radcliffe Report n.

The above examples indicate that the name ofthe Chairman of a Commission is the dominantapproach to it. and its documents. Once, areader asked the Reference As sistant of a lib-rary to give the 'Rege Committee' report. TheAssistant searched the whole of the catalogue.But he could not find any clue. He consulted acolleague of his. But it too was of no use.Ultimately the matter Was brought to the noticeof the other members of the staff. One ofthem was a student of Economics. He promp-tly explained that the reader wanted the reportof the Labour Investigation Committee.D V Rege Was the Chairman of the Committee.Therefore, it was referred to by the reader as'Rege Commj.ttee' report. This incident ledthe library to examine its catalogue. Thecatalogue Was said to have been built accordingto the scientific catalogue code viz, Clas sifiedCatalogue Code. But there was no entry underthe name of the chairman of the Committee.

5 CONFLICT OF AUTHORSHIP

51 Impact of Citation

The citation by the name of the Chairmanof a Commission has influenced an importantlibrary in Delhi to change its cataloguing rulesaltogether. Now, the name of the Chairmanof the Commission occupies the Heading Sec-tion of the Main Entry. But thi s is not arational compromise. Because. accordingto any Catalogue Code, the Chairman of theCommission cannot be considered as the authorof the report. According to rule 5121 of theCCC, the Heading is to consist of the earliestof the fo l.lowirig , which the book adrnit s i ,

1 The name of the personal author;

2 The names of Joint Personal Authors;

19

C51

3 The name of a Corporate Author;

4 The names of Joint Corporate Authors;

5 A pseudonym or two or more pseudonyms;

6 The name of a Collaborator;

7 The names of Joint Collaborator s; and

8 The title of the Document.

Further Rule 14 determines who the author is.The name of the chairman of the Commissiondoes not fall in any of the above mentionedcatagories. Therefore, it should not occupythe Heading Section of the Main Entry.

52 Definition of Author ship

Rule 123 of CCC defines the author of awork:-

1 Per son creating the work, i e the thoughtand the expression constituting it.

2 Corporate body owning responsibility fora work, i e for the thought and expression con-stituting it.

Rule 1232 of CCC further defines the Cor-porate Aut ho r c ,

·Corporate body as author, the responsibilityfor the thought and expression constituting thework rests solely on it or any or gan of it, andnot on the private capacity of any per son orpersons forming part of or holding office in orin any other way connected with that body. "

According to the above definition, the thought-content of the report of a Commission cannot beconsidered as the views and tnought -content of itsChairman. In fact no Catalogue Code attributesthe authorship of the report of a Commission toit s chariman. Even acco rding to common- s;ens eapproach, the thought-content of the report of aCommission cannot be attributed to either itsChairman or to any of its members. The view sand thought -content of a report of a Commissionare of the Commission as a whole. As theCommission as a whole is responsible for thethought-content of the report, its name shouldoccupy the Heading Section of the Main Entry.

53 Implication of Mode of Citation

As a result of this, the implication of themode of citation by the name of chairman - i e

20

GOIL

the implication of the name of chairman beingthe most important Sought Heading - is thatthe name of chairman should be given an AddedEntry. Catalogue Codes should provide for thepreparation of an Added Entry under the nameof the Chairman. Rule 411 of CCC on AlternativeName Entry provides for the preparation of anAdded Entry in such a case. This rule is com-prehensive. But why did the library, mentionedin sec 4, fail to give the Added Entry? Thismight have been due to various factors, such as:-

1 Lack of Liaison between the cataloguingand the reference staff about the possible linesof approach of readers; and

2 Mental inertia on the part of the cataloguerpreventing him from using the principle of exe-getics and comprehending the full implication ofRule 411.

The second factor would not have .prevented him,if an addition had been made to the commentarypart of the Rule 411 of CCC. The addition maybe like this. "In the case of a Commission orCommittee, the name of its Chairman should betreated as an alternative name of it for the pur-pose of Cross Reference Index Entry Heading".

54 Duty of Cataloguer

A library catalogue is a tool. A tool must beas near to perfection as possible. The work-man who cares little for the operational effi-ciency of his tool will not be efficient. Thelibrary catalogue must provide for all thepossible approaches of its users. If there issome lacuna somewhere in the cataloguingrules, it must be removed. For we cannotand should not ask our readers to have onlysuch approaches as are provided for by theCatalogue Code. Even if some readers may notdare to question the library staff about someomissions in the catalogue, we cannot preventthe authors from citing them by the name ofthe chairman of a Commission. Generally •.readers get their references about thesereports from various publications. And, hemay not know the exact name of the Commission,till he gets the chance to have a look at it.Therefore, to make our catalogue serviceable,We must keep in view the needs of such readers.Mter all, the catalogue is built to servereaders.

An lib sc

CATALOGUING REPORTS OF ADHOC COMMISSIONS

6 RENDERING

61 Provision in the Rules

Rule 237 of CCC prescribes that the HeadingSection of the Main Entry for such documentsshould be rendered as follows:-

INDIA, Taxation Enquiry (Commission) (1953)

Rule 81A of ALA is also similar. It states,"Enter reports and recommendations of officialcommissions and committees whether permanentor temporary under the name of the country orother jurisdiction, with the name of the commis-sion or committee as a sub-heading, directlyunder country or under the appointing depart-ment, legislative body, etc. (cf 74). Referfrom the name of the commission or committee"It provides that the name of the commissionshould appear as a sub-heading under the nameof the country. Therefore the above documentwill be rendered a s r -

INDIA, Taxation Enquiry Commission.

But these rules, perhaps, have been draftedon the presumption that the reports of acommission belong primarily to the categoryof government publication.

62 Need For New Rules

Rules 241 to 245 of CCC provid.e for the ren-dering of the institutional authors. But atpresent there is no provision for the renderingof the name of a Commission. This is due tothe fact of treating a Commission as a govern-ment. But a new rule should be provided for inthe light of discussion in section 61. Rule 2417should be added. This may be drafted a s r- "Inrendering the name of a commission/ committee,the name of the commission/committee as givenon the title page of the report, should be takenas the name of the commission/committee".

For exarnpl e r- The resolution N02474 -Secy(E)/57 dated 21st Aug 57 by the M/o Finance,Government of India, states "The Governmentof India have decided to set up a Commission ofEnquiry ••..•.. n. But on the title page of thereport, the Cornrni s ai on has assumed the nameas 'COMMISSION OF ENQUIRY ON EMOLU-MENTS AND CONDITIONS OF SERVICE OFCENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES'.Therefore for cataloguing purpose, the name ofa Commission as given on the title page of thereport, should be taken as its name.

V 7 N 7 Mar 7960

C641

63 Main Entry

The Main Entry for a report of a Commissionshould be rendered as foLlow s t ;

X72.2.N53t J5.1-J5.4

TAXATION ENQUIRY COMMISSION (India)(1953)

(John Mathai, Chairman)

Report

At present there is no provision in the rules toaccommodate the name of the Chairman of aCommission in the Heading Section. But ithas been established that the name of theChairman of a Commission is the importantSought Heading. Therefore there is need forthe provision of a rule, so that the name of theChairman of a Commission may be includedin the Heading Section of the Main Entry.

631 Individualising Element

The area of the jurisdiction of the Commis-sion and the year of its appointment of thecommis si on should be used as Indi vidualisingElements. The area of the jurisdiction of aCommission should be taken to be the area ofthe jurisdiction of the appointing authority.There is also a similar trend in USA in render-ing the Heading for the Main Entry of the reportof a commission. To ascertain the name of theChairman of a Commission, the cataloguer hasto look into the report and not to confine him-self to the title page alone. Invariably thename of the chairman is found in the r e solu-tion appointing the Commission.

64 Added Entries

To satisfy the other approaches of thereader, many Added Entries have to be provi-ded for.

641 Author Entry

The Classified Catalogue is a bipartite Cata-logue. The author entry is one of the mainAdded Entries. Therefore the Author Entry for

21

CMt

the document w ill be as follow s according to therule.

TAXATION ENQUIRY COMMISSION (India)(1953)

Report

X72. 2. N53t J5.1 - J5. 4

642 Class Index Entry

The principle of Chain Procedure has beenfound most suitable for deriving the class indexentry for both types of Catalogue-ClassifiedCatalogue and Dictionary Catalogue. Accord-ingly the Class Index Entry for the documentunder reference will be derived as follow s:-

X72. 2. N53t Taxation Enquiry Commission1953

X Economics (Sought Link)

X7 Public Finance (Sought Link)

X72 Taxation (Sought Link)

X72. (False Link)

X72.2 Taxation in Indi a (Sought Link)

X72.2. (False Link)

X72. 2. N (Fused Link)

X72.2.N5 Taxation in India brought upto1950 (False Link)

X72. 2. N53 Taxation in India brought upto1953 (Fused Link)

X72. 2. N53t Commission on Taxation inIndia appointed in 1953 (SoughtLink).

Therefore the Class Index Entries for theabove document will be rendered as follows:-

1 COMMISSION, 1953, INDIA, TAXATION.

For documents in this Class and its sub-divisions see the Classified Part of the catalogueunder the Class Number

X72. 2. N53t

22

GOIL

2 INDIA, TAXATION

For documents in this Class and its sub-divisions see the Classified Part of the Cata-logue Under the Class Number

X72.2

3 TAXATION.

For documents in this Class and its sub-divisions see the Classified Part of theCatalogue under the Class Number

X72

4 PUBLIC FINANCE.

For documents in this Class and its sub-divisions see the Classified Part of the Cata-logue under the Class Number

X7

5 ECONOMICS.

For documents in this Class and its sub-divisions see the Classified Part of the Cata-logue under the Class Number

X

But it may not be necessary to prepare allthe Class Index Entries as illustrated above.Because, it is possible that many interveningClass Index Entries might have already beenprepared.

643 Entry Under The NameOf The Chairman

As discussed earlier, an Added Entry underthe name of the Chairman of a Commission mustalso be prepared. In the absence of such anEntry the possibilities of occurring suchincidents narrated in 41 cannot be ruled out.There can be two ways to prepare suchentries:-

1 MATHAI COMMISSION seeTAXATION ENQUIRY COMMISSION(India) (1953),

2 MATHAI (John), (Chairman)Taxation Enquiry Commission (India)(1953)

X72.2.N53t

If the first is taken as a model, then thereader as well as the reference staff will have

An lib sc

CAT ALOGUING REPORTS OF ADHOC COMMISSIONS

to face one difficulty i e to consult under'Taxation Enquiry Commission' to locate thedocument. But if the second entry is taken asa model, it will provide reference thereitself to locate the document. Therefore fromservice point of view, it is more adv i sable toprepare the Entry like-wise. To accommodatethis addition, rules must be provided in therespective Catalogue Codes, particularly inCCC.

644 Entry Under The AppointingAuthority

Many a time the readers also approach suchdocuments under the name of the appointingauthority. That is, they ask the names ofvarious Commissions appointed to investigateon 'Taxation problem in India', by the Mmi st r yof Finance, Government of India. Though suchan approach is not a regular one, even thenthere must be a provision in the Cataloguelook after such approaches. Such a provisionwill comulate all the publications of the Ministryof Finance, for which the Ministry is concernedin whatever way. Provision may be made in therules of the Catalogue Codes for such an Entry.The Entry may be rendered as Iol Iow s r -

INDIA, FINANCE (Ministry of),Taxation Enquiry Commission, (1953)

X72. 2. N53t

C7

However, there may be doubt about thevalidity of such an Entry. Because under theClass Index Entries, all the Commissions willcome together. But due to the incoherent natureof the names of these Commissions, the readersdo not remember the names correctly. Evenif they remember, they are likely to get behindthe name of the Chairman.

7 CONCLUSION

The findings of this paper will affect allthe Codes, particularly CCC. It will have tobe amended as indicated in the various sectionsof the paper. Catalogues of many librariesmay have to be redone a s show n in 7. If we wantto satisfy the various approaches of the readers,there is no way out, but to accept these modifi-cations. Due to the multiple approaches of thereaders, even now all the libraries do notrender the Main Entry in a similar way. There-for e it will be most helpful if the Code itselfis rigorous enought to look after such cases.CCC is rigorous enough, but it requires to bemade more rigorous, so that the Cataloguermay not find execuses for lapses. Furtherthere is need to investigate more deeply aboutthe mode of citation of the report of a Commis-sion. Much will depend on how a particularschool of cataloguing interprets the rules.There is need to establish Conventions, so thatthe professionals getting training may bebetter equipped to interpret the rules correctly.

V 7 N 1 Mar 1960 23