The Hindu : Front Page : New State norms on service rule violations

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Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010
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New State norms on service rule violations

C. Gouridasan Nair

Cases of officers getting accused of rule violations
Action to be taken with Chief Minister's approval

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Apparently in the light of various recent instances of all-India service officers getting accused of service rule violations, the State government has issued fresh norms for handling such cases, basically seeking prompt and detailed reporting and centralised handling of all such cases by the General Administration Department under the Chief Minister.

The Government Order (G.O. (P) No. 217/2010/GAD, dated June 10) says that it has been issued on account of the failure to deal properly with such service rule violation cases, absence of up-to-date information about the officers in question and lapses in reporting the complaints against officers to the department.

The government had faced serious embarrassment when the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) decided against its decision to suspend Inspector-General of Police Tomin J. Thachankary for his allegedly unauthorised foreign trip. Later, the Kerala High Court had referred the matter back to CAT, which left it to a larger Bench following differences between the two members of the Bench that handled the case.

The order says, “All service matters including action relating to misconduct under the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules shall be dealt with in the General Administration (Special A & C) Departments, irrespective of the Departments where the Officers are working. Whenever the Heads of Departments and other Officers receive complaints of misconduct of the All India Service Officers such complaints shall be sent to the General Administration (A & C) Departments for taking appropriate actions under the provisions of the All India Service Rules.”

Directive

The order also stipulates that “All complaints of misconduct of the officers of the All India Services should be forwarded to the General Administration (A & C) Departments within seven days from the date of receipt of the information specifying the involvement of the officers in the allegation along with the remarks of the forwarding authority. The General Administration (A & C) Departments would process the matter and submit the file to the Chief Secretary within seven days.”

The order, issued by Chief Secretary P. Prabhakaran, says that while processing the files, all the back files, if any, relating to the officer have to be located and linked with the main files to have a full knowledge of his/her antecedents. The Chief Secretary shall bring the matter to the notice of the Chief Minister and further action shall be taken with the approval of the Chief Minister.

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