NEW DELHI, Jan 7:
Officers facing corruption charges will now be mandatorily given a copy of the advice tendered by Union Public Service Commission to disciplinary authorities, before a final decision is taken against them.
Earlier, the UPSC, which is consulted in corruption cases against officers of All India Services (IAS, IPS and IFS), Group A categories and other such personnel recruited by them, was directly giving its advice to disciplinary authorities.
As per the new rules, on receiving the inquiry report, the Disciplinary Authority (DA) may examine it and forward it to the UPSC with its observations.
On receiving the Commission’s report, the DA will examine it and forward it to the charged officer along with the inquiry report and his tentative reasons for disagreement with the inquiry report and/or the advice of the UPSC.
The charged officer would be required to submit, if he so desires, his written representation or submission to the DA within 15 days, irrespective of whether the inquiry report or advice of UPSC is in his favour or not, the rules said.
The Disciplinary Authority would consider the representation of the charged officer and take further action, they said.
“A copy of the advice of UPSC, in all cases where the Commission is consulted, may be provided to the charged officer,” the Ministry of Personnel said in a directive issued to all central government departments yesterday.
All cases, where final orders have not been issued, may be processed as per these (new) guidelines, it said.
As per the existing procedure, the inquiry officer would give his report to the disciplinary authority, which would send its copy along with tentative reasons for disagreement with findings of inquiry, if any, to the charged officer.
The charged officer would then give his representation to the DA, which would send inquiry report and representation of the charged officer to the UPSC for advice. The Commission would then give its advice against the delinquent officer to the DA, which would issue a final order against him.
However, as per the new rules, the DA would send enquiry report to the UPSC, based on which, the Commission would give its advice to the DA.
The disciplinary authority would then give copies of the inquiry report and UPSC’s advice to the officer. The officer would give a copy of his representation to the DA which would then issue a final order.
The new rules were formed after the Centre found that the manner of communication of the advice of the UPSC to the delinquent government servant had been subject matter of litigation in some cases in Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) and High Courts. (PTI)
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