Dereliction of duty

The real problem with our administrative system is not that we have not adequate rules and regulations to run the administration effectively; the real problem is non implementation of rules to make administration efficient and effective. A culture of defiance of rules has developed because of absence of accountability. No human being can be taken for granted that he or she is honest, sincere and law abiding. He is expected to be law abiding, but the impulse if violating the law is inherent in human beings. This is the reason why in the Service Rules, so much attention is given to the conduct of an employee in the course of discharging his official duty. The real purpose of administrative hierarchy is to keep a watch on the performance of subordinates, check deviation and aberration, warn a defaulter and also take punitive action against him in case there is convincing poof of dereliction of duty on his part.
In a matter of defiance of the instructions from the Government, the Administration Department has issued show cause notice to 50 Kashmir Administrative Service officers asking them why proper action should not be taken against them for not submitting their Annual Return of Assets within the stipulated time. The Sub-Section (2) of Section 9 of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Men and Public Servants Declaration of Assets and Other Provision Act, 1983 casts a duty upon every public servant to submit Annual Returns of the Assets held by him and his family members in the month of January every year and indicate the reasons for increase, if any, in the assets and sources. The real purpose behind this enactment was to curb corruption among the Government functionaries of higher rank. In the light of this Act, the General Administrative Department issued a notice on February 19, 2016, directing all officers of KAS rank to furnish the Annual Property Returns for the year 2015 to the General Administration Department by or before February 23, 2016. Though the bulk of KAS officers filed their property returns, at least 50 of them out of a total of 515 failed to do so. GAD has taken a serious note of defiance on these officers to implement the instructions given to them. It is on this count that the GAD has issued show cause notice to them asking them to reply within 21 days why action under rules should not be taken against them. Section 11 of J&K Public Men and Public Servants Declaration of Assets and Other Provisions Act states lays down that if any public servant without any reasonable cause fails to submit the return annually, he shall be guilty of committing criminal misconduct as specified under Prevention of Corruption Act.
Now in the case of these defaulters the rules are more than clear. There is the Act which is to be responded to by all gazette officers of KAS rank; a proper formal notice was issued by the GAD asking all officers to submit their returns within the stipulated time; fifty of them failed to submit their returns and the law is there that asks the Government to take action against them for their criminal misconduct which actually tantamount to defiance of the Government order. So far this is legally and administratively the case against the defaulters. We find that the administration has performed its duty precisely according to what the law demands. Issuing them show cause notice is perfect and they have no reason to accuse the Government for victimization. The law must take its normal course. This firm action will send a signal to entire administrative machinery that nobody will be spared by the law of the land if he or she commits dereliction of duty. We strongly endorse the step taken by the Government of dealing with officers who are blatantly defying the instructions of superiors. The punishment to be given to them should be within the ambit of the rules and there is no question of victimization. It is perhaps for the first time in the administrative history of the State that action has been taken against defaulting KAS officers. It is to be reminded that only last week suspension orders against one hundred doctors were issued for remaining absent from duty. That is the reason why we said in the beginning that the culture of defiance of orders from higher authority has become the order of the day with parts of our administrative machinery. Regrettably, some senior and important officers are among the defaulters about whom one would never think they would entertain the idea of defiance of the Government.

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