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चैत्र कृष्ण पक्ष, शुक्रवार, चर्तुथी

News

Govt incorporates many new provisions in Article dealing with compulsory retirement


Date:- 23 Oct 2020


To ensure efficiency and effectiveness of the Government servants, the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has incorporated several new provisions in Article 226(2) of the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Service Regulations, which deals with compulsory retirement of the officials on completion of 22 years of qualifying service or on attaining 48 years of age.
Under the new provisions, a detailed mechanism to be followed for compulsory retirement of the Government servants has been defined so that such cases can withstand the judicial scrutiny in case officials declared as ‘dead-wood’ knock at the doors of the court of law against the Government decision.
“In exercise of powers conferred under proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution of India, the Lieutenant Governor has directed for incorporation of new provisions in Article 226(2) of the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Service Regulations”, read the notification issued by the Government.
Article 226(2) empowers the Government to retire any Government servant other than one working on a post which is included in Schedule-II of these Rules, after he or she has completed 22 years of qualifying service or on attaining 48 years of age. However, this power can be exercised provided that the appropriate authority gives a notice to the Government servant at least 3 months before the date on which he is required to retire or three months of pay and allowance in lieu of such notice.
Earlier under Article 226(2) no explicit time-frame was fixed for review of the performance of the Government servants. Now, it has been mentioned that this exercise will be initiated for each Government servant for the first time after his/her completion of 22 years of service or attaining 48 years of age and any time subsequently as may be required.
As per the new Article 226(2), a register of the Government servants, who are due to attain the age of 48 years or to complete 22 years of service, has to be maintained by the Administrative Department and such a register will be scrutinized at the beginning of every year by officers to be nominated by the Administrative Department concerned.
A new clause “Subsequent Review” states that there is also no bar on the Government to review any such case again where it was decided earlier to retain the officer but the Administrative Department is of the opinion that it is expedient to undertake the review again on account of changed circumstances in public interest.
The Government servants will be recommended for compulsory retirement in case their integrity is doubtful; if found to be ineffective in work and the basic consideration in identifying such Government servants would be their fitness/competence to continue in the post held and their utility for the purpose for which they are employed.
“A Government servant retiring on superannuation within a period of one year from the date of consideration of his/her case may be retired under these regulations where there is a sudden and steep fall in the competence, efficiency or effectiveness”, read the new provision. Similarly, a Government servant whose service during the preceding five years or since his or her last promotion has deteriorated suddenly or substantially will be considered for compulsory retirement.
The new provision further read: “All relevant portions of the entire service record of a Government servant may be considered at the time of review. The review should not be confined to the consideration of the ACR/APAR dossier only as the personal file of the Government servant may contain valuable material. Similarly, his or her work and performance could also be assessed by looking into files dealt with by him or her or in any papers or reports prepared and submitted by him or her. Even un-communicated remarks in the ACRs/APARs may be taken into consideration as well as any other records which are material to the decision”.
The cases of the Government servants for consideration of compulsory retirement will be placed before the General Administration Department by the review committees and GAD will process the recommendations of the review committees for approval of the competent authority.
In case of officers holding grade of Under Secretary and above, the review committee will be headed by officer of the rank of Chief Secretary or Principal Secretary to be nominated by the Lieutenant Governor and comprised Principal Secretary to Lieutenant Governor, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister (in case of elected Government) and Administrative Secretaries of Home, GAD and Law Departments.
The review committee in case of non-gazetted officials will be headed by concerned Administrative Secretary and comprised Administrative Secretaries of Home, GAD and Law Departments. Moreover, there will be a representation committee for examination of representations and internal committee to ensure that service records of the Government servants being reviewed along with a summary, bringing out all relevant information, is placed before the review committee.
Moreover, there is a provision for representation against premature retirement, which states: “After issue of the orders of premature retirement, the concerned Government servant may put up representation for orders otherwise, within three weeks from the date of service of order and matter may be placed before the representation committee to be constituted for the purpose”.
The examination of the representation will be completed by the Administrative Department within eight weeks from the date of receipt of the representation and the Administrative Department will thereafter submit its report to the General Administration Department for its placement before the representation committee, which will forward its recommendations to the GAD for orders of the Lieutenant Governor in coordination.

Courtesy: Daily Excelsior: 22nd October 2020