Govt. fixes time schedule for inquiry into disciplinary cases against employees

The State Government has issued time schedule for expediting the process of disciplinary cases against employees at various levels fulfilling the long pending demand of employees’ unions.

Quoting various provisions laid down under the Telangana Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1991 (Telangana Adaption Orders, 2016) and the Andhra Pradesh Revised Pension Rules, 1980 (Telangana Adaption Orders, 2016), the Government said that whenever considered necessary, criminal action is also being initiated by filing charge sheets in a Court of Law. Time and again instructions were issued for expeditious completions of inquiries where departmental action is initiated in order to punish the guilty.

However, it has been noticed that considerable time is being consumed in processing the files relating to disciplinary cases at various levels. It has been observed that this process is so delayed that the ‘Charged Officer’, in many cases, retired from service or the charges are framed at the verge of retirement thereby sometimes resulting in the government servant escaping from punishment.

“It is therefore felt necessary to ensure prompt action is taken in dealing with disciplinary cases at all levels of administration following due procedure to avoid delays,” Chief Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao said. There should not be undue delay between the actual occurrence of offence / irregularity and framing of charges.

Accordingly, it has been decided to fix timelines at various levels to expedite action into such cases.

Two weeks deadline

According to the new rules, two weeks deadline from the date of appointment of the inquiry authority has been fixed for hearing inspection of listed documents, submission of the list of defence documents and nomination of a defence assistant. Examination of the relevancy of the documents or witnesses, procuring additional documents and submission of certificates and confirming inspection of additional documents by accused officer or defence assistant should be completed in two weeks.

This would be followed by the issue of summons to witnesses, fixing date for regular hearings and arrangements for participation of witnesses in the regular hearing. “Regular hearings will be conducted on a day to day basis,” the order said.

Thereafter, there would be submission of written briefs by presenting officer and by accused officer/defence assistant to inquiring authority and submission of report by the inquiring authority with deadline of two weeks set for each. Examination of the report by disciplinary authority in consultation with the vigilance commission should be completed within a week allowing the charged official to submit a written representation or submission to the disciplinary authority within 15 days.

The disciplinary authority should pass final order in a disciplinary case in consultation with the vigilance commission, if necessary, at the earliest. The orders fulfil one of the major demands of the employees’ unions, which had been insisting that the government appoint a committee to speed up inquiry into the cases in a time bound manner so that they could be absorbed into duties at the earliest.