The government said failure to follow due process has led to intervention by courts. (Representational)
The centre has asked all its departments to follow vital procedures while processing disciplinary cases against employees, failure of which has led to intervention by courts, according to a Personnel Ministry order.
The charged officers also tend to take advantage of these procedural flaws in processing of disciplinary cases at various stages of their examination e.g. sharing of documents, approval of article of charge by the disciplinary authority, sharing of UPSC advice and general examination of the charged officer, to quote a few, it said.
"It has been observed that the disciplinary authorities (DAs), while processing the disciplinary cases under the Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965, sometimes fail to appreciate the vital procedural requirements/timelines provided under the said rules, albeit unintentionally, which are required to be mandatorily followed to ensure justice and bringing the cases to logical conclusions," the order said.
Non-conformity to the requirements as per the established rules also leads to intervention by the courts on the ground of denial of proper opportunity to the charged officers for defending themselves appropriately and, consequently, setting aside of disciplinary proceedings, it said.
These procedural lapses have also been noticed in various cases referred to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) for advice, the order said.
The Personnel Ministry has come out with a flow chart for better understanding of rules in their application by the DAs.
"It is felt that this exercise will facilitate the Administrative Ministries/Departments to deal with the disciplinary cases effectively," it said in the order issued yesterday to all secretaries of central government ministries and departments.
It is, however, clarified that the detailed provisions under relevant rules and instructions issued thereunder may be duly followed in its application and, in case of any ambiguity or conflict of the indicative flow chart with any of the existing rules/instructions, the extant rules and instructions will prevail, the ministry said.
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