The Government has set a deadline of six months to complete probe in corruption cases involving its employees. The decision, by changing an over-50-year-old rule, has been taken to speed up the investigation in such cases, most of them pending for quite a long time.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has amended the Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965, and decided time-line for critical stages of investigation and enquiry proceedings. According to the amended rule the Inquiring Authority should conclude the inquiry and submit its report within a period of six months. Earlier, there was no time-frame to complete an enquiry.
“However, an extension for a period not exceeding six months at a time may be allowed for any good and sufficient reasons to be recorded in writing by the disciplinary authority,” says the new rule.
The new rules are applicable to all category of employees excluding those in all-India services — Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS) — and a few other categories of officers.
“The disciplinary authority will deliver to a Government servant, accused of irregularity and corruption, a copy of the articles of charge, the statement of the imputations of misconduct or misbehaviour and a list of documents and witnesses by which each article or charges is proposed to be sustained, “ the new rules of DoPT said.
The time-limit can, however, be extended for a period not exceeding fifteen days. But under no circumstances, the extension of time for filing written statement of defence shall exceed forty-five days from the date of receipt of articles of charge, the rules said. At present, there is no time-limit for submission of the employee’s statement of defence.
The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), in a directive, had last year expressed serious concern over delay in finalising corruption cases and asked all departments to complete these inquiries within a maximum period of six months to keep away “nothing will change” notion associated with governance.