New Delhi: In a bid to weed out corrupt IAS, IPS and IFS officers from the system, the Narendra Modi government has proposed an amendment in rules for civil services to ensure that convicted officers remain suspended from service even if their appeal is pending in a higher court.
In a letter written last week, the government has proposed to introduce an amendment to the All India Service Rules, 1969, which governs the civil services.
“…no review shall be conducted till the passing of the final order in the court case, if any, if a member of service is deemed to have been placed under suspension under Rule 3 of AIS (D&A) Rules, 1969 on conviction by a court of law in criminal and corruption charges”, said the letter, a copy of which was seen by ThePrint.
The letter from the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which controls the IAS cadre, is addressed to the other cadre-controlling ministries — the Ministry of Home Affairs (Indian Police Service), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Indian Forest Service), along with the chief secretaries of all states and union territories.
The two ministries and the states have been given time until 15 May to respond to the amendment. In the absence of a reply, it will be assumed that they have no objection to the amendment, the letter said.
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Why this decision
Speaking to ThePrint, a DoPT official explained the government’s rationale behind bringing the proposal.
“While a convicted officer is deemed suspended under the current rules also, so far there was a loophole,” said the official.
“If the officer appeals to a higher court, and the court suspends the earlier verdict, the officer can be reinstated till the time their appeal is pending in the higher court… To plug this loophole, the government has proposed that till the time the officer is finally acquitted, they will continue to be placed under suspension,” said the official.
The move is meant to ensure that an officer convicted of a serious offence like corruption is not reinstated into the government even temporarily, the officer added.
A senior IAS official explained the procedure followed in case of conviction.
“When an officer is suspender under AIS (All India Services) Rules, the government holds constant reviews of the case through a committee of senior officials. This proposal basically states that no time would be wasted on such reviews till the time the officer is acquitted by a higher court,” said the IAS official, who did not wish be named.
Since it came back to power in 2019, the Modi government has sought to double down on its efforts to weed out corrupt officials from the government.
In 2019, the government compulsorily retired several senior officials of the Indian Revenue Service. While some labelled it as a tough measure against corrupt or under-performing officers, others saw it as arbitrary as the officers hadn’t yet been proven guilty in a court of law.
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