Tuesday Titbits

Today, there is an interesting news report which i would like to share with you all

There is a news about that ‘Govt compulsorily retires a dozen tax officers under Rule 56 J of the fundamental rules’. Now what is this rule 56 J

The basic rule is ‘ Whenever the services of public servant are no longer useful to the general administration, the officer can be compulsorily retired  for the sake of public interest.’

In the past few weeks cabinet Secretariat and central Vigilance Commission had given verbal orders to vigilance heads in many departments to identify officers for compulsorily retirement under fundamental rule 56 (J) 0f Central Services (pension) Rules 1972. There are many sub rules and provisions under this rules, but crux of the matter is Govt can take such step, if required.

Yesterday 12 Senior Govt officers, were directed by Finance Ministry to retire under Rule 56 of the general Financial Rules. Among the officers were Chief commissioner, Principal Commissioner and Commissioner of Income Tax Dept. Some of these officers were found guilty of corruption, having illegal and disproportionate assets, non performance and sexual harassment.

As per Govt, this is the first step to send message that unacceptable behaviour will not be tolerated. There are more officials with dubious records who have been under observations and they will also face action.

This is the biggest sacking in one go, which was initiated by Govt and this drive focussed on senior officers. Three years back also , 3 senior tax officials were sacked under this rule. In 2014, months after he took over PM Modi had told ministries that they should go ahead with  culling/retirement of employees who are not performing their duties satisfactorily. After that instruction, number of departments led by Revenue have initiated action against officers.

Among the key tax officials who have shown the door, is an officer who had remained suspended from 199-2014, he faced serious allegations of corruption and extortion from businessman accused of helping godman Chandraswami. He  was found to have acquired ill gotten wealth to the tune  of 12 Cr (in 1994) and also faced a CBI inquiry.

A 1989 batch IRS officer has been retired prematurely as he faced alleged sexual harassment. Some of the tax officers forced to retire are accused of acquiring movable and immovable properties without obtaining prior approval. A joint Commissioner of income tax and former deputy director of ED; Commissioner Appeal (Noida)  have also been compulsorily retired.

One of the disgraced officer had illegal acquired assets worth Rs 3.17 Cr. He was arrested by CBI, after absconding from his headquarters to evade arrest. Another officer was arrested by CBI on allegations of passing favourable order of illegal gratifications.

One officer have also been retired compulsorily for incompetence. He allegedly proved to be ineffective as a supervisory officer and failed to ensure assignment of important cases having large tax implications to senior and experienced officers. One officer was found to be sending illegal cash through a courier (angadiya), which became known when courier was arrested and he spilled the beans. One of the officer was arrested by CBI in New Delhi in Apr 2018 for allegedly demanding Rs 50  Lakhs for giving a relief in a shell company matter  to a businessman.

All these compulsorily retired officers will be given pay and allowances for three months, but will not be entitled for pension benefits.

The list in the long run will be endless, and as per Govt they have just made the beginning. It looks like govt means business against corrupt officials and in near future we will be hearing more such type of news.

This move by the Govt must have affected the corrupt IAS/IRS officers who are still working in the various depts of govt, and they must be feeling shit scared, not knowing when their turn will also come.

In the end, what you say my friends.

Awaiting comments/feed backs/ views on this blog.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

11th June 2019