GOI now issued Office Memorandum dated 03/07/2015 on: Suspension Order should not extend beyond three months - Supreme Court

Kindly refer to my earlier posting of May 2015 on the same subject regarding a direction of the Supreme Court to the Government to issue instructions regarding timely completion of the disciplinary proceedings including suspension. Now the Government of India, Department of Personnel & Training issued the order vide OFFICE MEMORANDUM F. No. 11012/17/2013-Estt.(A) Dated July 3rd , 2015 as follows:-

“Subject: Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965 — instructions regarding timely issue of Charge-sheet - regarding.

........ in a recent case, AjayKumar Choudhary vs Union of India Civil Appeal No. 1912 of 2015 dated 16/02/2015 the Apex Court has directed as follows: We, therefore, direct that the currency of Suspension Order should not extend beyond three months if within this period the Memorandum of Charges/ Chargesheet is not served on the delinquent officer/ employee;

2. It is noted that in many cases charge sheets are not issued despite clear prima facie evidence of misconduct on the ground that the matter is under investigation by an investigating agency like Central Bureau of Investigation etc. In the aforesaid judgement the Hon'ble Supreme Court has superseded the direction of the Central Vigilance Commission that pending a criminal investigation departmental proceedings are to be held in abeyance.

3. In this connection, attention is invited to this Department O.M. No. 35014/1 /81-Estt A dated 9.11.1982 which contained the guidelines for timely issue of charge-sheet to Charged officer and to say that these instructions lay down, inter-alia, that where a Government servant is placed under suspension on the ground of "Contemplated"disciplinary proceedings, the existing instructions provide that every effort would be made to finalise the charges, against the Government servant within three months of the date of suspension. If these instructions are strictly adhered to, a Government servant who is placed under suspension on the ground of contemplated disciplinary proceedings will become aware of the reasons for his suspension without much loss of time. The reasons for suspension should be communicated to the Government servant concerned at the earliest, so that he may be in a position to effectively exercise the right of appeal available to him under Rule 23 (i) of the CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965, if he so desires. The time-limit of forty five days for submission of appeal should be counted from the date on which the reasons for suspension arc communicated.”