Early Compulsory Retirement for IAS/IPS/IFS Officers?
THE Government seems to be seriously considering the process of weeding out unwanted officers. At present as per Rule 16(3) of the All India Services (DCRB) Rules, an IAS/IPS/IFS officer can be compulsorily retired after completing thirty years of service or attains fifty years of age. There is a similar Rule 56(j) for other Central Civil Services. This was mainly used to weed out corrupt officers the easy way as the officers are sent out with full State honours like pension, gratuity and all other benefits and it is not really considered a punishment. But in the last twenty five years or so, perhaps as corruption has come to be accepted as a legitimate fringe benefit of Government service, these provisions were rarely used. Anyway, it is not fair for a corrupt officer to compulsorily retire another corrupt officer - each one owes it to the other in the tribe to protect the collective interest. This was implemented when the senior officers used to be fairly honest - not now, when the highest officers are well known to be corrupt.
Now, the Government proposes to amend the Rules for intensive review and it is proposed to have the power to compulsorily retire after 15 years of service instead of 30 as at present.
Rule 16(3), at present reads as:
The Central Government may, in consultation with the State Government concerned and after giving a member of the Service at least three months previous notice in writing, or three months' pay and allowances in lieu of such notice require that member to retire in public interest from service on the date on which such member completes thirty years of qualifying service or attains fifty years of age or on any date thereafter to be specified in the notice.
It is proposed to amend the rule as:
The Central Government may, in consultation with the State Government concerned and after giving a member of the Service at least three months previous notice in writing, or three months' pay and allowances in lieu of such notice require that member to retire in public interest from service on the date on which such member completes fifteen years of qualifying service or attains fifty years of age or on any date thereafter to be specified in the notice.
The prematurely retired officers will be eligible for pension benefits. The DOPT has written to the Chief Secretaries of all States for the comments of the State Government.