Sword of Compulsory Retirement on IRS Officers' Heads - CBEC Issues Instructions
56(j) was a terrifying word during the emergency and some years after that for Government employees. As per Rule 56(j) of the Fundamental Rules, the appropriate authority shall, if it is of the opinion that it is in the public interest so to do have the absolute right to retire any Government servant by giving him notice of not less than three months in writing or three months pay and allowances in lieu of such notice.
Under this rule, several employees were sent home on compulsory retirement. This was a method for the Government to weed out unwanted elements in Government service.
The Supreme Court once observed,
Rule 56(j) is not intended for taking any penal action against the government servants. That rule merely embodies one of the facets of the pleasure doctrine embodied in Art. 310 of the Constitution. Various considerations may weigh with, the appropriate authority while exercising the power conferred under the rule. In some cases, the government may feel that a particular post may be more usefully held in public interest by an officer more competent than the one who is holding. It may be that the officer who is holding the post is not inefficient but the appropriate authority may prefer to have a more efficient officer. It may further be that in certain key posts public interest may require that a person of undoubted ability and integrity should be there. There is no denying the fact that in all organizations and more so in government organizations, there is good deal of dead wood. It is in public interest to chop off the same. Fundamental Rule 56(j) holds the balance between the rights of the individual government servant and the interests of the public. 'While a minimum service is guaranteed to the government servant, the government is given power to energise its machinery and make it more efficient by compulsorily retiring those who in its opinion should not be there in public interest .
Maybe because of the routine and boring regularity with which Commissioners are getting caught by CBI with huge amounts of money, CBEC has decided to invoke the old dreaded rule and has formed a screening committee with the Chairman and two Members of the Board for preparing a comprehensive brief on each officer, for being placed before the Review Committee and to assist the Review Committee in reviewing the cases for pre-mature retirement of the Customs and Central Excise officers in Group 'A' (IRS).
A few heads are sure to be chopped off.
The CBEC has also asked all the Chief Commissioners to form similar committees in the field to do the exercise of identifying the heads to be chopped off and taking steps towards the Guillotine.
Is this compulsory retirement an effective method? In the earlier experiments when Revenue officers were compulsorily retired, they all came back through Court orders and continued their activities with double vigour, because the Government in its anxiety to chop off the heads had not followed the Procedure completely and thoroughly.
Then who will recommend the heads to be chopped? Corruption and incompetence are co-operative ventures in the Department. The honest employees are alone, but the corrupt are united and powerful. If a Commissioner who was nabbed by the CBI is the Head of the Committee to recommend names for compulsory retirement, who will he recommend? - Certainly not his accomplices!