New Delhi: The Union government has empowered itself solely with the authority either to withhold or withdraw the retirement benefits of officers who served in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS) without having to rely on any reference from the state governments.
Until now, the Union government took such a call only on the references made by the state governments when a retired bureaucrat is found guilty of grave misconduct or convicted of a crime by a court.
Officers in the three all-India services are hired by the Union government through a centralised process but spend most of their career working for a state government based on their ‘cadre’ assignment.
Over the years, there have been allegations from several state governments which believe their erstwhile powers concerning All India Service (AIS) officers serving in their respective states are being usurped by the Union government.
The notification, first reported by the Indian Express, was issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), under the Union government, on July 6, announcing amendments to the All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958. As per these amended rules [PDF], ‘grave misconduct’ includes communication or disclosure of any document or information mentioned in the Official Secrets Act, and a ‘serious crime’ includes any crime involving an offence under the Official Secrets Act.
Earlier, rule 3 (3) of the 1958 law stated that the Central government may withhold or withdraw pension or any part of it “on a reference from the State Government concerned, if after retirement a pensioner is convicted”. This has now been amended by adding “or otherwise” after “…the State Government concerned”. The amended rules underline that the decision of the Central government on withholding or withdrawing the pension “shall be final”.
The reason for such a change, according to the Union government, is that state governments have not been sending any such references even after retired officers were convicted by courts.
In the case of those who served in any Intelligence or security-related organisation, the new rules say that “without prior clearance from the Head of such Organisation, making any publication after retirement” would be deemed unlawful. This could include “information relating to the domain of the organisation, including any reference about any personnel and his designation, expertise or knowledge gained by virtue of working in that organisation, and sensitive information.”
This is in continuation of changes introduced into the Central Services Pension Rules, 1972, made in 2021, which first sought to gag retired security officials from publishing anything without the Union government’s approval.