Daily order sheet or Roznama- Importance of

Daily order sheet or Roznama is very important document in the process of conduct of departmental inquiry.It is a running record of all the important events taken place during the course of conduct of inquiry.The court or tribunal may at times ask the disciplinary authorities to produce the same. In the absence of Daily order sheet it is difficult to ascertain whether the proper procedure was followed during the conduct of inquiry. If the daily order sheet is not maintained , in the absence of any other evidence the court may come to the conclusion that no reasonable opportunity was given to the charge employee and the order of penalty may be set aside.However whenever the dispute arises as to what happened during the inquiry, the statement of the inquiring authority is generally taken as correct as held by the supreme court in the case of Union Of India V/S T.R. Varma ,AIR 1957 Sc 882. The said judgement is available at serial number 35 in the list under the caption Disciplinary Proceedings- Important Judgments.

Disciplinary Proceedings- Presentations

I am invited for taking sessions on various aspects relating to Departmental Proceedings, in the various training programmes conducted by reputed training institutes like Yashvantrav Chavan Academy of Development Administration , Pune, National Institute of  Defense Financial Management, Pune, Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizer's training institute Mumbai etc. While taking the sessions I had made Power Point Presentations which were found to be very useful for the participants as well as myself. These presentations include not only the related topics but also the questions and answers to judge whether the participants have acquired the knowledge which will be helpful to them while dealing withe cases related to disciplinary proceedings.  

I thought that these presentations will be useful not only for Government employees but also to the   of regular and guest faculties which take the sessions on disciplinary proceedings in the training programmes  conducted for State Government employees and the Central Government employees. I have therefore uploaded a few  presentations on  this blog. They can be downloaded by clicking on     Presentations under the caption " Disciplinary Proceedings". The viewers may send me their feedback if any to me on my email address, shridhar1941@gmail.com.

Simultaneous Criminal & Disciplinary Proceedings - Practical Guidelines

The departmental authorities always face a problem as to whether they should initiate the departmental proceedings when criminal action is taken against employee. The finalization of the criminal proceedings take a long time and it is not desirable to continue the tainted employee unpunished.Therefore the following practical guidelines are mentioned below for the consideration and adoption by the departmental authorities.
1) Remember that departmental proceedings are different from criminal proceedings, though based on same transaction or incident. Departmental action is for violation of departmental rules.
2) The question of stay of departmental inquiry does not arise if the charges are different from those in the criminal case.
3) Issue the charge sheet for departmental proceedings without any delay.
4) Please see that a charge other than the criminal charge like, breach of specific conduct rule is also    included in the charge sheet in addition to a criminal conduct.
5) Oppose the application for stay of departmental proceedings, if filed by the employee in a court. Please site various  court judgments which have ruled that simultaneous proceedings can be initiated.
6) If the court grants stay , take the steps to get the stay vacated.
7) Remember that the departmental proceedings can be conducted with the help of certified copies of the documents filed in criminal court.

If the above guidelines are followed it will be possible to ensure that immediate action is taken against the erring employees .

Acquittal in disproportionate assets case- No immunity from departmental disciplinary action

The Supreme Court in case of disproportionate  Assets case ( Govt. Of India V/S C. Murlidhar, 1997 Lab IC(SC) 284) has held that the acquittal of the employee in criminal case does not mean that no departmental proceedings can be started against him in respect of the transactions done without intimation or permission of the authorities concerned. It means despite of the acquittal of the employee in case of having disproportionate assets case, the departmental proceedings can be initiated for violation of conduct Rules.   

Steps for conducting inquiry in case of allegation of Sexual Harassment

There are number of instances where there are allegations of sexual harassment against the Government Servants. In most of the offices Complaints committees have been formed but the experience has been that the Chairmen and  Members of the complaints committee are not conversant with the procedure of conduct of inquiry with the result the orders imposing penalty against the delinquent employees are set aside by the appellate authorities or the Tribunals/Courts. Therefore the Department of Personnel and Training have circulated " Steps for conducting inquiry in case of allegation of Sexual Harassment" under their O.M. dated 16th July 2015. The said O.M. is made available on this blog at Serial No.10 under the caption "Worth Visiting" in the right side bar.

The persons interested may get it downloaded, if required.

No work yet pay" applies only in case of compulsory waiting for joing duty

Elucidating the principle of ‘No work, no pay’, the bench of Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph, JJ held that the aforementioned principle is the rule and it’s exception is ‘no work, yet pay’. Citing the instance of such exception, the Court said that compulsory waiting period is one such exception and to qualify for the exception, an employee has to establish that he had made earnest endeavors and yet that he was not able to join duty for no fault on his part. Furthermore, he must also show his earnestness to join duty.Voluntary waiting is not covered under exception.

WHAT IS MISCONDUCT ?

There are conduct Rules for State Government Employees and also for Central Government Employees. These Rules provide as to what sort of Conduct is expected from the employees. The employees who do not observe these rules are liable for disciplinary action. However what is misconduct is no where mentioned or explained.

The disciplinary authorites are required to mention in the charge sheet as well as in the statement of allegations the misconduct of the charged emplyee. It is therefore necessary for the disciplinary authorites and all concerned to know the concept and clear cut meaning of " Misconduct. The Supreme court and the High Courts while delivering the judgements relating to disciplinary proceedings have defined the "Misconduct"  and has also explained  various facets relating to Misconduct. The important judgements in the following 8 cases are uploaded on this blog and they are available at S.No 27 to 34 in the list under cation, " Disciplinary Proceedings - Judgements- Important Judgements.

It is recommended that all cocerned may get these judgements downloaded and study them carefully so that the concept of Misconduct is clear to them. 

1) Baldev Singh Gandhi  v/s State of Punjab
2) M.M.Malhotra v/s Union of India
3) J.J. Mody v/s State of Bombay
4) Union Of India v/s J. Ahmed
5) A.L.Kalra v/s P.&E. Corporation
6) State of Punjab v/s Ram Singh
7) Union of India  v/s K.K. Dhavan
8) B.C. Chaturvedi v/s Union of India