Telangana Sets Deadlines for Disciplinary Inquiries

Hyderabad: The state government has issued deadlines for completing disciplinary inquiries against employees accused of irregularities or corruption, in a bid to end prolonged delays in finalising such cases. This comes against the backdrop of several inquiries dragging on for years, resulting in employees either retiring or escaping punishment without accountability.

Chief Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao issued orders to this effect on Thursday. The orders stated that in simple cases, inquiries must be wrapped up within three months, either by departmental officers or the Commissioner of Inquiries. In complicated cases, the time frame has been fixed at five to six months.

Secretaries of various departments have been asked to review the progress of inquiries and submit reports to both the Chief Secretary and the Chief Minister, particularly on cases pending beyond the stipulated period.

The government warned that inquiring authorities would be liable for disciplinary action if they failed to complete the inquiry within the prescribed timeframe. In exceptional cases involving large numbers of witnesses or voluminous records, authorities must obtain prior permission from the disciplinary authority, providing detailed reasons for extending the inquiry period.

Emphasising the need to link disciplinary proceedings with service tenure, the government directed vigilance officers and disciplinary authorities to keep in mind the date of superannuation of the charged officer. Officials were cautioned that delays causing proceedings to be dropped at the time of retirement would not be tolerated, and those responsible for ignoring this aspect would be held accountable. To ensure speed, all disciplinary cases have been placed on priority, with an instruction that no file should be held up by officers for more than three days. Files circulated to ministers must also be cleared within a week.

The orders, which apply to Secretariat departments, heads of departments (HoDs) and district collectors, stressed that there should not be any undue gap between the occurrence of an irregularity and the framing of charges. Preliminary investigations must be completed swiftly and, wherever lapses are established, charges should be framed without delay.

It has been observed, the orders noted, that in many cases charges are either framed just before retirement or after the employee has already retired, allowing the accused officer to go unpunished.