DoPT cites rules, rejects Rathore choice for IIMC director general

He had proposed that Rout be appointed under central government deputation with an exemption to his mandatory three-year cooling off period.

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Rout, an IIS officer of 1984 batch, was earlier director general (information education & communication) in the Election Commission of India and was sent back to his parent cadre in October 2014.

After every period of deputation outside an officer’s parent cadre (in this case, Indian Information Service), the bureaucrat has to serve for three years in his or her cadre before being considered for another deputation outside it.

After refusing to waive off the cooling period for Rout, DoPT wrote on September 4 that recruitment rules for IIMC DG did not allow deputation but stipulated a “direct recruitment with tenure”, meaning that any government official angling for the post would need to resign from his service for appointment. He would then get a fixed tenure of three years, extendable by another two years.

For the IIMC chief’s selection, a committee comprising I&B secretary Sunil Arora and journalists Swapan Dasgupta and Rajat Sharma will take the final call. The government, not keen on continuing with current DG Sunit Tandon, placed an advertisement in July to replace him. Tandon’s tenure ends in November.