The central government has amended rules relating to retirement benefits of IAS, IPS (Indian Police Service) and IFoS (Indian Forest Service) pensioners empowering itself to act against them and withhold or withdraw their pension even without a reference from the state government if they are found guilty of grave misconduct or are convicted of a serious crime. In a July 6 notification on the All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Amendment Rules, 2023, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said a ‘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. Sources in the government pointed to an earlier rule 3(3) in the All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958, which 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”. The amended rules have added “or otherwise” after “.the State Government concerned”. A source in the DoPT said this means that the Centre may not have to wait for a reference from the state government to act against a pensioner found guilty of grave misconduct or convicted of a serious crime by a Court. A source in a state government said if the state government concerned does not send such references in such cases, the central government may initiate a process of action. The rationale behind this amendment was that sometimes state governments concerned do not send a reference for action against retired officials even after conviction by courts of law. On applicability of the Centre’s rules related to deputation of All India Services officials also, the Central and West Bengal governments were at loggerheads two years ago and prior to that. Considering the nature of All India Services, the Central government is often helpless in taking action against such officers without a reference from state governments. The amended rules reiterate that the decision of the Central Government on withholding or withdrawing the pension “shall be final”. A new rule states that no member of a service who has worked in any Intelligence or security-related organisation “shall, without prior clearance from the Head of such Organisation, make any publication after retirement of any material” relating to domain of the organisation, including any reference or information about any personnel and his designation, and expertise or knowledge gained by virtue of working in that organisation; and sensitive information. “This means that expressing and writing in the media and writing books which disclose sensitive information will result in action against officials concerned,” the source in DoPT said. A similar amendment was made in 2021 in the respective pension rules for Central Civil Services. Officers who served with intelligence or security-related organisations will have to give an undertaking to abide by new rules and any failure to observe such an undertaking on the part of a retired member of services “shall be treated as grave misconduct.” The undertaking states: "I shall not publish in any manner, while in service or after my retirement, any information or material or knowledge which is related to the domain of the organization and obtained by virtue of my working in the said Organization. This declaration is notwithstanding my responsibilities and liability, in terms of the relevant conduct rules, pension rules, laws dealing with offences relating to official secrets and Intelligence Organisations."
