Inter-Commissionerate Transfers - CAT's Order and implications

Pune, the 23rd May, 2011

Dear friends in service,

The seniority protection granted by the Board to the officers proceeding on Inter-Commissionerate Transfer on spouse/ compassionate/ physical handicapped grounds was under challenge in the Hon'ble Central Administrative Tribunal, Ernakulam Bench for quite a long time. 

Finally, the OA's challenging the seniority protection alongwith a batch of other related O.A's has been decided by the Hon'ble Tribunal, much against the decision of the Board.
Judgement of the Tribunal 

 

All along, this Association has been requesting the Board to re-consider the issue relating to grant of seniority protection to the ICT transferees, as the said transfers are granted on Compassionate grounds and protecting seniority would open a Pandora's box and unsettle the settled seniority in various zones across the country.  However, nothing positive has come out from the Board owing to a stalemate situation prevailing with regard to the disputed Executive Instructions issued from time to time.

Moreover, it is once again highlighted that had the Board observed the lacunae in the Recruitment Rules of Superintendent as regards the absence of "Senior Junior" clause, the seniority disputes in the Central Excise Delhi Commissionerates would never have cropped up and there would have been no reason for the Board to ban Inter-Commissionerate Transfers which was unconsciously done during 19th of February, 2004 inorder to please the then Administrators serving in the Central Excise, Delhi Commissionerates.

Vide this message, it is once again requested that those officers serving the Department in the various Group 'B' and 'C' cadres need to come together, identify the lop-sided decision of the Board in imposing ban on Inter-Commissionerate Transfers, which system has been successfully working for decades and has withstood the test of judicial scrutiny and to take up the issue relating to lifting of Ban on ICT through their respective Associations, thereby ensuring that the officers requiring to proceed on ICT from one zone to another are not stranded in alien places and subjected to the mercy of individuals trying to take undue benefit of such situations.

Hope this Associations long pending request for lifting of Ban on Inter-Commissionerate Transfers is giving due cognizance by the Board and it is also expected from the concerned Office Bearers of Inspector Association that at a time when the Recruitment Rules are getting framed in DG, HRD and views are being called for, the Note of "Senior-Junior" clause may be got incorporated in the Recruitment Rule of Superintendent, thereby bringing the said RR in consonance with the requirements of DOP&T and thus avoiding litigations on ICT.

Awaiting valuable feedback from interested members/readers, I remain,

Yours Sincerely,

Thomas Mony.
Secretary General

Renewal of Recognition - DDO certificates

Chennai, the 22nd May, 2011

To,

All the Unit Representatives/
AICE&STMOA.

Dear Comrades,

Sub:- Renewal of Recognition of the Association – Remittance of

subscription – submission of DDO Certificates – reg.

* * * *

You all are aware that the recognition for the Association was granted by the Ministry during March-2010 initially for a period of two Years. In order to renew the recognition it is our collective responsibility to ensure that the necessary documents including the DDO certificates are submitted to the Ministry in Advance apart from the audited statement of Accounts of the subscription received during the last two Years.

2. In this backdrop it is worth recalling the difficulties experienced by the leaders to meet the senior Officers in the Ministry/Board for getting the grievances addressed in absence of recognition, which should never be forgotten. Some of the issues that are pending unresolved and are haunting us even today are due to the fact they were not taken up at the appropriate time by a recognized body. If the Association is able to address letters to the Board/Ministry on the grievances and ensure that they are heard, it is due to the fact that today ours is a recognized Association. During the last one year this Association has made considerable progress to reactivate the defunct JCM machinery in many zones. Not only that the Association has already submitted a letter to the Addl. Secretary (Revenue), requesting him to convene the Departmental Council at the Board level to take up the outstanding issues (copy of letter is placed on the blog). A positive outcome is expected on the matter, which will be made known in the coming days. Further, the leaders of the Association also took part in the Departmental Anomaly Committee meeting of the Ministry of Finance, because they are entitled to do so as being part of a recognized Association. The advantages of a recognized Association are many and are well known.

3. However, despite the request of the Secretary General to the zonal/ unit representatives on various occasions, to remit their share of the subscription amount to the All India Association, barring a few none of the leaders has responded to the said request. Therefore it is once again requested that all the zonal /unit representatives may kindly remit their subscription to the All India Association immediately, without any further delay. An amount of Rs.24/- per member has to be remitted to the All India Account by way of a Demand Draft drawn in favour of the Association or remitted directly to the Association’s Account, the details of which are available in the Secretary General’s letter dated 18.06.2010, a copy of which is enclosed.

4. Further, all the Zonal/unit representatives are requested to kindly obtain and forward the Annexure –II i.e., DDO certificates in the prescribed format to the undersigned immediately to the address mentioned below. The certificate may be obtained for the Annual Year 2011-12. The zonal/unit representatives should strive to achieve 100% enrolment of Members in their respective zone and try to achieve the maximum number of DDO certificates possible at the earliest.

5. It is once again reiterated that the renewal of recognition by submitting the DDO certificates and audited statement of accounts it in time and any failure to do so will result in huge and catastrophic loss to the entire cadre which will then be difficult to overcome. The absence of recognition cannot be even imagined at this crucial juncture, as we are at the cusp of a transformation in the Department, during which time the entire Ministerial cadre is expected to undergo a sea change. Therefore, all the responsible leaders are requested to take necessary steps and ensure that the requisite number of DDO certificates, are submitted as soon as possible, latest by 31st July, 2011 and the subscriptions as mentioned above.

Yours faithfully,

Sd/-

(J. SUDARSHAN)

ORGANISING SECRETARY

Address for Correspondence:-



Pune, the 21st May, 2011

Dear Comrades,

The Association is in receipt of a letter from the ADG, DGHRD, CBEC, to submit our suggestions/comments on the framing of Recruitment Rules. A copy of the said letter is placed below for information. All the members/unit representatives may kindly forward their views to the undersigned on or before 31st of May,2011, so that the same could be consolidated and submitted to the ADG. It must be remembered that the framing of Recruitment Rules is one of the important issue that have not been addressed by the Ministry so far and it is time we all rise to the occasion and take full advantage of the opportunity.

Further a copy of the letter submitted to the Additional Secretary (Revenue), requesting to constitute/revive the Departmental Council is placed below for information.

 Awaiting your responses I remain.

Yours sincerely,

Thomas Mony

Pune, 20th April, 2011.

Dear Members,

Many of you might have by now come to know that the Central Excise Inspectors' Association alongwith the Superintendents' Association are going in for an agitational programme with separate charter of demands. In the previous message dated 20.03.2011 on the blog, the activities of the Joint Action Committee was brought to the notice of the Members. In this background a meeting of the Leaders of all Associations was convened by Com.Koushik Roy, Secretary General of the Inspectors Association at New Delhi on the 05th April,2011. The President and other representatives participated in the meeting with an open mind.

In the meeting the proposal of the agitational programme was discussed and a consensus could not be reached for various reasons. The main reason was that the notice for the agitational programme was to be issued separately by the individual Associations, which would have undermined the Joint Action Committee. Though the leaders requested the Inspectors' Association and the Superintendents' Association to come on board of the Joint Action Committee and then go for the agitational programme, it was not agreed upon. Therefore, the leaders of this Association decided to not participate in the agitational programme at this juncture, in the manner it was proposed to us.

At the outset, I would like to state that this Association still has an open mind to go in for an sustained agitational programme, with a specific charter of demand under the banner of the Joint Action Committee, which alone can show the true and full strength of the Officers and cadres of the Department. While extending our best wishes and moral support the respective Associations in all their endeavour including the proposed agitational programme, which commences from today, we sincerely hope that they would come under the common umbrella, in the near future.

with regards,

Thomas Mony,

Secretary General

UPDATES FROM DELHI VISIT

Date:- 11.04.2011

Dear Comrades,

The President, the Organising Secretary and Assistant Secretary General had visited New Delhi recently to participate in the Departmental Anomaly Committee Meeting which was scheduled on 05.04.2011. The updates on various issues and the ones that were taken up, pertaining to the cadre, during the said visit are placed below for information:-

Departmental Anomaly Committee meeting :-

As stated in the notice for the meeting only the points that were not taken up for discussion in the last meeting were taken up. The point relating to grant of Grade Pay of Rs.2800/- to Tax Assistants came up for discussion. The recommendations of the 5th CPC and implementation of the same in Railways and Accounts Department were brought to the notice of the Committee. The leader of the Staff Side too supported our arguments. However, the response from the Chairman was not encouraging as the standard reply came again i.e., that this is not an anomaly as per the definition of “Anomaly”. However, it has been stated from the beginning that he would support the demands on the merits of each case and it should be taken up outside the purview of the committee. In this case, he stated that this is a anomaly of the 5th CPC and it cannot be considered now as it should have been resolved before the 6th CPC itself. He further stated that as the 6th CPC has recommended the appropriate replacement scales this would not constitute as an anomaly of 6th CPC.

Further, the issue regarding the Grade Pay of AO and DOS came up in connection with another point which was taken for discussion. The president had made a forceful submission on the matter and also provided copy of the orders wherein higher Grade Pay of Rs.4800/- had been granted to Administrative Officers in the Ministry of Telecom and National Library, Kolkatta. The Chairman came close to accepting the demand, however, he said we shall look into it while recording the findings on each point.

At the end of the meeting it was informed that another meeting will be convened to record the specific findings on each of the agenda points, as to whether it would constitute an anomaly or otherwise, depending on which the next course of action will be decided.

The Chairman had further stated that the Departmental council will be constituted and the meeting will be convened as early as possible, and also indicated that it could well be anytime within the next three months. As of now, this is an important development/outcome to have emerged from this meeting.

Cadre Restructuring:-

The representatives had a very lenghty and fruitful meeting with the Hon'ble Member (P&V), and discussed various demands of the Association which need to be included in the ongoing cadre restructuring exercise. She appreciated the issues that were raised, and stated that the file is still in the Department of Expenditure. She assured that in case, the file comes back with some queries and if there is a possibility where any of our demands can be included the same will be considered positively. A letter on this issue has also been submitted.

After the above meeting we had met the Hon'ble Chairman late in the evening (around 9.00 pm) on the 04th April,2011, despite his busy schedule, as he was preparing to leave for Belgium on Official trip the next day. He stated that many of our demands have already been included in the proposal,  and the other demands which were raised before him will also be taken care of, if there is an opportunity to do so.  On 6th April, we also met the ADG (HRM) on the matter in which all these points were discussed at length. On the issue of the hierarchical structure and higher Grade pay for AO/DOS, he said that the issue can be taken up only after the minutes of the Departmental Anomaly Committee meeting is received. On the matter regarding relaxation of the qualifying service, it was stated that the issue would be considered positively, as the restructuring itself is being carried out to remove stagnation and every effort would be made to bring parity amongst all zones. He further stated that on receiving the approval of the Cadre Review Proposal from the Government, a meeting of the Associations would be convened to discuss the allocation of the posts among zones, after consultation with the Board on the matter.

Promotions to the Grade of Chief Accounts Officer:-

The matter relating to CAO promotions were followed up. Though the file and relevant documents for holding DPC for promotion to the post of CAO were sent to UPSC, it is now learnt that the same is likely to be returned to the Board’s Office for want of further documents/records. In the meanwhile the Association has decided to take up the matter with the Board for granting Ad-hoc promotions. The Association also had raised the issue of non-circulation of the Seniority list for the grade of Administrative Officers and has requested to expedite the matter.

Grant of pay fixation benefits on promotion from erstwhile OS to AO:-

This issue has been pursued vigorously by the Association. However, it has not attained finality due to the attitude of the Department of Expenditure. The Ministry of Law had been expressing helplessness due to the reason that the matter has been remaining sub-judice in one form or another. As on date, the matter has again been referred to the Ministry of Law from where a positive outcome is expected this time.

Supreme Court matters:-

The status of the seniority case in the Supreme Court, in the appeal against the Madras High Court order, was pursued. It is hoped that the case could come up for hearing any time.

Other matters:-

The issue relating to grant of relaxation for promotion to the Grade of Inspector/STA was also pursued. The issue was also discussed with the Chairman and the Member (P&V), who have assured to take a positive decision in the matter.

The process of allocation of Tax Assistants (DR) is also underway. On receipt of willingness from all the candidates the allocation would be finalized. It is learnt that the process would be completed in another 2-3 months time.

The opening up of ICT for all, is again under the consideration of the Board. Representations received in this regard are being examined. It is hoped that some positive outcome will emerge soon.

-AICESTMOA