Premature Retirement rules for officers of All India Services enforced

GANGTOK, 23 Jan: The state government has announced what is also called the rule of premature retirement of officers of the All India Services as implemented in force in Sikkim as per Rule 16 (3) of the All India Services (Death cum Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958. This rule was amended by Parliament on 31 January, 2012.
For this purpose the government has instituted review committees of IAS, IFS and IPS officers in the state. As per this rule the centre in consultation with the state may require a member of the All India Service to retire from service in public interest; for this purpose a notice of 3 months is required to be given or three months pay and allowances in lieu of such notice.
The committees will review the entire service record of the officer regarding suitability or otherwise for further retention in the service. In fact, such a review is to be conducted regularly, first after the completion of 15 years of service, second after completion of 25 years of service or the officer attaining the age of 50 years. Further enhancing the prerogative of the state government in connection to the retention of IAS, IPS and IFS officers, in case such reviews have not been conducted the review may be conducted at any other time as the centre may deem fit.
Recently there had been a re-juggling in the ranks of the state civil services as well as in the number of IAS/IFS officials deputed to the state government and committees set up for the review of officers of the All India Services in Sikkim. Three committees have been constituted to carry out the periodic review of officers of the All India Services of IAS, IPS and IFS categories respectively.
These have been constituted in terms of the All India Services (Death cum Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958. For IAS category the committee is headed by the Chief Secretary and consists of an officer in the apex scale in the cadre concerned, an officer in the apex scale from outside the cadre and who has not declared such cadre as his home state, one officer in the grade of Principal Secretary in the cadre representing SC/ST community and the Secretary, Department of Personnel as member secretary.
Similarly for review of IPS officers the committee is headed by the Chief Secretary and consists of the DG, Police; a DG level police official from outside the cadre; a Principal Secretary ranked officer representing the SC/ST community and Secretary, Home Department as member secretary.
For the review of IFS officers the committee is again headed by the CS and consists of the PCCF; a PCCF level officer from outside the cadre, a principal secretary ranked officer representing the SC/ST community and the secretary, Forest Department as member secretary.
This rule has been so amended “on sound policy” and in “public interest” with the objective to weed out the deadwood and in order to maintain a high standard of efficiency and initiative in the state services.
A few months ago in October 2012 two vacancies had been created in the Sikkim cadre central services, one in the IAS category and another in the IFS category; these were created with the retirement of two state officials.
For such appointments officials of the Union Public Service Commission consult with state officials as happened in November, 2012. The meeting between the state and central officials decides in what rank the central officials will be posted and this again depends on seniority in the state service. Earlier in September the government had notified around 33 posts of Under Secretaries to be filled in the civil service and there was also an enhancement in the number of Secretary ranked posts from the civil services.