This was the first time the government took such strict action against so many officials.

Twelve officials of the Income Tax department made to take voluntary retirement today included senior official SK Srivastava. The 56-year-old was the Commissioner of Appeal in Gautam Budh Nagar near Delhi, who is accused of sexually harassing two women officers of the Revenue Service.

The 1989-batch officer accused the women of corruption, prostitution and evasion of taxes.

Government documents in possession of NDTV says he got a petition filed through a former Member of Parliament, Jai Narayan Nishad, that said the women officers had managed a huge income through corruption and prostitution.

He pressurized assessing officers to pass orders against them, adding alleged income of bribery and prostitution. He also pressurized senior officials to confirm the order.

"It is his standard tactics to coerce the senior and other departmental officers to fall in his line or else he starts defamatory campaign against such officers," the government dossier read.

The documents also say SK Srivastava has been prolonging the departmental inquiry against him for a decade by filing as many as 75 petitions in Central Administrative Tribunal, the High Court and Supreme Court.

He has also approached the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) to defer the cases of promotion of his batch mates and his juniors. As a result, promotion of three batches has been held up for the last two to three years.

"In as many as eight cases, High Court and CAT have passed strictures and warning and imposed fines for his scandalous allegations against the lady officers and other higher officers. In one case he has been ordered to undergo civil imprisonment of 15 days for his scandalous allegations against former Chairman and Members of CBDT. He has also filed contempt petitions against former Secretary Revenue," the document read.

Besides Mr Srivastava, today's list includes Ashok Agarwal, Joint Commissioner of I-T and former Deputy Director of Enforcement Directorate, who was being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation on corruption allegations and was suspended from 1999 to 2014.

This was the first time the government took such strict action against so many officials. In 2017, four officers - two IAS and two IPS - were named for compulsory retirement.