The government plans to ship out “non-performing” babus by forcing them to compulsorily retire from service. The secretaries of government departments will head committees to review the performance of staff working under them as part of a move to force compulsory retirement on those staffers who are found to shirk work.

Detailed instructions have been issued for reviewing the performance of officers which cite various Supreme Court observations for guiding the assessment of such cases.

The Chief Vigilance Officers (CVOs) in government departments, who act as a distant arm of the Central Vigilance Commission, will also be involved in case of a record reflecting adversely on the integrity of the gazetted officers. In case of non-gazetted officers, it is the CVO’s representative who will be involved.

The move is part of instructions from Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha that emphasise the need for rotation of officers working in sensitive and non-sensitive posts and call for a review of non-performing officers to ensure probity among government servants.

For every review, the entire service record should be considered, said an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to all central government secretaries.

DoPT said that the expression ‘service record’ will take in all relevant records and, hence, the review should not be confined to the consideration of the Annual Confidential Report (ACR) or Annual Performance Appraisal Report (APAR) dossier.

“It would be useful if the ministry or department puts together all the data available about the officers and prepares a comprehensive brief for consideration by the review committee. Even uncommunicated remarks in the ACRs or APARs may be taken into consideration,” the order said.

In case of those officers who have been promoted in the last five years, the previous entries in the ACRs may be taken into account if the promotion was on the basis of seniority- cum-fitness and not on the basis of merit, it said.

Under Fundamental Rule 56(J), the government has the “absolute right” to retire, if necessary in the public interest, any Group A and B employee who joined service before the age of 35 and has crossed the age of 50.

Also, a Group C government servant, who has crossed the age of 55, can be retired prematurely under the rules.