Government Servants (Special Provisions) Ordinance

Government Servants (Special Provisions) Ordinance an ordinance promulgated on 22 February 1979 (Ordinance No. XI of 1979) which made special provisions for maintaining hierarchic discipline among government servants. A government servant comes under the jurisdiction of the Ordinance if he/she (a) engages himself/herself in any activity which causes disaffection among the government servants or interferes with the discipline of government servants, or otherwise obstructs the performance of duties by any other government servant; (b) without leave of absence or any reasonable excuse, absents himself/herself or otherwise abstains from or fails to perform his duties, whether or not in concert with others; (c) incites or in any manner persuades any other government servant to be absent or to abstain from, or not to perform, his or her duties; (d) prevents any government servant from attending to or performing his/her duties. The penalty prescribed for any of these offences is dismissal from service or discharge from service or reduction in rank or pay.

The procedure in the Ordinance prescribed for inquiry and imposition of penalty is simpler than those prescribed under the Government servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1975. It involves three stages. First, when a government servant is to be proceeded against for any of the offences prescribed under the Ordinance, the appointing authority or any person authorised by it is required to frame a charge. Thereafter, in a notice accompanied by the charge the government servant is asked to show cause within a period of not less than two days and not more than five days from the date of issue of the notice, as to why he or she should not be punished under the Ordinance and also to state whether he or she desires to be heard in person.

Second, the appointing authority is required to consider the cause, if any, shown and give a hearing to him/her if the accused appears for the purpose. If the appointing authority then finds the accused guilty of the charge framed against him/her, or if no cause is shown within the period prescribed, a notice is issued requiring the accused to show cause within three days from the date of service of the notice, why the penalty proposed shall not be imposed.

Third, after considering the reply of the accused following the second show cause notice or if no cause is shown within the specified period, the appointing authority may impose upon the accused any of the penalties prescribed under the Ordinance. For the purpose of the Ordinance, a notice is deemed to have been served if it is served by delivery to the accused or by affixing it to a conspicuous place of his or her last known residence, or by publication in not less than two daily newspapers.

There is provision of appeal by the government servant on whom penalty has been imposed. The prayer for appeal is to be made within seven days of the receipt of the order imposing the penalty. The appeal is to be made to any authority immediately superior to the appointing authority. The appellate authority to which appeal has been made may pass such an order on the appeal as it considers appropriate. An order passed on an appeal is final. No proceeding or order under any of the provisions of the Ordinance shall be called in question in any court. [AMM Shawkat Ali]