CHAPTER X—PROCEDURE RELATING TO THE MAINTENANCE OF RECORDS OF SERVICE

SECTION I— * * *

132-133. * * *

[For instructions issued by the Auditor General under Fundamental Rule 74, see Section 11 of Appendix ‘A’ at the end of this Part].

SECTION II—RULES MADE BY THE GOVERNOR UNDER FUNDAMENTAL RULE 74(a)(iv)

Gazetted servants

134. A record of the services of a gazetted government servant will be kept by the Accountant General and in such form as the Auditor General may prescribe.

SERVICE BOOKS

Non-gazetted servants

135. With the exceptions noted below, a service book (form no. 13 prescribed by the Auditor General) should be kept for every non-gazetted government servant holding a substantive post on a permanent establishment or officiating in a post or holding a temporary post in which every step in his official life should be recorded, each entry being attested, except as mentioned in the notes below this rule, by the head of his office or by his immediate superior if the government servant is himself the head of an office.

The following are the exceptions referred to:

(i) Inferior servants of all sorts.

(ii) Police servants of rank not higher than head constables.

(iii) Government servants officiating in posts or holding temporary posts, who are recruited for purely temporary or officiating vacancies for short periods and are not eligible for permanent appointment.

NOTE—(1) Entires made in the service books of clerks of a commissioner’s office will be attested by the head assistant of such office. Entries in the service book of the head assistant himself will be attested by the commissioner.

NOTE—(2) In the divisional offices at Jhansi and Naini Tal, the duty of attesting entires in the service books will be performed by the Office Superintendent in the case of clerks and by the Collector-in-charge or Deputy Commissioner-in-charge in the case of the Office Superintendent himself.

136. A service book is supplied at his own cost to every government servant on his first appointment. It is kept in the custody of the head of the office in which he is serving and transferred with him from office to office. The head of the office should see that all entries in the service book are duly made and attested. There should be no erasure or overwriting, all corrections being neatly made and properly attested.

NOTE—The head of the office may, on his own responsibility, entrust the custody of service books to the ministerial head of his office.

136-A. If a government servant retires on reaching the age of superannuation his service book may, if desired, be returned to him after his pension has been finally sanctioned. Where the service book is not given up, it should be retained for a period of five years after retirement, or until six months after the government servant’s death, whichever is earlier, after which it should be destroyed. In the event of a government servant’s service terminating by his death, his service book may be given to his relatives on application. Should no application be made within six months of the death of the government servant, the service books should be destroyed.

The service book of a government servant who retires, resigns or is discharged from the service without fault prior to his reaching the age of superannuation, should not be given up to him before the expiry of five years from the date of retirement, resignation or discharge. If he applies for it within six months after the expiry of this period, it may be given to him after an entry about his retirement, resignation or discharge has been made therein. Should no application be made within this time-limit, the service book may be destroyed. In the case of the government servant’s death, the service book should be destroyed after six months from the date of death or returned to his relatives if they apply for it within that period.

When a government servant’s service is terminated by dismissal or removal, his service book should be retained for a period of five years after the date of dismissal or removal or until six months after his death, whichever is earlier, after which it should be destroyed.

The service book of a government servant who has been dismissed or removed and who is afterwards reinstated should on requisition be returned to the head of the office in which he is re-employed. A similar course should be adopted when a government servant has been discharged without fault or has resigned and is subsequently re-employed.

137. It shall be the duty of every Head of Office to initiate action to show the Service Books to the Government servants under his administrative control every year and to obtain their signature therein in token of their having inspected the service books. A certificate to the effect that he has done so in respect of the preceding financial year should be submitted by him to his next superior officer by the end of every September. The Government servants shall inter alia ensure before affixing their signature that their service have been duly verified and certified as such. In the case of a Government servant on foreign service, his signature shall be obtained in his Service Book after the Audit Officer has made therein necessary entries connected with his foreign service.

NOTE—The pay bills of government servants for whom records of service as above are maintained being preserved only for six years, the following procedure should be observed before the bills are distroyed:

(1) The periods of temporary and officiating service should be verified by the heads of offices from the pay bills concerned and the fact of verification recorded under proper attestation in the service books.

(2) The service books in each year should be taken up for verification at a fixed time in the year, say in January, by the head of the office who after satisfying himself that this services of the government servant concerned are correctly recorded in his service book should record and sign a certificate in the memorandum of verification in form no. 15, which should be made part of the service book.

The head of the office in recording the annual certificate of verification should, in the case of any portion of service that cannot be verified from office records, distinctly state in the remarks column of the memorandum of verification that for the excepted periods (naming them) a statement in writing by the government servants as well as a record of the evidence of his contemporaries is attached to the book.

(3) When a non-gazetted government servant is transferred from one office to another, the head of the office under whom he was originally employed should in the service book under his signature the result of the verification of service, with reference to pay bills and acquittance rolls in respect of the whole period during which the government servant was employed under him, before forwarding the service book to the office where the services are transferred.

(4) In regard to temporary and officiating service, the head of the office should also invariably give necessary particulars with reference to Articles 370 and 371 of the Civil Service Regulations with a view to enable the audit office to decide later on by reference merely to such particulars whether the temporary or officiating service will qualify for pension or nos. For example, in the case of officiating service, the nature of the vacancy in which the government servant officiated and in the case of temporary service, whether the temporary post was subsequently made permanent, should be stated.

(5) It is not intended that the procedure laid down in the above paragraph should be applied with retrospective effect or that the verification of the past temporary officiating service of all government servants should be undertaken all at once. So far as the past service prior to April 1, 1932, is concerned, the former procedure should continue that is, an ad hoc verification should be made when the pension claim arises or is about to arise, in such individual cases in which there is any doubt; and the verification of service subsequent to the above date should be made in accordance with the above procedure.

138. Personal certificates of character should not, unless the Government so direct in a particular case, be entered in column 15; but if a government servant is reduced to a lower substantive post, the cause of the reduction should be briefly stated thus, "Reduced for inefficiency," "Reduced owing to revision of establishment," etc.

139. Every period of suspension from employment and every other interruption in service should be noted, with full details of its duration, by an entry written across the page, and attested by the head of the office or other attesting officer. The head of the office should take efficient measures to see that these entries are made with regularity. The duty should not be left to the non-gazetted government servant concerned.

140. (a) If a government servant is transferred to foreign service, the head of the office or department should send his service book to the Accountant General who will return it after noting therein, under his signature, the orders sanctioning the transfer, the effect of the transfer in regard to leave admissible during foreign service, and any other particulars which the Accountant General may consider to be necessary in connexion with the transfer. On the government servant’s reversion to government service, his service book should again be sent to the Accountant General, who will then note therein, under his signature, all necessary particulars connected with the government servants’ foreign service including the fact of recovery of leave and pension contributions.

NOTE—No entries made in the service book of a government servant on foreign service under an employer who is not under the control of the Government can be attested by any government servant except the Accountant General.

(b) The above rule does not apply to foreign service under an employer who is under the control of the government in cases in which the pay is audited by the Accountant General.

SERVICE ROLLS

Inferior servants of all sorts

141. Service rolls in form no. 14 to be supplied at the expense of the Government should be maintained for all inferior servants (other than members of the Police force referred to in rule 142 below) holding substantive appointments on a permanent establishment, and for those officiating in a post or holding a temporary post except those ineligible for permanent appointment who are appointed in a purely temporary or officiating vacancy for a short period only. The rolls should be most carefully examined and under "Details of service" should be entered all the informations required by rule 142 below, full particulars in regard to every entry being given in the remarks column. These service rolls should invariably be submitted with the pension papers to the Accountant General.

NOTE—(1) Where service books existed for inferior servants on January 1, 1922, they will be kept on and the rules as to service books will apply to them. But service rolls must be introduced in these cases as soon as the existing service books have been filled up.

NOTE—(2) The procedure laid down in paragraphs (1) to (5) of the note below Subsidiary Rule 137 should be followed in respect of the service rolls maintained for inferior servants under the above rule except that the verification of service of these servants according to such procedure should have effect from April 1, 1937.

Police servants

142. In the case of police servants of rank not higher than head constables, whether holding a permanent or temporary post or officiating in a permanent post, except those who are appointed in a purely temporary or officiating vacancy for a short period and are ineligible for permanent appointement, there shall be kept up for each district by the superintendent of police a service roll in English in which shall be recorded the date of the enrolment of each man in the constabulary; his caste tribe, village, age, height, and marks of identification when enrolled; his rank, promotion, reduction or other punishment; his absence from duty on leave or without leave; the interruptions in his service; and every other incident in his service which may involve forfeiture of portions of his service or affect the amount of his pension. The roll shall be checked by the vernacular roll and order book and the punishment register, and every entry in it shall be signed by the superintendent of police to ensure its proper maintenance, as the necessary statement of service of every applicant for pension shall be prepared from this roll.

NOTE—The services of police servants of rank not higher than head constables as entered in the service rolls should be verified in accordance with the procedure laid down in paragraphs (1) to (5) of the note below Subsidiary Rule 137 except that the verification shall take place once in every five years instead of every year.