A.P. Health Minister calls for guidelines for timely resolution of disciplinary proceedings

Minister for Health, Medical Education and Family Welfare Y. Satya Kumar Yadav Wednesday (March 19) called for reforms in disciplinary proceedings and said guidelines should be formulated to ensure their timely conclusion. He was looking into a case of such proceedings against an officer that went on for 15 years.

According to an official release from the department, the case pertains to an Assistant Secretary in the Andhra Pradesh Vaidya Vidhan Parishad (APVVP), who, in 2009, was accused of having committed irregularities while working as a Section Officer earlier. The complainant was a Deputy Executive Engineer in the APVVP.

The charges were that the officer violated administrative and financial rules and procedures in sanctioning civic works, prepared excessive budget estimates and committed irregularities in preparing seniority lists of civil engineers of the APVVP.

In 2010, a regular Inquiry was launched into the allegations against the officer. Since then, five inquiry officers were changed owing to technical reasons.

In the meantime, the complainant approached the institution of Lokayukta of the composite Andhra Pradesh seeking an inquiry into the allegations against the officer. The Lokayukta held that the accused officer had no independent power to sanction any works and that the complaint was made out of grudge and directed that the matter be treated as closed.

But, the disciplinary proceedings continued for another eight years with the APVVP and Health Department not following the orders of the Lokayukta.

Subsequently, the fifth Inquiry Officer initially held that while the three charges against the officer had not been proved, a penalty must be imposed on him based on audit observations. The Inquiry Officer later changed the version and added that the corruption charge had been proved.

Seeing no end to the episode, the accused officer approached the High Court and filed a writ petition seeking quashing of the charges against him. Though the official retired in March 2021, he is receiving only a provisional pension because the disciplinary proceedings against him are still pending.

Taking into the account the Lokayukta’s directions and the protracted inquiry that caused agony to the officer, the Minister directed the officials concerned that the proceedings against the officer be closed.