In News:

• Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Shah Faesal, who resigned from the service in 2019, has recently been reinstated.
  
  
• Shah Faesal’s resignation, in January 2019, had not been accepted by the Central government pending investigation into some of his posts on social media.
  
  

What’s in today’s article:

• Rules for IAS Officer’s Resignation (Resignation v/s VRS, Concerned authority, Accept/Reject the resignation, Withdrawal of resignation, etc.)
  
  
• News Summary
  
  

What rules apply when an IAS officer chooses to resign?

• A resignation is a formal intimation in writing by an officer of his/her intention or a proposal to leave the IAS, either immediately or at a specified date in the future.
  
  
• Guidelines of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) say that a resignation has to be clear and unconditional.
  • DoPT is the cadre controlling department for the IAS.
    
    
  
  
  
• The resignation of an officer of any of the three All-India Services — IAS, the Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service — is governed by the All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958.
  
  

Difference between Resignation & VRS:

• Resignation from service is entirely different from accepting the government’s Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS).
  
  
• Those who take VRS are entitled to pension and other benefits, whereas those who resign are not.
  
  
• Rule 5 of the DCRB Rules says, “No retirement benefits may be granted to a person who has been dismissed or removed from the Service or who has resigned from the Service.”
  
  

To whom must the resignation of an IAS officer be submitted?

• An officer serving in a cadre (state) must submit his/her resignation to the chief secretary of the state.
  
  
• An officer who is on central deputation is required to submit his/her resignation to the secretary of the concerned Ministry or Department.
  
  
• The Ministry/Department then forwards the officer’s resignation to the concerned state cadre, along with its comments or recommendations.
  
  

What happens after the resignation is submitted?

• The state checks to see if any dues are outstanding against the officer, as well as the vigilance status of the officer or whether any cases of corruption etc. are pending against him/her.
  • In case there is such a case, the resignation is normally rejected.
    
    
  
  
  
• Before forwarding the resignation to the central government, the concerned state is supposed to send information on the issues of dues and vigilance status, along with its recommendation.
  
  
• The resignation of the officer is considered by the competent authority, i.e., the central government, only after the recommendation of the concerned cadre has been received.
  
  
• The competent authorities are:
  • For IAS - Minister of State at the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT),
    
    
  • For IPS - Minister for Home Affairs, and
    
    
  • For IFoS - the Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change in respect of the Forest Service.
    
    
  
  
  

On what grounds a resignation is accepted or rejected?

• The general rule is that the resignation of an officer should be accepted — except in certain circumstances.
  
  
• In some cases, resignations have been rejected because disciplinary cases were pending against officers. In such cases, concurrence of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) is obtained.
  
  
• The government also checks whether the concerned officer had executed any bond to serve the government for a specified number of years on account of having received specialised training, a fellowship, or scholarship for studies.
  
  

Can an Officer withdraw a resignation that has already been submitted?

• Rule 5(1A)(i) of the amended DCRB Rules says the central government may permit an officer to withdraw his/her resignation “in the public interest”.
  
  
• The guidelines say that if an officer who has submitted his/her resignation sends an intimation in writing withdrawing it before its acceptance by the competent authority, the resignation will be deemed to have been automatically withdrawn.
  
  

News Summary:

• IAS officer Shah Faesal, who hails from Jammu & Kashmir, resigned on January 9, 2019, but his resignation was not processed.
  
  
• However, he had applied for withdrawal of his resignation later on.
  
  
• The Home Ministry, which is the cadre controlling authority for the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre, had asked for an opinion of the Jammu and Kashmir administration about his plea for withdrawal of resignation.
  
  
• After getting reports from all quarters besides the DoPT, it was decided to accept his plea and was subsequently reinstated earlier this month.
  
  
• Since his resignation itself was not accepted, his request for the withdrawal of resignation was accepted.