Service Book - Simplification of procedure for verification of service — adherence to the revised format
18019/7/2013-Estt. (L)
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, PG and Pensions
(Department of Personnel & training)
Old JNU Campus, New Delhi
Dated the 23 October, 2013.
OFFICE MEMORANDUM
Subject:
Simplification of procedure for verification of service — adherence to the revised format - regarding. The
undersigned is directed to invite attention to the provisions of the
Supplementary Rules which relate to maintaining records of service of a
Government employee. The provisions of SR- 199 and 202 require that
"Every step in a Government servant's official life must be recorded in
his Service Book and each entry must be attested by the Head of his
Office...." (SR199) and that "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.....The Government
servants shall inter alia ensure...... that their services have been
duly verified and certified as such...." (SR 202).
2. Further,
the provisions of Rule 32 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 provide for
issuing a communication in Form-24 on completion of 18 years of service
regarding verification and determination of qualifying service. The Rule
59 thereof relates to the preparatory work to be done by the Head of
Office for sanctioning pensionary benefits to the retiring employee.
Attention is also invited to this Department's OM No.
17011/1199-Estt.(L) dated 11-03-2008, whereby the revised format of the
Service Book was circulated for being adopted. The said revised format
also includes Part V whereunder the record of verification of service is
to be maintained.
3. It has since been brought to the notice of
this Department that the aforesaid provisions of the Supplementary
Rules as also the provisions of the CCS(Pension) Rules, 1972 as referred
to above are not being followed. Consequently, the gaps in service
verification, get detected at a very late stage when the concerned
Government servant is due to retire on attaining the age of
superannuation.
4. In view of this and with the objective of
eliminating delays in processing of cases of retiring Government
Servants, the aforementioned rules and the instructions of this
Department are reiterated and it is stated that it may be ensured that
the following are strictly adhered to:
(i) The record of
verification of service may henceforth be maintained only in Part V of
the revised format of the Service Book as per the new format prescribed
by this Department's aforesaid OM of 11-03-2008
(ii) The
exercise for ensuring completion of the entries of service verification
in the Part V of the new format, in respect of employees who are
retiring within five years, may be undertaken immediately, by the
concerned administrative authorities and concluded within a defined time
frame, as may be worked out by such authority.
(iii) Any gap in
the verification of service may be intimated to the employee concerned,
and simultaneously appropriate action for ensuring verification of
missing spells may be taken by the Head of Office.
(iv) The
concerned Government servant may also be informed of deficiencies and
gaps as regards missing entries relating to verification of service and
the period thereof.
5. The Department of Pension and Pensioners'
Welfare have also suggested that the administrative authorities, to
preclude and to cut down on delays in payment of retiral benefits to
Government servants retiring of superannuation, may consider adoption of
the following mechanisms and processes, in consultation with their
PAOs:
(i) Annual service verification statements may be
considered to be issued along with pay slip for the month of April every
year.
(ii) At the time of transfer from one Ministry/
Department/Office to another, any gap in the service record including
for prior periods under the administrative control of the
Ministry/Department/Office will be indicated in the Last Pay
Certificate.
(iii) Creation & Maintenance of Service Records in e-format available in e-Office under e-governance.
6.
All Ministries/ Departments are accordingly requested to issue suitable
instructions to all Heads of Offices/Pay & Accounts Offices for
strict compliance of the above instructions so as to preclude any delays
in disbursement of retiral benefits of Government servants. It may be
reiterated and again stressed that the action as indicated in para 4 of
this OM may be taken immediately by prioritizing the up-dation of
service verification details in respect of such Government servants who
are due to retire on attaining the age of superannuation in the next
five (5) years, by working out a time bound schedule. In the second
phase, the verification of service of all remaining employees in the
prescribed format may be completed.
sd/-
(Mukul Ratra)
Director
Source: www.persmin.nic.in
[http://ccis.nic.in/WriteReadData/CircularPortal/D2/D02est/18019_7_2013-Estt.L-23102013.pdf]
