Overstaying on foreign trips? Babus maybe shown the door

Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service officers may lose their job if they overstay on foreign assignments for more than a month without permission, as per the new rules being finalised by the government.

The move comes after it came to the notice that some bureaucrats were not reporting back to India after completion of their foreign postings. Few of them were also proceeding on unauthorised leave soon after completing their tenure abroad.

If an officer of the IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service remains absent after the sanctioned period of leave without authorisation, study leave or tenure of foreign assignment, there shall be a one month waiting period, as per the draft rules.

After that, the state government concerned under whose cadre the officer hails from, shall issue a showcause notice, thereby giving him an opportunity to explain his case. Thereafter, if the officer does not return to duty, the state government concerned shall initiate proceedings of deemed resignation and forward a proposal to the Centre for effecting it within next two months, it said.

In case the state government fails to comply with these instructions, the Centre shall initiate proceedings of the deemed resignation on its own, the draft rules formed by the department of personnel and training said.

As per existing rules, no officer of the three all India services shall be granted leave of any kind for a continuous period exceeding five years.

Also, an officer shall be deemed to have resigned from service if he is absent without authorisation for a period exceeding one year from the date of expiry of sanctioned leave or continues on foreign assignment beyond the period approved by the central government.

The DoPT has sent the new draft rules for comments to chief secretaries of state governments and union territories.