Retired bureaucrats on Tuesday urged the central government to put on hold the recent amendments to the All India Services (Death cum Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958, that has removed the requirement of a reference from the state government for the Centre to withhold pension in partor full if a retired official is convicted of a serious crimeor is guilty of grave misconduct.

In an open statement, the retired bureaucrats — who formed the collective Constitutional Conduct some years back — noted that the original Rules of 1958 (as amended from time to time) had a provision in Rule 3 that “future good conduct shall be an implied condition of every grant of pension and its continuation” and that the pension could be withheld or withdrawn, in part or in full, if the pensioner is convicted of a serious crime or is held to be guilty of grave misconduct. However, such action could only be taken by the Union government on a reference from the state government (the cadre to which the officer belonged).

“But now, Rule 3 has been amended to provide that such punitive action can be taken by the Union government ‘either on a reference from the state government concerned or otherwise’”, the statement said. This, the retired bureaucrats point out, violates the principles of federalism and confers draconian powers of oversight and overrule on the Union government, which is not in conformity with the duality of control envisaged in the All India Services structure.

Also, according to them, “the original and amended provision of Rule 3 (except the newly introduced sub-rule 6 about divulging secret and security related information) violate multiple rulings of the Supreme Court and various high courts which have, over the last 65 years, constantly held that pension is an employee’s right and a kind of deferred payment for service already rendered”.

The 94 signatories to the statement include former national security adviser Shivshankar Menon; former home secretary G.K. Pillai; Rachel Chatterjee, former special chief secretary (agriculture) in the Andhra Pradesh government; Maneshwar Singh Chahal, former principal secretary (home), Punjab government; and Vibha Puri Das, former tribal affairs secretary.