All India Services (Performance Appraisal Report) Amendment Rules, 2017

MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS
(Department of Personnel and Training)

NOTIFICATION

New Delhi, the 15th June, 2017

G.S.R. 596(E).-ln exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (I) of section 3 of the All India Services Act, 1951 (61 of 1951 ). the Central Government. after consultation with the State Governments, hereby makes the following rules further to amend the All India Services (Performance Appraisal Report) Rules, 2007,-namely:-

l. (I) These rules may be called the All India Services (Performance Appraisal Report) Amendment Rules, 2017.

(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. In the All India Services (Performance Appraisal Report) Rules, 2007 (hereinafter referred to as the said rules), in rule 2, after clause (b), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:-

“(ba) “competent authority” means the authority as mentioned in sub-rules (7 A) and (78) of rule 9 to decide the representation of the officer reported upon against performance appraisal report disclosed to the member of Service.”.

3. In the said rules, after rule 4, the following rule shall be inserted, namely.-

“4A (I) The performance appraisal report shall be generated and written by the officer reported upon electronically in the form as specified in Schedule 2.

(2) The comments of the reporting. reviewing and accepting authority shall be recorded electronically in case he is a government servant.

(3) The political executives may record their comments manually and the performance appraisal report so recorded shall be uploaded electronically as per time frame specified in Schedule 2:

Provided that in certain cases, with the approval of the Government and for reasons to be recorded in writing. performance appraisal report may be generated and written manually by the officer reported upon and any of the reporting authorities. that is, reporting or reviewing or accepting authority as per the guidelines specified by the Central Government from time to time :

Provided further that prior approval of the Central Government in consultation with Department of Personnel and Training shall be taken in cases where permanent exemption from electronic filing of performance appraisal report is sought on the grounds of national security. etc. for a particular class of posts.”.

4. In the said rules, in rule 5,-

(i) for sub-rule (2). the following sub-rule shall be substituted, namely :-

“(2) Subject to the provisions of sub-rule ( 4 ). a performance appraisal report shall also be written when either the reporting or reviewing or accepting authority who is a government servant or the member of the Service reported upon relinquishes charge (other than retirement) of the post, and, in such a case, the report shall be written within the time frame as specified in Schedule 2 for completion of performance appraisal report in paragraph 9 of general guidelines for filling of the performance appraisal report form.” ;

(ii) for the first and second provisos to sub rule (3). the following provisos shall be substituted. namely :-

“Provided that only one report shall be written on a member of the Service for a particular period during the course of the financial year:

Provided further that if the member of Service occupies more than one post, the Government shall identify the post (substantive or additional charge) to report or review, well in advance of the relevant assessment year.” ;

(iii) after sub-rule (3 ). the following sub-rule shall be inserted, namely:-

“(3A) In general one person shall write the performance appraisal reports in the capacity of reporting, reviewing or accepting authority for a given period of time:

Provided that if more than one person supervises the performance of the member of Service for a given period or time. the Government shall identify the persons to report or review well in advance of the relevant assessment year.”:

(iv) sub-rule (7) shall be omitted.

5. In the said rules, in rule 6, sub-rule (4) shall be omitted.

6. In the said rules, in rule 7, sub-rule (2) shall be omitted.

7. In the said rules, after rule 7, the following rules shall be inserted, namely: –

“7A. Restriction on reporting authority, etc. in certain cases. – Notwithstanding anything contained in rules 5, 6 and 7, it shall not be competent for the reporting authority, reviewing authority or accepting authority to write a performance appraisal report where the authority reporting the performance appraisal report is a government servant, after one month of his retirement from service; and in other cases, after one month of the date on which he demits office.

Explanation: – For the purposes of this rule,-

(a) a Minister shall not be deemed to have demitted the office if he continues to be a Minister in the Council of Ministers with a different portfolio or in the Council of Ministers immediately reconstituted after the previous Council of Ministers of which he was a Minister with the same or a different portfolio provided the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister, as the case may be, continues in office.

(b) a Minister shall be deemed to have demitted the office where pursuant to fresh elections, a new Council of Ministers has been reconstituted, even if the Minister who was in the earlier Council of Ministers finds a place in the new Council of Ministers with the same or different portfolio.

7B. Treating performance appraisal report as non-est. – The performance appraisal report, not recorded in terms of the provisions of these rules and instructions issued thereunder. shall be treated as non-est:
Provided that all the performance appraisal reports filed manually without approval of the Government to do so shall be treated as non-est.”.

8. ln the said rules, in rule 9, –

(i) for sub-rule ( l ), the following sub-rule shall be substituted, namely:-

”( l) The full annual performance appraisal report, including the overall grade and assessment of integrity, shall be disclosed electronically to the officer reported upon, after finalisation by the accepting authority except in the cases where it is generated manually, to enable the officer reported upon to represent his case.”;

(ii) for sub-rule (4), the following sub-rule shall be substituted, namely: –

“(4) The accepting authority shall within fifteen days from the date of receipt of comments from the officer reported upon forward the same to the reviewing and the reporting authority and call for their views on the comments and the comments of reporting and reviewing authority are required to be sought even if they have retired or demitted or relinquished office, and in case the comments of reporting and reviewing authority are not received within fifteen days from the date of receipt, it shall be presumed that reporting and reviewing authority have no comments to offer.” ;

(iii) for sub-rule (7), the following sub-rules shall be substituted, namely: –

“(7) If the accepting authority is of a level below the Minister in the State or in the Central Government, then the competent authority to decide the representation shall be one level higher than the accepting authority and in such cases the accepting authority shall forward the comments of the officer reported upon along with the views of the reporting authority, reviewing authority and his own views to the competent authority within fifteen days of receipt of the views of the reviewing authority, and the comments of the accepting authority are required to be sought even ifhe has retired or demitted or relinquished office.

(7 A) The competent authority shall consider the comments of the officer reported upon, the views of the reporting authority, reviewing authority and accepting authority and after due consideration, the competent authority may accept them and modify the performance appraisal report with a speaking order and the final grading shall be communicated to the officer reported upon within fifteen days of receipt of the views of the accepting authority.

(7 B) If the accepting authority is the Minister in the State (including the Chief Minister) or the Minister in the Centre, then the competent authority to decide the representation will be the accepting authority himself and in such cases the accepting authority shall consider the comments of the officer reported upon, the views of the reporting authority and the reviewing authority and after due consideration may accept them and modify the performance appraisal report accordingly and the decision and final grading shall be communicated to the officer reported upon within fifteen days of receipt of the views of the reviewing authority, and the comments of the reporting and the reviewing authority are required to be sought even if he has retired or demitted or relinquished office.

(7C) If the competent authority has not seen the work for the reporting period, the representation shall be referred to the Referral Board.” :

(iv) in sub-rule (9). in clause (a), for the words “and the accepting authority”, the words “, the accepting authority and the competent authority” shall be substituted:

(v) after clause (b) of sub-rule (9). the following proviso shall inserted, namely: –

.. Provided that where the representation has been sent to the Referral Board when the competent authority has not seen the work of the officer reported upon, the Referral Board shall consider the representation of the officer reported upon in the light of the comments of the reporting authority, the reviewing authority and the accepting authority and confirm or modify the performance appraisal report. including the overall grade and the decision of the Referral Board shall be in respect of both factual observations and errors of facts and the decision of the Referral Board shall be final and the final grading shall be communicated to the officer reported upon within fifteen days of receipt of the decision of the Referral Board.”.

9. In the said rules. for rule 10, the following rule shall be substituted. namely:-

“10. Memorial against assessment. – Nothing in these rules shall be deemed to preclude an officer from making a memorial within the period of ninety days to the President on the performance appraisal report. as provided under rule 25 of the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969:

Provided that in cases where due to unavoidable circumstances it is not possible to make a memorial under these rules within the said period of ninety days. the competent authority may relax the timeline for submission of the memorial.”.

[F. No. 11059/01/2016-AIS-111]
RAJ ESH KUMAR YADAV, Under Secy. (Services)

Note: The principal rules were published in the Gazette of India. vide number G.S.R. I 97(E). dated the 14th March. 2007 and were subsequently amended as under:-
(i) G.S.R. 296 (E). dated 16th April, 2007,
(ii) G.S.R. 256 (E). dated 31st March, 2008,
(iii) Notification No. 11059/06/20 I 0-AIS(III). dated the 22nd December, 20 I 0.
(iv) Notification No. 11059/03/2012-AIS(III). dated the 19th February. 2013.