Conduct rules

 Conduct Rules lay down clear principles as to what the

Government expects from its employees.
 Conduct rules apply to both official AND personal life of the
government servant.
 If an official violates conduct rules, he may face
warning/disciplinary action/departmental proceedings. They are
very different from regular Criminal court proceedings. How?

Difference: Court vs Departmental Proceedings

Court proceedings / Departmental proceedings /

Criminal trial inquiry/Misconduct

Judge hears both sides Inquiry officer hears both sides.

 Inquiry officer doesn’t give

punishment. He merely sends
his findings to the disciplinary
authority (e.g. Secretary of the
Judge gives punishment. department)
 Then disciplinary authority
decides punishment against the
employee.

Double jeopardy doesn’t apply. e.g

1. court case is going on- yet

department can start its own
 Article 20: Protection proceedings/inquiry.
againstDouble 2. court acquits the accused
Jeopardy applies. employee- yet department can
 No person can be continue its proceedings/inquiry.
prosecuted-punished 3. Officer files bogus bill to get
for same offense twice. LTC/Travelling allowance.
Department finds him guilty-
orders him to repay from salary,
matter is considered
over. (Punishment #1). But Five

 Principles of natural
Justice apply in every
case.
 Every accused is given
the opportunity to
defend himself- even in
the cases of national
security (e.g. Kasab,
Afzal Guru)
We’ll see more about Art. 311 in
separate article later.
 Jurisdiction
is territorial in nature.
 e.g. Hunting bear/deer
is legal in certain states
of USA. Indian citizen
goes there, hunts wild
animals. Indian court
can’t punish, when he
comes back.
 same for smoking
marijuana in
Netherlands and
shooting pornography
in California.
years hence, department refuses
to give him promotion citing
earlier misconduct. (punishment
#2)
 Art.311: central-service/state-
service/all India service member
cannot be
dismissed/removed/reduced in
rank, except after an inquiry with
reasonable opportunity to defend
himself.
 BUT this doesn’t always apply.
 For example President can
remove an All India service
officer, in the interest of national
security -without holding any
inquiry, without giving
reasonable opportunity to defend
himself, cross-examine
witnesses etc.
 Department can still take action
for “conduct unbecoming of a
government employee”.
 e.g. Indian officer is sent abroad
for training and involves in those
type of activities.
  Doesn’t apply to minor cases.
 e.g. Boss himself witnesses that
Judge cannot hear the matter employee has come late in the
if he himself is a witness / office/did not wear uniform/ was
complainant in that crime. sleeping on job etc. He can cut
salary.

guilty employee gets

 Major penalty: dismiss, remove,

rank reduction, compulsory
retirement.
 Minor Penalty: censure,
 guilty person gets
withholding promotion/
jail/fine/both
increment, recovering loss.

by the way warning, displeasure,

suspension=doesn’t count as
punishment. We’ll see more about
types of penalties in later article.

 Police/Sarkaari
Vakil will have to prove
the case beyond all  Not necessary to prove the case
reasonable beyond all reasonable doubts.
doubts that accused  If inquiry officer finds there is
person indeed good chance that employee did
committed the crime. the mischief=> can declare him
 ‘Burden of Proof’ in guilty.
establishing a case lies  Decision is taken based on
on the prosecution. preponderance of probability.
 Benefit of doubt goes to
the accused.

 Doesn’t apply. Inquiry Officer

 Evidence Act applies
can even rely on evidences that
 Criminal Procedure
are not admissible in courts.
code applies
Examples in following points:

Hear-say evidence is not Hear-say evidence may be accepted

admissible e.g. Witness in a departmental inquiry provided it
claims “someone told me that has reasonable nexus and credibility.
Accused person had affair
with that dead woman.”
Sting operations may be
Inquiry officer may accept Sting
admissible subject to certain
operation as evidence without such
criteria, such as the court
caveats. He may even hold the
being satisfied about the
government servant guilty- even if
authenticity of the evidence
there is reasonable doubt e.g. video is
and the identity of the
not showing his clear face.
persons depicted.
Tape
recorded conversations are
admissible in court. But there
Tape-recorded evidence can be freely
has to be strong
admitted without such caveats.
corroborative evidences,
otherwise termed as weak
evidences.
Document cannot be
accepted as ‘evidence’ IF the Can be accepted, even if document
person who wrote the maker is not available for cross-
document, is not available for examination.
cross-examination.
Evidence of accomplice Evidence of accomplice may be
needs corroboration. accepted without corroboration.
Circumstantial evidences
enough for conviction- but Can be accepted without completing
must complete the chain of chain of events.
events.

Conduct rules: Examples

 Conduct rules differ from service to service. example All India
services have their own conduct rules, central services have
their own rules and state services have their own rules.
 Here goes the list of some conduct rules (not-exhaustive), that
should help you write the case studies related answer in a right
direction.

I’ve classified them in four types: conduct rules affecting your

 1. office life
2. public life
3. financial life
4. personal life

#1: Conduct Rules4 Office Life

Respecting the hierarchy

1. Should apply his best judgment- except when acting under the
direction of his superior officer. He shall obtain such direction in
writing. If impracticable to get written order on spot, then get the
written order as soon thereafter as possible.
2. Should not evade the responsibility by asking written instruction
of superior, where it is not necessary in the scheme of work
distribution. (see the first case study at bottom)
3. Must not bring outside influence upon any superior authority for
transfer, posting, promotion etc.
4. Ensure his subordinates show integrity and devotion to duty.
5. For office matters, he must not directly approach court/tribunals
for grievance redressal before exhausting remedies in the
departmental hierarchy. (i.e. Complaining to his boss=>his
boss=>his boss…..if none of them helps, then approach
court/tribunal.)

Work related

1. Must not engage a private person to perform his official duties.

(see case study at bottom)
2. Unauthorized absence from duty=misconduct. (see case study
at bottom)
3. Cannot do social / charitable service during office hours. (see
case study at bottom)
4. Must finish his assignments within time and quality limits.
5. Must not to adopt dilatory tactics or wilfully cause delays in
official work.
6. Needs to show respect, courtesy, cooperation to everyone.

Sexual harassment
Must not discriminate agains working woman. Must not indulge in
sexual harassment- including
1. physical contact and advances
2. a demand or request for sexual favours
3. sexually coloured remarks
4. showing pornography
5. any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of
sexual nature

Strike

1. Must not join any employee union/ labour union without

government permission.
2. Must not threaten to go on strike to meet his demand / demand
of any other Government servant
3. hunger strike, refusal to accept salary, non-cooperation with
superior officer and other ‘satyagraha’ type activities also
forbidden.

Generic

1. maintain absolute integrity

2. maintain devotion to duty
3. Avoid conduct unbecoming of a Government servant. It is not
possible to have an exhaustive list of actions which would be
unbecoming of a Government servant- but overall, any conduct
that goes against the general norms of morality, decency,
decorum and propriety = conduct unbecoming of a government
servant.

Misconduct in previous job

1. Action can be taken against a Government servant in respect of

misconduct committed by him in his previous employment- IF it
has rational connection with his present job that renders him
unfit and unsuitable.
2. e.g. Person working as accountant. but later court declared him
guilty of forgery in an old case related to his previous job.=>
present department can take action. (And double jeopardy
doesn’t apply).

#2: Conduct Rules4 Public Life

Public honor
  Without government permission, he must not accept any honor,
ceremony, meeting, rally held in his honor (or in honor of
another employee).
 Farewell party during retirement/transfer=permitted.
 Simple and inexpensive entertainments arranged by public
bodies or institutions=permitted.

Vindication of official acts

Suppose public/press has made some remarks against him for his
official conduct. He cannot file defamation suit against them or make
press statements, without government permission.
Freedom of Speech

 Shall not divulge information he got during his official capacity-to

a third party- except under good faith or when required by the
law / departmental rules.
 shall guard the official secrets. (Except where RTI applies.)
 Shall not make any public utterance that would embarrass
relations between
o union vs state
o state vs state
o India vs foreign country
o executive/judi./legislature
o Criticizing any policy of union / state government.
 Needs government permission before publishing book / writing
in newspaper / appearing on TV – radio EXCEPT literary, artistic
or scientific character.
 He shall not do above things even anonymously or
pseudonymously.

Politics

 must not take part in politics

 must not give election fund/ assistance to any political party
 Can vote. But must not tell his preference to other people.
 Must not display any election symbols on his person, vehicle or
home.
 Must not participate in rally, dharna-pradarshan, and
demonstration without government permission.
 #3: Conduct rules4 Financial Life
@Office

1. Must show diligence and probity in spending public money.

2. Cannot demand funds from anyone without government
permission- even for good / charitable cause. (see the case
study at bottom)

Sharemarket

1. Must not make speculative investment in share market.

Frequent purchase or sale of bonds/equity=counts as
speculation. Because speculative=risky=can make him indebted.
and indebted employee= more likely to accept bribes.
2. Must not buy shares/bonds from people he has official dealings
with. because this opens pandora’s box for bribe transfer. e.g
contractor sells his shares worth 1 lakh (at current market rate)
to engineer at a throwaway price of just Rs.10000.
3. An occasional investment in Mutual funds/ ULIP etc. permitted.
But has to notify government about such ‘movable’ assets.

Private trade

1. Must not take any Private trade or employment without

government permission.
2. Must not accept any fees from any public / private authority
without government permission. (e.g. can write scientific article
in magazine without government permission but IF magazine
editor gives him money for the article=> must get government’s
permission before taking that money).
3. Must not involve in management of any cooperative society,
bank, and company without government permission.
4. If he is an officer bearer in any Co-operative Societies,
Institutions, clubs, gym etc. –must maintain its finances with full
integrity.
5. Must not promote his family members’ insurance/commission
agency.

Loans related

1. Must not lend money to any person at interest rate.

 2. Must not borrow/lend money to any person he has official
dealings with. (same for his family members)
3. Can borrow/lend money to a friend/relative – but only small
amount, temporary period, interest free.
4. Must avoid Insolvency and habitual indebtedness.

Property related
Must furnish details about movable or immovable property
bought/sold by him or his family. (including purchase, sale, renting,
leasing, mortgage, gift.)

employee rank furnish asset details to

class 3, class 4 head of the office

class 2, class 1 head of the department.

 must not rent/lease his government quarter (house) to a third

party
 must avoid habitual indebtedness or insolvency
 Must not make any investment/renting/leasing that is likely to
embarrass or influence him in the discharge of his official duties.
(same for his family member)

#4: Conduct Rules4 Personal life

family=any person bound to him by blood / marriage, and wholly
dependent on him.
Marriage/family

1. Bigamy prohibited. Even if bigamy permitted under his religion’s

personal law- he needs to get government permission.
2. Must not give dowry, take dowry or demand dowry.
3. Must not neglect his parents, wife and children.
4. Must not employ child labor
5. Observe age limit in marriage. Must not marry off his underage
children, must not attend such ceremonies of other relatives.
6. Must not involve in adultery, moral turpitude etc. Moral turpitude
is not limited to sex and unnatural relationship. It implies
 depravity and wickedness of character – anything that could
shock the moral conscience of society in general.
7. protect environment, wild life and cultural heritage and other
fundamental duties;

Public life of family members

1. Shall not use his position or influence to get job for his family
member in a public/private office.
2. needs government permission before his son / daughter to gets
job in any private undertaking that has official dealings with
government
3. make all attempts to deter his family member from joining any
organization that is involved in subversive/ criminal activities.
4. must inform his departmental authority, if he is working
with/under a government servant who happens to be his relative.

Gifts

1. Must not accept gifts, free transport, boarding, lodging, lavish

hospitality or frequent hospitality etc. from anyone he has official
dealings with.
2. Must not allow his family member/ middlemen to accept ^such
gifts/hospitality either.
3. A casual/occasional meal, lift or other social hospitality = doesn’t
count as gift.
4. Can accept gifts during weddings, anniversaries or religious
functions. As long as they’re within reasonable limits and social
norms.
5. Must declare expensive gifts received by him / his family
member.

Arrest and detention

1. If arrested, he must inform the details to his superiors.

2. If spends more than 48 hours in police custody=automatically
deemded suspended.

and ofcourse Desi Liquor

1. Avoid consumption of intoxicating drinks and drugs- even in

areas where it is legally permitted.
2. Must not come to duty while under influence of liquor/drugs.
 3. Must not appear drunk in public places – even during off-duty
hours.

anyways, enough of conduct rules, let’s check some case studies:

Cases studies
Seeking written order where unnecessary

1. (Suppose) an SDM is allowed to clear NGO project grants worth

upto Rs.5 lakh on his own discretion. SDM Prem Chopra cleared
a file in good faith, but NGO had played some mischief. Yet,
Department held Prem guilty and transferred him to a non-focal
punishment post. New SDM DevAnand gets the charge. Another
NGO comes up with new project file. ‘Cautious’ DevAnand
forwards the application to DM Pran and seeks his ‘written’
instructions.

hint: Yes, Evading responsibility- seeking ‘written’ instructions of

superior, where it is unnecessary in the scheme of work distribution.
Same thing is happening post 2G, CWG and Coalgate. Officers dont
take decision on any project, keep forwardning files upward. Projects
are stalled, affects HDI, GDP, Foreign investment.
Disobeying written order

2. Honest employee GuruDutt is suspended by his corrupt Head of

Department Prem Chopra. Prem also sends written instruction to
Accounts officer DevAnand to stop Guru’s salary with immediate
effect and pay him subsistence allowance only. Guru is filing writ
petition and expects that court will give him favorable verdict
within a week. Dev decides to delay on Prem’s instruction and
sanctions full salary to GuruDutt.

hint: Yes, Suspended employee is not entitled to full salary- he gets

subsistence allowance only. Therefore Prem’s written order is valid,
irrespective of how corrupt Prem Chopra himself is. Dev must not
apply his ‘best judgment’ in such situation. Dev’s decision of giving full
salary to suspended employee= insubordination and causing loss to
public exchequer.
Hiring private citizen for public duty
 3. Collector DevAnand is overburdened with work related to land
records and RTIs. He has requested the revenue department to
give him an additional clerk but department refused citing
budgetary constraints. Vivek Mushraan is a fresh graduate
preparing for UPSC exam from his home. He offers to help part-
time, for just 1500 per month. Dev hires him and gives salary
from his own pocket.

hint: Dev must not engage a private citizen to perform official duties.
Because such private citizen is not bound by the conduct rules, he
can play mischief and bring disrepute to DevAnand’s office.
Unauthorized absence #1

4. Dev recently cleared UPSC exam and got allotted to Revenue

service. In his first posting itself, He is shocked by the level of
corruption in the department. His juniors and superiors are
stonewalling all of his attempt to provide honest administration.
Dev is frustrated, decides to re-appear in UPSC exam again to
become an IAS/IPS/IFS hoping he’ll have more freedom there.
He stops reporting on duty. Boss Prem Chopra is happy that
‘headache’ employee is gone- continues sanctioning
DevAnand’s full salary, takes no action on Dev’s unauthorized
absence from duty.

hint: Unauthorized absence from duty = misconduct. Both are guilty

of wasting public money.
Unauthorized absence #2

5. Young DCP DevAnand leads a team to another state, to arrest a

mafia don involved in ransom cases in his city. But for the fear of
information leakage, he doesn’t inform his superiors or the local
police. During the raid don escapes, there is gun-battle in a
public place causing lot of panic and fear among local public.
Commissioner Pran reprimands DevAnand in front of his staff for
this #epicfail, calling him idiot/incompetent etc. Dev feels
emotionally hurt and becomes Devdas, stops reporting on duty
and goes to USA to spend time with his cousin. Pran does not
take any action thinking “hotshots like DevAnand are not
suitable for police work but it is difficult to remove an All India
service officer because of the protections under article 311. so
it’s good he is gone by himself, I’ll just ignore him.”
hint: Unauthorized absence from duty = misconduct. Both are guilty
of wasting public money.
Satyagraha

6. Same case like earlier. DCP DevAnand failed to arrest the Don
despite all good faith. Commissioner Pran reprimands
DevAnand in front of his staff for this #Epicfail. Dev feels
emotionally hurt, goes on a hunger strike demanding apology
from the commissioner.

hint: using hunger strike to compel superior officer to do xyz

thing=misconduct. It doesn’t matter how ‘noble’ DevAnand’s act was.
Because Taking cue from him, other employees might also resort to
similar hunger strike/ satyagraha in futre.= breaks the office discipline.
Social service during duty hours

7. Honest police officer DevAnand is given ‘punishment’ posting in

a training academy. He has hardly any work to do, except taking
salute from cadets in morning parade and occasional signature
on files. So, every day he leaves the office after lunch recess, to
teach poor kids in the local slum area. His juniors don’t
complaint and superiors don’t care, and so Dev continues his
social service.

hint: cannot do social work during office hours. It doesn’t matter how
noble Dev’s act is. Because taking cue from him, even other lazy
employees may also run away after lunch, in pretext of doing social
service. Thus, in the long run, this will break entire work discipline in
the office.
Seeking charity for ‘good’ cause

8. RTO officer DevAnand has to sign hundreds of applications

related to driving license and vehicle registration everyday. Clerk
Prem Chopra keeps a box on his own table and tell every visitor:
“This box is for Uttarakhand disaster victims. If you donate any
amount- I’ll keep your file on top when I bring the bunch to Dev-
saab for signature, thus your file will be cleared quickly.” Dev
knows about this but chooses to ignore because Prem genuinely
sends entire donation to the disaster victims.
hint: cannot demand funds/charity like this- even for good cause.
Both guilty. It doesn’t matter how noble and honest Prem is. But
taking cue from him, other employee might also start doing same- for
personal use (e.g. need money for son’s cancer operation) and
DevAnand will have hard time preventing them-will cause resentment
among staff, will break team spirit.
Just because computer is not working

9. Collector DevAnand has installed a new e-governance project in

his district. All complaints are registered through computer, they
can track progress through SMS /email alerts etc. But recently,
Computer has stopped working in Tehsildar Prem Chopra’s
office. Department has not yet sanctioned funds to get it
repaired/replaced. A Poor villager comes with a petition how
local patwari is not giving him land record copy. Prem refuses to
accept complaint citing dysfunctional computer and orders the
villager to goto district office where the computer ‘must be
working’.

hint: Nothing prevents Prem Chopra from making a manual receipt of

complaint. This is dilatory tactic/work evasion. Public offices have
functioned even before the invention of computers and internet.
Conduct unbecoming of a government servant.
Misc. cases

10. PWD engineer DevAnand’s wife wants to setup a beauty

parlor. Local Contractor Prem Chopra says “I’ve an empty shop,
and I’ll rent it to you at market rates. Don’t worry, I’m renting in
good faith, won’t demand any favors from your husband later
on.”

hint: Dev should not allow her wife to make any

investment/renting/leasing that is likely to embarrass or influence him
in the discharge of his official duties. Irrespective of what Prem
Chopra promises.

11. Subinspector Prem Chopra keeps big posters of Gods-

Goddesses behind his desk. One day DCP DevAnand notices
this, callsup Prem in his office and orders him to remove those
posters. Within ten minutes, local MLA calls up Dev saying “you
 should reconsider your order, because it might hurt feelings of a
particular community.”

hint: Yes, Prem brought ‘outside’ influence/pressure on his superior

officer = misconduct.

12. Young steno Helen comes to office wearing t-shirt and

jeans. Boss DevAnand orders her to go back home and report in
Saree/Salwar only. Helen directly goes to high court and files
writ petition.

hint: Directly going to court for grievance redressal without

exhausting remedies in departmental hierarchy= misconduct. (i.e.
Helen should first complaint to Dev’s Boss about the office dress
code.)

13. After death of Government employee Prem Chopra. His

wife Shashikala and mistress Bindu both have applied for
pension rights. Over a dinner-gossip, Pension dept. officer
DevAnand narrates this episode to his college buddy Pran.

hint: Divulging information that he got in official capacity to a third

party-just for gossiping, in absence of Good faith/ court order=not
right.

14. DevAnand is the warden of police academy near A’bad.

Every Saturday he visit A’bad to buy rations from shopkeeper
Prem Chopra for the hostel. Dev also brings his kid for watching
cinema/zoo etc. Every time Prem Chopra gives some toy,
comics, ice-cream, cola to the kid.

hint: Dev should avoid this type of frequent hospitality from a person
he has official dealings with.