VIGILANCE MANUAL VOLUME III - AP Online

922 DECISION - 512
that the date of institution of the proceedings shall be the date on
which the statement of charges is issued. As an alternative, it is
provided that if the Government servant had been placed under
suspension from an earlier date, then such date shall be the date of
institution of the proceedings. If sub-rule 6(a) is read as a whole it
would be clear that if only the charge sheet is issued later but the
Government servant is kept under suspension earlier in contemplation
of disciplinary inquiry, the date of suspension could be taken as the
date of institution of the proceedings.
The Tribunal observed that however, suspension made in
respect of one proceeding cannot be treated as suspension in respect
of another disciplinary proceedings initiated subsequently. If a
Government servant is kept under suspension under Rule 10(1)(b)
of the CCA Rules because a case in respect of a criminal offence is
under investigation or trial that suspension cannot be treated as
suspension for the sake of departmental proceedings for a
misconduct, unless an order under sub-rule 5(b) of Rule 10 is passed.
In such a case once the investigation, inquiry or trial comes to an
end and the Government servant is absolved of the criminal charge
the suspension would have to come to an end unless it had been
revoked earlier. The Tribunal held that it is only if the Government
servant had been kept under suspension in contemplation of
disciplinary inquiry and the charge sheet is issued later, it would be
possible to take the date of suspension as the date of the institution
of the proceedings under sub-rule 6(a) of Rule 9 of the Pension Rules.
The Tribunal held that in the instant case, admittedly the
applicant was kept under suspension not in contemplation of
disciplinary or departmental inquiry against him but because a case
against him for criminal offence was under investigation by the CBI.
The suspension was effected under Rule 10(1)(b) of the CCA Rules.
It was, therefore, not open to the respondents to rely on the date of
that suspension to initiate disciplinary proceedings after retirement
of the applicant by taking recourse to sub-rule 6(a) of Rule 9.