DISCIPLINARY

PROCEEDINGS

III APPEALS , REVISION AND REVIEW

The remedies available to the Government Servants against wrongful imposition of penalties may be divided as Departmental Remedies and Legal Remedies. Departmental Remedies are Appeal, Revision and Review.
APPEAL AGAINST PENALTIES:

Under rule 19 of The Tamil Nadu Civil Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, every Government Servant or a person who has ceased to be in Government Service is entitled to prefer an appeal against the penalties imposed upon him/her. The appeal petition shall be submitted, within a period of two months from the date on which the order was communicated to him/ her, to the Government if the orders were passed by the Head of Department or to the Head of Department if the orders were passed by an authority subordinate to the Head of Department for review of the orders passed on any of the following grounds : (i) Orders not passed by the competent authority (ii) A reasonable opportunity not given to the Government Servant to defend himself /herself (iii) Excessive or unjust punishment imposed (iv) Discovery of new matter or evidence which was not within his/ her knowledge or could not been adduced by him/her before the order imposing the penalty was passed. (v) Evident error or omission such as failure to apply the Law of Limitation or an error of procedure apparent on the face of the record The Government may, in its discretion, condone any delay in submitting the petition for review within the period of two months from the date on which the order was communicated, if the reasonable cause is shown for the delay [ Rule 20 ]. The appeal shall be addressed to the authority to whom the appeal is preferred and submitted through the Head of Office and the authority from whose order the appeal is preferred. The appeal shall contain all material statements and arguments relied on by the appellant and shall be complete in itself ( Rule 26 ). In the case of an appeal against an order imposing any penalty, the appellate authority has to consider whether the facts on which the order was based have been established, whether the facts established afford sufficient ground for taking action and whether the penalty is excessive, adequate or inadequate and pass orders confirming,

enhancing, reducing or setting aside the penalty or remitting the case to the authority which imposed the penalty or to any other authority with such direction as it may deem fit in the circumstances of the case (Rule 23 ). If the appeal is withheld by an authority who is not lower than the authority from whose order it is preferred, the appellant shall be informed of the fact and the reasos for it [ Rule 27 ]. While dismissing an appeal, it may be stated that the appellate authority agrees with the punishing authority, if the punishing authority contains the reasons and the same material is considered by the Appellate authority as was considered by the punishing authority.
REVISION OF ORDERS BY APPELLATE/ HIGHER AUTHORITY:

The State Government or the Head of Department or the Appellate authority may, at any time, call for records of any enquiry and revise any order made and may confirm, modify or set aside the order / penalty imposed or remit the case to the authority which made the order or to any other authority directing such authority to conduct further enquiry as it may consider proper in the circumstances of the case [ Rule 36 (1) ]. The proceedings for the revision shall not be commenced before the expiry of the period of limitation for an appeal or before the disposal of appeal, if the appeal has already been preferred [ Rule 36 (2) ]. The application for revision shall be dealt with in the same manner as if it were an appeal [ Rule 36 (2) ].
REVIEW BY GOVERNMENT OF ANY ORDERS PASSED BY THEM ON THE BASIS OF NEW MATERIAL OR EVIDENCE AT ANY TIME:

The State Government may, at any time, review any order passed by them, when any new material or evidence which could not be produced or was not available at the time of passing the order under review, has come to their notice [ Rule 37 ].