Follow procedures while seeking advice: Department of Personnel and Training tells ministries

NEW DELHI: All central government ministries have been asked to follow procedures like proper indexing of documents and prior approval of secretary concerned before seeking advice or clarification on official and legal matters from the Department of Personnel and Training ( DoPT).

It said that ministries or departments continue to refer the files to DoPT without following the procedure, "resulting in avoidable procedural delays, grievances and unwanted litigations".

"All the proposals should be referred to DoPT with the approval of the secretary of the administrative ministry or department. All the pages should be properly numbered, docketed, referenced or cross referenced," DoPT said in a directive.

A legible copy of orders, rules, instructions, circulars, official memorandum, etc. issued by the administrative department or DoPT and cited in the noting portion should be placed on file under reference. "Besides flagging the cited documents, page numbers should also be invariably indicated in the noting portions," it said.

The proposal for advice or clarifications should be referred to DoPT only on file, the order said.

DoPT has issued separate instructions for all ministries and asked them to follow procedures for seeking advice or clarification on court cases.

The referring note should invariably indicate brief history and facts of the case, relief sought by the petitioner or applicant, stand taken by the department before the court or Central Administrative Tribunal, operative part of the judgment or direction, action proposed to be taken by the department, present rule position and specific point on which advice or opinion of DoPT is sought, it said.