. Generally what are the documents which are not made available by the Head of the Department?
8. Generally what are the documents which are not made available by the
Head of the Department?
Para 3.6 of the Vigilance Manual (1991 Ed) indicates the following as examples of
documents, access to which may reasonably be denied:
i) Reports of a departmental officer appointed to hold a preliminary enquiry or
the report of the preliminary investigation of SPE. These reports are intended
only for the disciplinary authority to satisfy himself whether departmental
action should be taken against the Government servant or not and are treated
as confidential documents. These reports are not presented before the Inquiry
Officer and no reference to them is made in the statement of allegations. If the
accused officer makes a request for the production/inspection of the report of
the Investigating Officer, S.P.E., the Inquiring Authority should, instead of
dealing with it himself, pass on the same to the Disciplinary Authority
concerned, who may claim privilege of the same in public interest, as
envisaged in proviso to sub-rule (13) of Rule 14 of CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965.
ii) File dealing with the disciplinary case against the Government servant - The
preliminary enquiry report and the further stages in the disciplinary action
against the Government are processed on this file. Such files are treated as
confidential and access to them should be denied.
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iii) Advice of the Central Vigilance Commission. - The advice tendered by the
Central Vigilance Commission is of a confidential nature meant to assist the
disciplinary authority and should not be shown to the Government servant.
iv) Character roll of the officer. - The CR of the official should not be shown to
him.
The above provision has to be perceived in the context of the Right to Information
Act and subsequent judicial pronouncements. As is well known, it is mandatory to
provide the advice of the CVC. Besides, the employees have acquired right to
peruse their Annual Performance Appraisal Reports