In what could come as a major relief for police personnel in the rank and file, the State government is contemplating dropping minor punishments meted out under the disciplinary rules.
According to sources, the police headquarters has called for the details of minor punishments handed to police personnel from the rank of police constable to Additional Superintendent of Police across the State.
Beneficial move
A formal announcement was expected from Chief Minister M.K. Stalin soon, the sources said, adding that a few hundreds of personnel in the force facing minor punishments stalling their career growth would be benefited by the move.
“Though punishments issued after an inquiry into serious delinquencies would remain, others ordered in trivial matters like coming late for roll call, not being present at the place of deployment when superior officer visited the spot and not answering the calls in wireless network etc., may be dropped at the discretion of the State government,” a senior police official told The Hindu on Saturday.
Punishments recommending ‘Deferred censure’, ‘Black mark’, ‘Censure’ and ‘Postponement of increment without cumulative effect up to three years’ were the details urgently called for from all cities/districts a couple of days ago, the sources said.
Such punishments were issued to members of the Tamil Nadu Police Subordinate Services.
Special units
“While those servicing in special units like the Special Branch CID and the Directorate of Vigilance & Anti-Corruption may not face such punishments, it happens almost on a daily basis at the police station level and other police establishments. A punishment given under 3A of the Tamil Nadu Police Subordinate Service (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1955, would go into service records and affect increment and promotion prospects of the employee,” another police official said.
Raising an appeal
Though minor punishments are set aside on merits when appealed to senior police officers, the process was often time-consuming, resulting in the mental agony of the affected person seeking a fair inquiry after his/her explanation on the charge, the sources said.
The Tamil Nadu police have a strength of about 1.25 lakh police personnel of which a majority belongs to the subordinate services.
