Supreme Court fixes 90-day limit for suspension of govt employees-Times of India-18.02.2015
NEW DELHI: Protracted period of suspension of delinquent government employee has become a norm and such practice must be curbed, the Supreme Court on Monday said while fixing a period of ninety 90 days for authorities to complete proceedings against such an employee.
The court said that an employee suffered ignominy and scorn of society due to prolonged period of suspension. "We, therefore, direct that the currency of a suspension order should not extend beyond three months ... if within this period the memorandum of charges/chargesheet is not served on the delinquent officeremployee," a bench headed by Justice Vikaramajit Sen said. It said suspension, specially preceding the formulation of charges, is essentially transitory or temporary in nature, and must be of short duration.
"If it is for an indeterminate period or if its renewal is not based on sound reasoning contemporaneously available on the record, this would render it punitive in nature," the bench said.
"Protracted periods of suspension, repeated renewal thereof, have regrettably become the norm and not the exception that they ought to be. The suspended person suffering the ignominy of insinuations, the scorn of society and the derision of his department, has to endure this excruciation even before he is formally charged with some misdemeanour or offence," the bench said The court passed the order on a petition filed by defence estate officer Ajay Kumar Choudhary who was kept suspended for a long time.
FinMin closes door on campus hiring for PSU banks-14th August 2014-Indian Express
Despite public sector banks facing a manpower crunch, the finance ministry has asked them not to recruit officers through campus placements.
“Recruitment of officers in public sector banks against permanent direct recruitment vacancies by resorting to campus recruitment/interview method may not be in accordance with the law…,” the department of financial services has said in a missive all public sector lenders, quoting the advice of the ministry of law and justice. The move follows a decision by the Bombay High Court, which was upheld by the Supreme Court, in a case against the Central Bank of India.
This will mean that public sector banks can hire officers only through examinations such as those conducted by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).
Over the last few years, many public sector lenders had taken a cue from private banks and had begun hiring some students from management schools, especially for divisions such as investment banking.
Students with specialisation in marketing and finance were preferred by many lenders and they in turn chose these banks for job security, even if the pay packages were not as high as those offered by private sector banks and private sector companies.
But the finance ministry directive has stressed, “Since the decision of the Bombay High Court has now been confirmed in the Supreme Court, the public sector banks are requested that it may be brought to the knowledge of the Board of Directors of the Bank for meticulous compliance.”
Faced with a situation where a significant number of staff were due to retire, most public sector banks have been actively recruiting to fill the vacancies and were keenly awaiting the Supreme Court judgment on the issue.
“Public sector banks had largely stopped visiting business schools for placements after the Bombay High Court verdict last year. The directive is just a re-iteration that the Supreme Court judgment affects all banks and not a single entity,” said a person familiar with the development.
‘Factor hardship when transferring women staff’
New Delhi: The finance ministry has directed that all public sector banks to keep in mind the hardships faced by women employees while finalising their transfers. “It has been brought to the notice of this department that female employees of public sector banks, married or unmarried, when placed/transferred… to distant locations face a genuine hardship, and develop a feeling of insecurity,” the department of financial services has said in a letter to all public sector banks last week.
My Comments on Campus Hiring is readable in following link
My Comment :
It has been decided last year by Supreme Court that recruitment from campus by banks is unconstitutional and illegal. Despite it, Chairman of SBI and other banks expressed their desire before Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi during Gyan sangam that public sector banks can improve if they are allowed to recruit talent boys and girls from IIT , IIM and other campuses.
I would like to mentioned that till the year 2013 these banks recruited many officers from campuses of their choice , selected sons and daughters of their colleagues and offered higher pay , higher scale and best posting .
Inspite of recruiting so called talented boys and girls from campuses in higher scale and promoting officers from their banks strictly as per so called merit ,these banks are sick and sitting on volume of NPA and stressed assets arbitrarily restructured by them to conceal bad assets on flimsy ground.
Inspite of having so many talented boys and girls recruited by them , Chairman of public sector banks could not stop assets going from performing to non performing assets. SBI also recruited several officers strictly as per their whims and fancies. They all framed policy of recruitment in arbitrary and opaque manner and applied all manipulating tools including interview to recruit and promote officers as per their choice. But unfortunately during ten years of such recruitment , health of PSBs have deteriorated because they were dishonest in their actions and used corrupt practices in entire such course of action.
Now it is totally immoral, wrong, and incorrect on the art of bank top officials to demand restoring powers to recruit officers from campus. Court restrained such campus recruitment only last year and Chiefs of PS banks have started blaming court for poor health of bank. They want to wash their dirty hands which damaged banks during last ten years by blaming quality of manpower.
Is it not ridiculous and unjustified?
Had they been honest and really interested in performance , they have numerous experienced officers who have stopped appearing in promotion process only because they know very well that they will not be selected for promotion to higher scale as because they do not have backing of any Godfather and neither they are flatterer or bribe earner.
It is possible in only PS banks that a 30 year experienced officer remains without any promotion and get almost the same salary which a four or five years experienced officer is getting only because the later is directly recruited in scale II or III or IV . Though all of them perform work of same nature. Rather directly recruited officer in scale III or IV has caused much loss to the bank due to their lack of exposure. It will be exposed only if unbiased investigation is carried out in all cases of high value NPA an frauds. GOI will have to peep into old records to know when the symptoms of sickness started appearing in loan account which is now NPA. They will have to look into standard assets too whether all are really standard.
I therefore strongly feel that Chiefs of PS banks are having malicious intention and hence making lame excuses to cover up their corruption, their failure in managing the affairs, their negligence in monitoring of assets and their biased decision in recruitment , promotion and posting.
Lastly I am unable to understand why through all India competition , talented boys and girls cannot be recruited in banks when it is possible for Government of India to recruit boys and girls for the post most important , vulnerable and prestigious posts of IAS and IPS services. It is important to point out here that IAS officers monitor working of not only banks but all other departments of entire district .IAS officers are considered the best talent in the society.
Why do Chiefs of public sector banks think that they can recruit talented persons only by campus recruitment?
Do thy want to recruit from campus only because companies and IT sector are recruiting?
If yes , Do they have capacity to offer pay package what IT companies offer? Or else ,Do they want to continue their arbitrary and corrupt rule of offering higher package of salary to their kith and kins neglecting already available several experienced and talented persons in their banks who have been serving for years and decades?
It is important to point out here that promoters of private companies think only for profit and for growth of their company whereas public servants posted as officers in top ranks in banks thinks for their self interest barring some exceptions. Private companies can recruit their kith and kins, their friends and relative even without any test or interview, because it is their right. But such rights are not vested in public servants who are bound by Constitutional provisions and who are supposed to give equal opportunity to all without any discrimination.
I therefore doubt the honesty and integrity of all such Chiefs of public sector banks who are advocating restoration of right to recruit from campus despite restriction imposed by ruling of Supreme court in the year 2013.
Following link will explain the court order on campus recruitment which all bank staff should read and protest the mischievous attempt of Chiefs of banks to get power of campus recruitment .
Link to Important Bankig News containing My Blog On the Issue of Campus Hiring
Banks open to hiring IIT, IIM graduates-Business Line-18.02.2015 ( Contrary to court order and Directive from Ministry of Finance , some Banks still insists for permission for campus hiring)
February 17:
If public sector banks are allowed to recruit talent from premier institutes like the Indian Institute of Technology and Indian Institute of Management, will they find enough takers? Apparently, the answer is yes!
Public sector banks will, however, have to think out-of-the box to recruit candidates who think likewise.
According to Mohak Mehta, Placement Manager, IIT, Bombay, “There are a lot of gaps in the public sector’s understanding of recruitment at IITs…if they reach out to us at the campus there will surely be at least some takers.”
State Bank of India Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya first mooted the idea of public sector banks hiring from IITs/IIMs at the two-day banker’s conference (Gyan Sangam) in Pune in early January this year.
Bhattacharya said that if the country spends so much money in educating candidates at such institutes, why should public sector banks not be allowed to hire from IITs and IIMs.
Hiring process
Currently, public sector banks have to advertise for the vacancies and hire talent after a written test followed by an interview. The idea is to give every individual in the country a level-playing field to work with these banks.
Incidentally, in 2013, State Bank of India, in reply to its advertisement for bank probationary officers, ended up receiving 17 lakh applications for a mere 1,500 vacancies.
In other words, such a rigorous selection process would ensure, at least theoretically, that only the crème-de-la-crème land up jobs with public sector banks.
However, public sector bankers argue that by keeping them from recruiting from IITs and IIMs places them at a disadvantage compared to private sector peers and foreign banks.
Vijayalakshmi R Iyer, Chairperson and Managing Director, Bank of India, said, “I don’t get the level playing field as compared to the private players (when I am not allowed to hire from these institutions).”
However, the question is will students be interested if public sector banks come knocking given that the pay scales offered by these banks are lower than what is offered to the students graduating out of these institutions.
Pay package
According to IIT-Bombay’s Mehta, “Pay packages are over-hyped in IITs. The median annual salary packages last year was around ₹8.3 lakh.”
Incidentally, State Bank of India in its advertisement says that the annual package of a probationary officer joining the bank will be about ₹8 lakh in Mumbai. This includes the expenses incurred by the banks towards housing and the bank has estimated the market value of its accommodation at upwards of ₹3.4 lakh annually.
Other banks pay slightly lower, but according to Mehta the thinking in PSBs to recruit from IITs/IIMs is a “welcome move” as there are some students at the institute, who are looking at such opportunities.
An official from IIM-Calcutta said that they do have students who are willing to work in the public sector at some point in their career.
Vignesh Ramachandran, a second year student at IIM Calcutta, added, “Yes, many students at the IIMs would definitely look forward to working in public sector banks, if the salaries provided by them are on par with average salaries provided by the private sector.
“However, retention of talent might be a problem as the appraisal and promotion norms followed by the government banks are not likely to be similar to private sector firms in the industry. The working environment and peer group inside the government banks might also be something that students want to look at.”
Bankers seem to be seized of some of these issues. So, they might look to place these students in middle-management roles straight out of college.
Higher scale
Bank of India’s Iyer said, “I cannot pay as much as private sector banks, but I can place such candidates at a higher level. For example, we can place candidates at scale — III, where there are four increments in that level…I can place them at a higher scale.”
Bhattacharya, who mooted this first, said, “Should we be allowed to recruit from such institutions, we will take a call at which level we can fit them in. At PO level, it may not be possible on account of compensation.”
(With inputs from Beena Parmar)
Link Hindu Business Line
Changes in Provident Fund rules: 7 things to know
Planning for retirement is as important as planning for one’s career and marriage. Everybody wishes to have a secure, independent retirement life, where you would not depend on others for your needs. Investments and allocations are accordingly channelized in this direction to achieve the desired goals. The Employee Provident Fund (EPF), Employee Pension Scheme (EPS) and Public Provident Fund (PPF) are some of the popular products to invest for the retirement years.
In the past few months, radical changes have been introduced in these schemes. Let us have a look at them.
1) PF portability: Every time you join a new company, you were given a new PF number. Then you had the option of moving your funds to the new account. Whether you did this or not affected the taxability of your PF deposits. Not any more. Your PF accounts are now going to be portable. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to launch the much-awaited Universal PF Account Number (UAN) website to enable PF portability on October 16. The UAN will be portable throughout the working career of an employee. With the UAN in place, workers in the organized sector need not apply for transfer of PF claim in case of job-change. This means, the PF subscriber will not get a new number on joining a new firm. Instead the employee will get an ID linked to UAN. So, this mechanism will help in smoothening PF transfer claims. The new website is expected to provide an individual personalized log-in mechanism to help in tasks like viewing updated PF amount, transfer claims and updating KYC.
Currently, the EPFO is in the process of linking the UAN of its 40 million subscribers with their bank accounts, Permanent Account Number (PAN), Aadhar and other identification details.
2) Bank account and PF portability: The retirement fund body has asked companies to provide bank account numbers of their employer members by October 15. It has also asked for the IFSC or Indian Financial System Code number for easy transfer of PF payment. The IFSC helps identify the branch where the account is based. This helps transfer money easily. The bank account numbers with IFSC codes will be linked to the Universal PF Account Number (UAN). This will help in portability of PF accounts.
3) Higher PF wage ceiling: The retirement fund body Employee Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has raised the salary limit for maintaining a PF account to Rs 15,000. Earlier, the limit was Rs 6,500 per month. This means, any organized sector employee earning up to Rs 15,000-a-month have to compulsorily hold an EPF account with the government. For those earning more than Rs 15,000, it is a voluntary option. This is to ensure that low-wage earners have a sufficient kitty to help them in their retirement. This new measure is expected to bring in 50 lakh new PF subscribers, according to the EPFO.
12% of an employee’s basic salary goes to the PF account and is payable back to him/her together with interest once he/she leaves the company. The employer too pays an equal sum – 12% of the basic salary. Out of this, 8.33% goes into the pension scheme and 3.67% into the EPF.
As of now, only organized sector employees are covered under the social security scheme. They amount to about 8% of the total workforce. This still leaves the majority of India’s workers in the unorganized sector without sufficient retirement help.
4) Minimum monthly pension: Once the EPFO subscriber dies, his or her family gets an amount on a monthly basis. The government has raised the minimum monthly pension distributed to Rs 1,000 per month for the financial year 2014-2015. This move will benefit about 28 lakh pensioners, especially widows, some of whom get a paltry sum of Rs 150-200 a month.
5) Insurance limit hiked: Maximum sum assured under Employee Deposit Linked Scheme, 1976 (EDLI) has been hiked to Rs 3 lakhs plus 20% ad hoc benefit over the prescribed amount. This means in case of the death of the subscriber under EPFO, his family is entitled to get Rs 3.6 lakhs instead of the current Rs 1.56 lakhs.
All employers to whom the Employee Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provision Act applies, have to mandatorily subscribe to the EDLI scheme to provide life insurance benefit to their employees.
The above 3 changes have come into effect from September 1, 2014
6) PF interest rate: When you invest in a provident fund, you earn an interest. The government fixes this rate on a yearly basis. For the year 2014-15, the interest rate on provident fund deposits has been retained at 8.75%. This means, the nearly 50 million PF subscribers will earn 8.75% on their deposit amount this year.
7) Tax on PF withdrawal: If an employee withdraws his PF accumulation before five years of completing service, the entire amount withdrawn will be taxable for that year. However, if you transferred your PF every time you changed you job, your total tenure of work will be calculated. For example, if you worked for a year at company A and for four years at company B, and you transferred your PF, then a total work-period of five years will be calculated.
https://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/changes-in-provident-fund-rules--7-things-to-know-065607852.html
Universal account number to facilitate provident fund portability-17.10.2014-Times of India
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched a universal account number (UAN) for provident fund subscribers that will enable you to link your PF account to this number. This will, thereafter, allow easier portability as well as ease of transfer directly to your bank accounts in the months ahead.
An EPFO officer explained that the retirement savings body has already generated over 4.2 crore UANs and employers have been asked to provide the Aadhaar numbers, bank account numbers and permanent account numbers of employees. These will be then seeded into the 12-digit UAN.
While employers are currently going a little slow on the job currently, subscribers can also log on to the EPFO website and punch their current PF account number to get the UAN. They can then submit the required numbers to their employer who have upload them with their digital signatures. For employees of smaller establishments and those not using the online option, there is also a facility to submit the papers at PF offices across the country.
When someone switches jobs, the new PF account number will be tagged to the UAN.
Going forward, the official said, for withdrawals or loans, subscribers will have to fill up a form and can provide their fingerprint to a biometric reader and the amount will be transferred into the bank account within an hour, ending what used to a wait that often lasted months.
"This whole process may take six months or a year but the goal is to make life simpler for subscribers," the officer said, adding that employers will be nudged to speed up the seeding process.
Things you should know about your employee provident fund-Money Control-12.05.2014
EPF accounts will now yield a return of 8.75 per cent annually. In EPF, the amount is paid at the time of retirement or resignation, whichever occurs earlier. In the case of a change of one’s job, the amount can be transferred from the old company to the new one.
Vikram Ramchand MakeMyReturns.com
Employee Provident Fund is a retirement benefit applicable only to salaried employees. It is a fund to which both the employee and employer contribute 12 per cent of the former's basic salary amount each month. This percentage is pre-set by the government.
The contribution which is payable by the employer to the Provident Fund of the employee is set at 12 %( twelve percent) of “basic salary, dearness allowances and retaining allowance”. The employer contributes at the rate of 12% of Basic component of the salary to the Provident Fund. However, contribution by employer is bifurcated into contribution to Provident Fund and contribution to Employees Pension Scheme. A sum equal to 8.33% of Basic Salary up to Rs.6500/- is contributed to Pension Scheme from employer’s share of contribution. The maximum amount that will go to Pension Fund is Rs.541/- per month. i.e. 8.33% of Rs.6500/- (Rs 541.45).
E.g.: On a basic salary of Rs 10000/-, 12% (Rs 1200/-) contribution by employer would be contributed in the following manner: Rs 541/- would go to Pension Fund & Rs 659/- would go to Provident Fund.
EPF accounts will now yield a return of 8.75 per cent annually. In EPF, the amount is paid at the time of retirement or resignation, whichever occurs earlier. In the case of a change of one’s job, the amount can be transferred from the old company to the new one. Loans can be taken by individuals on their EPF Account, for their personal needs by submitting a list of required documents.
Additionally, the amount invested in an Employees Provident Fund is exempt from tax under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act. Withdrawal from an EPF is subject to tax if it is carried out within 5 years of employment with the same employer.
Salaried income tax employees are eligible for deduction under section 80C on the total amount that is expected to be deducted towards EPF during the financial year. The total amount deducted from the employee’s salary will be eligible for tax deduction under Section 80C.
For Example, if an employee’s gross salary is INR 50,000 pm and Basic Salary is INR 20,000 on which Provident Fund deductions are INR 2,400(12% of INR 20,000).Since income tax is levied on Gross salary, the salaried employee should deduct Income Tax on INR 50,000, but the employer deducts only on INR 47,600 (INR 50,000-2400) since salaried Employee’s Provident Fund amount is exempted from Income Tax; since it is a retirement benefit. But when the salaried employee withdraws before retirement that will be considered as normal income, hence TDS (Tax Deducted at Source) will be applicable on the withdrawal.
In case the salaried employee does not fall under a 30% Income Tax slab, he can claim back the TDS amount from the IT department by submitting his Income Tax returns with the help of TDS certificate(as issued by the PF trust) and Form-16.
Salaried individuals, who have the option of contributing in EPF schemes, should ensure their contribution to the fullest extent to have these benefits to accrue to them.
Can’t bar candidates from poll fray till proven guilty, Supreme Court says-18.02.2015Times of India reports
The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed serious discomfort on a PIL seeking disqualification of a candidate from contesting elections if a court framed charges against him or her for serious offences.
The Law Commission, headed by Justice AP Shah, had recommended to the government last year that the Representation of the People Act be amended to provide for disqualification of a candidate the moment a court framed charges for serious offences. At present, the law disqualifies a person from contesting elections if he or she is convicted and sentenced to more than two years' imprisonment.
A bench of Chief Justice HL Dattu and justices AK Sikri and Arun Mishra disagreed with senior advocate Dinesh Dwivedi, who said to stop growing criminalization of politics, the court could issue guidelines and stop politicians from contesting elections after a court of law framed charges against them.
Dwivedi said framing of charges involved initial scrutiny of the evidence on record and a presumption of guilt drawn against the accused. He said there was a safeguard for the aggrieved person as he could move the high court for quashing of the charges.
But the bench was distinctly uncomfortable with the proposition. "With a multi-party system operating in our country and the type of rivalry seen, it would be easy to register an FIR alleging sexual assault or other heinous offence against a prospective candidate. In such cases, the police generally file a charge-sheet and the courts prefer a trial to test the evidence. Disqualification after framing of charges will pose a grave danger to democratic politics of the country," it said.
"We always say that unless a person is found guilty after a trial, we will presume him to be innocent. You are arguing that we should presume him to be guilty even before completion of trial and disqualify him from contesting elections. Are you aware of the percentage of cases where an accused gets acquitted even after the courts decide to frame charges? Right to contest an election is a valuable right in a democracy. That is why the legislature, after an informed debate, had enacted Representation of the People Act providing for disqualification of a person upon his conviction and sentence for more than two years," the bench added.
"At the stage of framing of charges, it is a mere presumption of guilt against the accused. The version of the accused is not on record at that stage and he has not been given a chance to rebut the allegations by the prosecution. If we provide for disqualification after framing of charges, would we not be rewriting the law? We cannot legislate. If there is growing criminalization of politics, let the legislature debate and provide for the mechanism to prevent it," the court said.
It will hear further arguments on Wednesday.
Link Times of India