J&K Govt cautions delinquent employees; reiterates guidelines

Jammu, Mar 24:  Taking serious cognizance of violation of its guidelines and legal principles, J&K government Sunday asked all its employees to refrain from indulging in “unwarranted debates or discussions and sharing, commenting, posting inappropriate posts or content on social media platforms.”

However, a government employee may, “for the purpose of removing misapprehensions, correcting mis-statements and refuting disloyal and seditious propaganda, defend and explain to the public the policy of government in his posts and tweets on social media.”

In a reiteration of its caution, the government has asked all employees, working in various (government) departments, Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), Corporations, Boards and autonomous bodies etc., to strictly adhere to its stated guidelines and legal principles.

“Violation of these guidelines or rules shall tantamount to misconduct and invite disciplinary action against the delinquent official under the relevant rules,” it has warned.

Adopting stringent posturing, the government has also directed all Administrative Secretaries, Deputy Commissioners, Heads of Departments, Managing Directors to “immediately proceed against the employees working in their departments or offices who are found to have violated the guidelines and rules, in terms of the relevant disciplinary framework.”

Further, in case of a violation committed on a group platform, the ‘Administrators', if they are serving government or semi-government employees, will also be liable for disciplinary proceedings.

While reiterating guidelines and cautions, the government has, however, clarified that these guidelines are “not intended to dissuade employees or departments from using social media for positive and constructive purposes.”

WHY INSTRUCTIONS ISSUED

This detailed set of instructions has been issued after observing that government servants often engage themselves with social media in a manner which is in contravention to the elaborate notified guidelines and governing legal framework.

“While using different social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., or Instant Messaging applications like WhatsApp, Telegram etc., employees have been seen to air disparaging views on subjects that they are expressly barred under rules to comment upon. Employees have been seen to comment or act or behave in a manner that does not conform to the acceptable standards of official conduct, as envisaged in these guidelines and the rules,” said Commissioner Secretary General Administration Department (GAD) Sanjeev Verma.

“Such actions range from unauthorised communication of official information or dissemination of patently wrong or misleading information, airing of political or communal views etc., under their real or assumed identities.

In view of this, it has been felt expedient to reiterate the main features of guidelines already notified regarding use of social media for compliance by the government employees,” Verma added.

Already notified detailed guidelines refer to the provisions relating to the issue incorporated in the Jammu and Kashmir Employees Conduct Rules, 1971 (Sub-rule (3) of Rule 13) and Rule 18. Besides, they refer to the relevant legal framework that governs the social media users in general and conduct rules which over-see the employees' conduct in personal and professional life, including Article 19(2) of the Constitution of India, which deals with the right to freedom of speech, also imposes reasonable restrictions.

‘NOT TO DO’ LIST FOR EMPLOYEES

As per the guidelines, the employees, directly or indirectly, will not publish, post or release any information on social media that is considered confidential or that is not meant for public dissemination, nor will they pass any official document or any part thereof to any government employee or any such person to whom he is not authorized to communicate such document or information.

No government employee will, through any post, tweet or otherwise, discuss or criticize on social media, any policy pursued or action taken by the government, nor will he or she, in any manner, participate in any such discussion or criticism on social media pages, communities or microblogs.

They will not post, tweet or share content that is “political or anti-secular and communal in nature or subscribe to pages, communities or Twitter handles and blogs of such nature.”

They will, themselves or through any person dependent on them for maintenance, or under their care or control, not undertake any such activity on social media which is, or tends directly or indirectly to be, subversive of the government as by law established in the country on in the Union Territory.

They will not post on social media, any such content or comments about co-workers or individuals that are vulgar, obscene, threatening, intimidating or that violate the conduct rules or employees.

The government employees have been barred from posting grievances pertaining to their workplace on social media in the form of videos, posts, tweets or blogs or in any other form, but will “follow the already established channels of complaint redressal existing in the departments.”

They would not indulge in “sharing or partaking in so-called giveaways and contests on social media platforms, which are actually scams in disguise,” as they could unknowingly spread malware or trick people into giving away sensitive data by sharing it on their profiles.

PUNISHMENT
As per notified detailed guidelines regarding use of social media by government employees for strict adherence or compliance vide Government Order No 1646-JK(GAD) of 2017 dated December 26, 2017 and legal framework; the violation of the conduct rules invites punishment under Rule 30 of the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1956.

Under Rule 30, the penalties which may, for good and sufficient reason, be imposed upon members of a service, include “censure; fine not exceeding one month’s pay; withholding of increments and/or promotion; reduction to a lower post and/or a lower time-scale and/or to a lower stage in time-scale; recovery from pay of the whole or part of any pecuniary loss caused to Government by negligence or breach of orders and premature retirement on proportionate pension other than that specified in rule 226 (2) of Jammu and Kashmir Civil Service Regulations; removal from the service of the State which does not disqualify from future employment; dismissal from the service of the State which ordinarily disqualifies from future employment.