Team Herald
PANJIM: The Goa Human Rights Commission (GHRC) on Wednesday asked the North Goa Collector to withdraw the part of the memorandum that no compensatory off will be granted to the staff attending the offices on Saturday.
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As per Central Civil Service Rules, a government servant other than a Gazetted Officer working on holidays, has to be given compensatory leave in lieu of duty performed on holidays, as a rule, which generally has to be availed of within a month, the Commission said.
The anonymous staff in the jurisdiction of North Goa Collector and five offices of Mamlatdars of Bardez, Pernem, Tiswadi, Bicholim and Sattari Talukas by a letter dated December 18, 2024, had complained about the unfair treatment meted out to some of the staff members thereby infringing their rights.
The North Goa Collector Sneha Gitte, IAS, by a Memorandum dated October 30, 2024, has asked the staff of offices of the Deputy Collector and Mamlatdars to attend office on Saturdays as directed by the Presiding Officers of the Revenue Courts, in order to assist them for conducting hearings for disposal of Tenancy and Mundkar cases, in a time-bound manner.
The Memorandum stated that no compensatory off shall be granted for the same, which according to the complaint was a clear violation of the law which stipulates that the extra hours work must be compensated in the form of overtime pay or compensatory leave.
In the reply, the respondent – North Goa Collector stated that the Office Memorandum was issued in pursuance of the Order dated 14/09/2022 of the Revenue Department and the Order dated 31/03/2023 of the High Court of Bombay at Goa, to clear the pending backlog of cases.
After going through the complaint and considering the reply of the respondent and arguments advanced, the Commission took note of the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules 1972, which govern the grant of leave applicable to all government servants.
One of the provisions of the Rules is as under: “Compensatory off can be availed of by a government servant in lieu of his/her working on a holiday, provided no other financial incentives are granted (OTA/Honorarium) for that day. Normally, it should be availed of within a month and in that case there is no limit to the number of compensatory off. In case it could not be taken within a month, a government servant in the subsequent calendar month could avail of a maximum of two compensatory off, with special permission from the Joint Secretary in-charge of Administration/Head of Department.”
It also took note of the Office Memorandum, dated 11th August 1976, of the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, on the subject of “Overtime Allowance”, to Government Employees.
The Commission however appreciated that the Collector, in view of the directions of the High Court dated 31/03/2023 in two writ petitions had issued directions to strictly implement the Goa government’s order dated 14/09/2022 and dispose of the pending cases under the Tenancy and Mundkar Acts, as expeditiously as possible and in any case within the timeline set out in the government’s order dated 14/09/2022. But the Commission observed that there was no whisper in the High Court order, interalia, that in lieu of the same, no compensatory off would be granted to the government servants. So also the government in its order dated 14/09/2022 did not state that compensatory off was not to be granted.
Hence, the Commission did not agree with the part of the Memorandum dated 30/10/2024 that no compensatory off shall be granted to the staff who attend the offices on Saturdays as per the order of the Presiding Officers, which results in the violation of the human rights of the staff and also violates the Office Memorandum, dated 11th August 1976, and the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules 1972, and recommended that the Collector should amend the Memorandum dated 30/10/2024.
