Disclosures of Annual Confidential Reports (ACR) comes under Official Secret Act

[nk agarwal]

Excellent.

I have noticed impatience in some of the postings in this forum regarding the subject of ACR etc.These judgments are the pathways of progress - a lead for better civilisation process, indeed a part of ongoing "evolution". It is evolution more of the mind than the physical attributes of man.With time perceptions change, requirements of society change and so on. RTI Act-2005 is a milestone after 1950 – The year of our Constitution. It is not a question who was wrong and who has been proved right.I am hopeful the ongoing process of judicial intervention for correction of such aberrations would continue for good and would impact our mindset. May be one day the Hon’ble Courts would start asking for compliance reports of such decisions and would take cognizance of defiance instead of aggrieved person shuttling for contempt proceedings etc.

[taurus]

Hope the State and Central Governments issue necessary orders for uniform adoption of the directions of the Supreme Court so that individual employees are not forced to approach the judiciary for the same relief.

[karira]

Attached is a judgement of the Punjab & Haryana High Court also allowing disclosure of ACR's.

The Punjab SIC had ordered the disclosure of ACR's.
Punjab Government filed a WP in the High Court, opposing this order.
The High Court allowed disclosure.

The full judgement is attached.

[smnislam]

I must thank karira ji for the useful input in regard to ACRs. It is high time a copy of the ACR are provided to the assessee. I wonder why the CIC has still maintained that ACR is a confidential document exempted from disclosure while holding that evaluated answer books should be shown to the applicant not only his own but of other candidates also.

[karira]

Originally Posted by smnislam

I must thank karira ji for the useful input in regard to ACRs. It is high time a copy of the ACR are provided to the assessee. I wonder why the CIC has still maintained that ACR is a confidential document exempted from disclosure while holding that evaluated answer books should be shown to the applicant not only his own but of other candidates also.

smnislam,

In fact, in one recent order of the CIC (I think it was by Hon'ble IC A N Tiwari), the IC disallowed the disclosure of ACR, even though the second appeal hearing was AFTER the Supreme Court judgement attached to one of the posts above.

What else are they waiting for ?

[smnislam]

They must be waitng for babudom to take a view

[nk agarwal]

I think some friends still have some misconceptions about the word "confidential".
My suggestion is that they may please refer to the different provisions of Official Secret Act and RTI Act-2005 togethet with available judgements of Apex Court on the matter.

[smnislam]

I would be grateful if Mr n k agarwal could through some more light on the subject so as to remove the misconceptions.

[nk agarwal]

In any ACR grading and entries/remarks are two different things.ffice

The grading must flow from the different entries/remarks made by the reporting officer against the attributes/parameters in the ACR.The DOPT circular says that average grading need not be communicated what to speak of good grading. Now if bench mark is Good /Very Good then certainly average is adverse but is not communicated.Unscrupulous reporting officers inflict damage by gadding officers average or good when they know the bench mark is Very Good. It is like placing a time bomb which explodes years after when the employee is being considered for promotion.Thus it is imperative that the ACRs (own) need to be disclosed to employees who wish to see them. This would provide them an opportunity to make a representation to the competent authority particularly when they were not given such an opportunity earlier and such camouflaged acts affects their bonafide career progression.

Also remember writing of ACR is year ending exercise and without any corrective measures during the year by the supervisors writing clandestinely degraded/downgraded ACRs cannot be defended by them and for this reason disclosure is essential.

[smnislam]

Thanks to Mr. agarwal. I am in total agreement with your views. in fact you have quoted the relevant instructions correctly. I had, earlier opined that copy of the ACR should be handed over to the concened person. i may add that it is not a year end exercise only .it requires at least two evaluations during the yesr as it is an exercise for development of the employee

[nk agarwal]

I repeat ACR writing is year ending exercise however following conditions apply:
(1) The reportee officer must have worked under the reporting officer for more than 3 months.
(2) In case during the year if more than one officer had been the supervisor (under whom reportee worked), separate ACRs need to be written by the respective reporting officers and like wise it is for the reviewing and accepting officers.
A time limit provision exists for reporting, reviewing or accepting officers to write ACRs after their retirement.

[taurus]

I think it is again Mr Shailesh Gandhi who, through his RTI applications, brought to light the startling fact that the ACRs of majority of IAS officers are not written for years together. The reasons are not far to seek.

[smnislam]

We should not deliberate if it is a year end exercise or a midyear review is necessery.This forum is to deliberate on the transparency in ACR writing in order to make it objective and fair. to that extant it should not only be transparent but also a mutual exercise in assessment between the officer reported upon and the reporting officer.

[raghsri08]

hi,

yes it should not be disclosed as it will lead them to underwriting.

[nk agarwal]

Dear Friend,ffice:office" />
ACRs have to be written objectively and dispassionately so their is no question of underwriting or over writing (estimation).
One would like to see his/her assessment only if one is ever dropped due to the performance reflected in the ACR. (most of the dropping cases are due to vindictiveness).
If one is not dropped and promoted one may not require to see the ACRs.
Instances exists where ACRs have been written by persons not authorised to do so but since it did not affect the career progression one may have no need to know this "fact".

[smnislam]

It is unfair to say that a person needs to have a look at his or her assessment only in case he she is to be dropped.
Even if an employee is rated highly and is progrssing without hiccups it is neceesary that he knows what others/boss thinks of him/her and his performance for the year. the knowlede of a high rating will definitely increase the confidence level of the employee, give him/her a feeling of pride and positively affect the motivational level.

[nk agarwal]

Seeking information must have a purpose. What purpose one can have in seeking info on others ACRs under RTI Act-2005?
A good, bad or outstanding ACR of an individual only affects him or her so why others should like to peep into it?
Though RTI Act-2005 overrides the Official Secrets Act it stiil stops the ACRs of third party to be disclosed.
In case of civilian officers after the introduction of bench mark and no supersession in matters of promotion clause, grading above bench mark does not affect promotion. However, this aspect need scrunity now, as 6th CPC provides enhanced rate of annual increment based on performance.
Malafidely written ACRs affects individuals, remarks affecting adversely during promotion, are never communiacted, hence ACRs to individuals need to be disclosed under RTI ACT-2005.

[ramugarg]

In my experience disclosure of ACR has its own advantages and disadvantages. But if we want to be an RTI activist it should be disclosed but at the same time we should also recognise this,think about this on the basis of Government jobs. Now the trend is becoming completely opposite. We the Indians think the govt. jobs as doing nothing and claiming our monetary benefits as our rights. Everyone knows that howmuch corrupt we are towards our duties to government. And also when the political system has already made the clever,notorius persons to gain by different point of views. Lower staff maximum does not want to work seriously. And because of computer age the officer now has to even type his/her letter himself. The new employee generation does not want to learn morebecause of many reasons. The only punishment or action remain with the officer is ACR so that the regular employee has some terror otherwise once he got into the job he forget about the works. Even after doing serious mistakes in jobs because of political pressure or some other ,not at the immediate boss level even at higher level, the case has been settled. Whereas negative comments already passed to the employee for reply or otherwise. And if it is not covered under official secret act it will seriously affect the personal relations even for a single negative remark or gradingwise. Some people are making negative use of RTI, instead of using it for a benefit of general public it is becoming a source of blackmailing also.

[nk agarwal]

I think the discussions under the subject has deviated quite a lot.
To recapitulate main issues following points are to be noted:
(1)ACRs have to be written under a set of rules.
(2)ACRs are written with an objective.
(3)ACRs have to be written objectively and dispassionately.
(4)ACRs are written at the end of the year.
(5)Adverse remarks/entries need to be communicated to the concerned official to provide him an opportunity to make a representation, if he or she chooses to make one.
(6)ACRs are not fault finding mechanism, etc.
(7) ACRs are not meant to be a penalising instrument.
(7)The need to see own ACRs arises when the ACRs are written malafidely or is written to settle a score by a superior authority, in such cases invariably the ACRs affect the career progression of the concerned official. The concerned official comes to know about the damage much latter.

[vijayarajan]

ACR, though it is named "confidential" it has no confidential nature. The rule says that if any adverse remarks are to be filed it should be brought to the notice of the incumbent.So there is no harm in giving the copy of the otherway report. How ever I feel that the system of ACR to be modifed. Vijayarajan