Chennai: The Madras High Court on Tuesday said that the government servants should not be allowed to use mobile phones for personal use during office hours. Madras HC Justice SM Subramaniam has directed the Tamil Nadu Government to frame regulations in this regard and take action against those who do not follow the rules.
“If at all any emergency call is to be attended, proper permission must be obtained from superiors to go out from the office and use mobile phones. In all circumstances, the mobile phones must be either switched off or kept in vibration / silent mode, without causing any disturbance or nuisance to be public, who all are attending the office as well as the other officials working in the office,” the High Court stated.
“This must be the minimum discipline to be followed in the Government Offices. Such allegations of using mobile cameras inside the office very frequently are causing a disturbance and no doubt, this will disrupt the functioning of the public offices in the Departments and therefore, this Court is of the considered opinion that the Government should take serious note of this and the first respondent has to issue appropriate circular/instructions to all the Government offices,” it added.
The court made the observations while hearing a plea filed by a person who was working as Superintendent in the Regional Workshop (Health), Tiruchirapalli, and was placed under suspension for shooting videos of colleagues despite repeated warnings.
Last year, the Maharashtra government had asked its employees to keep the use of mobile phones to a minimum during office hours, saying that landline phones are preferable.
