As per Schedule 3 added to the Supreme Court CCS CCA Rules, the Member Telecom Commission is the competent authority to impose major fines and the General Manager, Telecom, is competent to impose minor fines.
The Supreme Court :-
The present appeal was filed against the judgment dated 18-11-2022 (‘the impugned order’) of the Karnataka High Court (High Court), in which the order dated 23-6-2022 of the Central Administrative Tribunal (‘Tribunal’) was set aside. A bench of Sanjay Kumar and Satish Chandra Sharma, JJs held that. Rule 14 and Rule 13(2) of the Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965 (CCS CCA Rules) read with Schedule 3, made it clear that an officer who has the power to impose minor penalty, like the General Manager in the present case, can issue a charge sheet for imposing major penalty as well. The Court allowed the appeal, set aside the impugned order and held that disciplinary action should be taken against the Member Telecom Commission as well as the General Manager, Telecom It can be started by.
