Two Child Rule only for IAS, IPS, IFS ?

On World Population Day, Social activist Dr Nutan Thakur has raised the issue of Rule 17A of the All India Services Conduct Rules 1968. This Rule, inserted on 13 January 1995, says that every member of these services in his personal capacity shall observe the two children family norms.

Such Rules exist only for IAS, IPS and IFS and not for other Central Civil Services and various State government jobs. Even for IAS, IPS and IFS, the Central and State governments have taken no measures to ensure the compliance of this Rule.

Hence Thakur has asked Ministry of Personnel to frame such Rules for other Central Civil servants, State government employees and others public servants. She has also asked the Cadre controlling Ministries of Personnel (IAS), Home (IPS) and Forest (IFS) to collect data as regards the number of children of these officers and to take appropriate disciplinary action against those who have disobeyed this Rule.

Letter sent–

To,
The Secretary,
Ministry of Personnel, PG and Pension,
Government of India,
New Delhi
Subject- Observance of Rule 17A (iii) of the All India Services (Conduct) Rules 1968.

Respected sir,
I am Dr Nutan Thakur, a social and RTI activist based in Lucknow working in the field of accountability and transparency in governance. I am also wife of an IPS officer from UP Cadre, Sri Amitabh Thakur.
Here I present Rule 17A (iii) of the All India Services (Conduct) Rules 1968— Every member of the service in his personal capacity or otherwise shall observe the two children family norms.

This Rule was inserted vide Notification No. 11017/27/93—AIS(III) dated 13.01.1995 (GSR No. 52 dt. 04/02/1995). Thus as per Rule 17A (iii), every All India Service (AIS) officer in his personal capacity or otherwise necessarily needs to observe the two children family norms.

I don’t know whether the Central Government (i.e. the respective Cadre controlling departments for IAS- Ministry of Personnel, IPS- Ministry of Home Affairs and IFtS- Ministry of Forest) and the different State governments have any record as regards compliance of this Rule. Again, I am also not sure whether the Union and State governments ask the concerned AIS officers about its compliance.

In our case, we have strictly complied with this Rule as we have only two children- Tanaya and Aditya, which is as per the two-child norm. I hope you agree that if such a Rule was inserted in 1995, there must have been some valid reason for this and any officer deviating from this Rule after its promulgation would be considered to have committed misconduct under the Conduct Rules so as to be punished under the AIS (Discipline and Appeal) Rules.

Another point to be noted is that such Service conduct Rule exists only for All India Service officers and not for Central Civil Services (as given in Central Civil Services Conduct Rules 1964) or for any other services (f or example Uttar Pradesh Government Servants Conduct Rules). This Rule also does not exist for other State government employees. The proper course should have been to make this Rule compulsory for all kinds of Government servants and not only for All India Services officers because-

1. Making two-child norm compulsory only for AIS service officers and not for Central Civil Service, other Central government and various State government and other public servants related with Central and State governments etc is definitely discriminatory against the All India Service officers

2. If all these officers are asked to follow this Rule, it will help a lot in reducing the population pressure in India

3. Other persons, who are not in government services, will also start emulating these Government servants and this will have a very positive effect on population control in India
I had raised many of these issues in my Lt No- NT/AIS/TC/01 Dated- 08/07/2013.
Hence, I make the following prayers in this regards-

1. Kindly frame Rules to ensure the compliance of Two-children family norm not only by All India Service Officers as is being done under Rule 17 of AIS (Conduct) Rules 1968 presently but by introducing such a Rule in Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules 1964 and all other Central and State Government employees and all organizations, institutions, companies, corporations, commissions etc associated with Central and various State Governments.

2. Kindly get a definite data from each AIS officer through Central government and various State governments and their organizations, wherever they are serving, as regards the number of children they have, giving particular attention to the number of children begotten after 04/02/1995

3. Kindly take appropriate disciplinary action at your end against those members of the AIS who have disobeyed this Rule 17A(iii) after its promulgation on 04/02/1995, or kindly direct the concerned States to take such action.

Lt No- NT/AIS/TC/01
Dated- 11/07/2013 Regards,
Yours,

(Dr Nutan Thakur)
5/426, Viram Khand,
Gomti Nagar, Lucknow
# 094155-34525
[email protected]