CBI directs disciplinary action against officers defying transfer orders

New Delhi: After a recent spate of transfers within the Central Bureau of Investigation, the central agency has now found that some officers who had been transferred from their current posting have not been reporting to their new place of posting as directed and neither the relieving branch nor the branch of new posting has initiated disciplinary actions against the offending officers in such instances.

This has prompted the CBI to issue a circular reiterating that "Transfer orders, once issued are meant to be complied with and whenever transfer orders are issued, the same should invariably be effected, without fail". The agency has also directed that in such cases, the 'relieving branch' of the concerned officer shall initiate disciplinary proceedings and that until the officer joins the new place of posting, all administrative responsibility would befall upon the relieving branch.

The circular said, "It has been seen that when an employee has been relieved on transfer and does not report to his/her new place of posting, in such instances neither of the branches takes initiative to commence disciplinary proceedings against the delinquent official."

The transfers that kicked in at the end of last year came after the CBI framed a new policy of moving officers around who had been in the same posting for over five years. In the transfers, several officers in charge of crucial investigations have also been shifted, including officers who were working on the chit fund cases like the Saradha and Rose Valley scams in the agency's Kolkata office.