Rule 73 — CCS

73. Action to be taken in cases where service records are incomplete.- (1) Subject to the provisions of sub-rules (2) and (3), and sub-rule 7 of rule 75 there shall not be any case where service book has not been maintained properly.

(2) Notwithstanding anything in sub-rule (1), if the service book has not been maintained properly despite the orders of the Government on the subject, and it is not possible for the Head of Office to accept the unverified portion of service as verified on the basis of entries in the service book, the Head of Office shall take action as follows, namely :-

(a) For the purpose of Family Pension, if the family of the deceased or missing Government servant has become eligible for family pension in accordance with sub-rule (1) of rule 50 or sub-rule (1) of rule 51, the amount of family pension and the period for which it is payable shall be determined in accordance with sub-rule (2) of rule 50 within one month from the date of receipt of intimation or information regarding death of the Government servant or the date of receipt of intimation regarding disappearance of the Government servant.

(b) For the purpose of gratuity,

(i) In respect of the unverified portion or portions of service the Head of Office shall verify the portion or portions of such service, as the case may be, based on pay bills, acquittance rolls or other relevant records, such as last pay certificate and pay slip for the month of April (which shows verification of service for the previous financial year) and record necessary certificates in the service book;

(ii) If the service for any period is not capable of being verified in the manner specified in sub-clause (i), that period of service having been rendered by the Government servant in another office or Department, the Head of Office under which the Government servant is at present serving shall refer the said period of service to the Head of Office in which the Government servant is shown to have served during that period for the purpose of verification;

(iii) On receipt of communication referred to in sub-clause (ii), the Head of Office in that office or Department shall verify the portion or portions of such service, in the manner as specified in sub-clause (i), and send necessary certificates to the referring Head of Office within one month from the date of receipt of such a reference:

Provided that in case a period of service is incapable of being verified, it shall be brought to the notice of the referring Head of Office simultaneously;

(iv) If no response is received within the time referred to in the preceding sub-clause, such period or periods shall be deemed to qualify for pension;

(v) If at any time thereafter, it is found that the Head of Office and other concerned authorities had failed to communicate any non-qualifying period of service, the Secretary of the administrative Ministry or Department shall fix responsibility for such non-communication;

(vi) Every effort shall be made to complete the verification of service, as specified in sub-clause

(i) to sub-clause

(iv) and to make good any omissions, imperfections or deficiencies and if any omission, imperfection or deficiency is incapable of being made good and the portion of service shown as unverified in the service book which it has not been possible to verify in accordance with the procedure laid down in sub-clause

(i) to sub-clause (iv), shall be ignored and service qualifying for gratuity shall be determined on the basis of the entries in the service book.

(3) Notwithstanding anything in sub-rule (1), where in the case of a deceased Government servant, the entire service is not capable of being verified and accepted immediately and there is likely to be a delay in determination of final amount of gratuity, the amount of gratuity shall be provisionally determined and drawn on the basis of the spell of qualifying service which is verified and accepted immediately preceding the date of death of the Government servant, in accordance with sub-rule (7) of rule 75.