Section 4 in Tamil Nadu Town Panchayat Establishment (Punishment and Appeal) Rules, 1988
4. Procedure for imposing penalties.
(1)No order or punishment specified below shall be passed on any officer or servant of a town panchayat unless he has been given a reasonable opportunity of showing cause against the action proposed to be taken against that person.(i)Censure;(ii)Fine in the case of persons on whom the imposition of fine is permissible under these rules;(iii)Withholding of increments or promotion including stoppage at an efficiency bar;(iv)(a)Recovery of the whole or a portion of any pecuniary loss caused to the Town Panchayat by negligence, fraud or breach of rules or orders;(b)Recovery from pay to the extent necessary of the monetary value equivalent to the amount of increments ordered to be withheld, where such an order cannot be given effect to.Explanation. - In case of stoppage of increment with cumulative effect, the monetary value equivalent to three times the amount of increments ordered to be withheld, may be recovered.(2)(a)In every case where it is proposed to impose on an officer or servant of a town panchayat the penalties of reduction to a lower rank in the seniority list or to a lower post or time-scale or to a lower stage in a time-scale, suspension not being one under rule 5, removal or dismissal, the grounds on which it is proposed to take action shall be reduced to the form of a definite charge or charges which shall be communicated to the person charged together with a statement of the allegations on which each charge is based and of any other circumstances which it is proposed to take into consideration in passing orders on the case. He shall be required within a reasonable time, to put in written statement of his defence and to state whether he desires an oral enquiry only to be heard in person. An oral enquiry, shall be held if such an enquiry is desired by the person charged or is directed by the authority concerned. At that enquiry oral evidence shall be heard as to such of the allegations as are not admitted, and the person charged shall be entitled to cross-examine the witnesses, to give evidence in person and to have such witness called as he may wish provided that the officer conducting the enquiry may for special and sufficient reason to be recorded in writing, refuse to call a witness. After the enquiry has been completed the person charged shall be entitled to put in, if he desired any further written statement of his defence. If no enquiry is held and if he had desired to be heard in person, personal hearing shall be given to him. The proceedings shall contain a sufficient record of the evidence and a statement of the findings and the grounds thereof. The quantum of punishment proposed to be imposed on an officer or servant of the town panchayat shall not be made in the charge memorandum, itself.(b)After the enquiry referred to in clause (a) has been completed, the competent authority shall record his findings on each charge and pass suitable final order as he deems fit by enclosing a copy of the enquiry report, if any along with the final order.The requirements of sub-rules (1) and (2) shall not apply where it is proposed to impose on an officer or servant any of the penalties referred to in the rule on the basis of facts which have led to his conviction in a criminal court or by a court martial or where the officer concerned has absconded or where it is for other reasons to be recorded in writing impracticable to communicate with him.(3)All or any of the provisions of sub-rule (1) or (2) may, in exceptional cases, for special and sufficient reasons to be recorded in writing and with the sanction of the appropriate appellate authority, be waived where there is difficulty in observing exactly the requirements of the sub-rule and those requirements can be waived without injustice to the person charged.Explanation I. - The discharge - (a) of a person appointed on probation before the expiry or at the end of prescribed or extended period of probation; or(b)of a person engaged under contract, in accordance with the terms of his contract; or(c)of a person appointed otherwise than under contract to hold a temporary appointment on the expiration of the period of the appointment does not amount to removal or dismissal within the meaning of this rule.Explanation II. - The discharge or reversion to a lower post of any person officiating in any post, if made in accordance with such general or special rules or orders as the Government may issue in that behalf, does not amount to removal or dismissal or to reduction within the meaning of the rule.Explanation III. - The removal of a person from the service of the town panchayat shall not disqualify him from future employment unless specifically debarred from future employment either at the time of removal or subsequently. The dismissal of a person from the service of the town panchayat-shall disqualify him from future employment.
