Haryana VB head to have at least a year's tenure

Aimed at making comprehensive supervision of the investigation process in Haryana, the state government has decided that the office of State Vigilance Bureau (VB) chief will have tenure of minimum one year.

The move is apparently to ensure a longer stint for the VB head as the chair was often used as a 'stop-gap arrangement' by senior police officers.

Earlier, known as the Special Inquiry Agency, the bureau was rechristened as the State Vigilance Bureau in 1978 and it had seen 28 directors since. There were several who remained in the seat for only a few months.

Sources told Hindustan Times that it has been decided to designate the VB head as director general and not as director, as was the practice earlier. The chief will be among the IPS officers of the rank of director general of police (DGP) or additional director general of police (ADGP) having impeccable integrity and proven merits in supervising investigations, sources said.

The bureau director general could be shifted in case of expiry of the minimum tenure, promotion to a higher post or conviction or charges framed by a court in a criminal offence.

Besides, punishment of dismissal, removal, discharge or compulsory retirement from service or demotion under discipline and appeal rules, suspension from service, incapacitation by physical or mental illness or the need to fill up a vacancy caused by transfer or retirement can be the reason for transfer, senior officials, who did not want to be named, said.

In exceptional cases, an officer could be transferred from the post by a competent authority before the expiry of the tenure for gross inefficiency, negligence or where a prima facie case of a serious nature would be established after a preliminary inquiry, sources said.