Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Amendment Act, 20111
| [Act 6 of 2012, Repealed by Act 23 of 2016*] | [8th January, 2012] |
An Act further to amend the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990
Be it enacted by Parliament in the Sixty-second Year of the Republic of India as follows-
1. Received the assent of the President on January 8, 2012 and published in the Gazette of India, Extra., Part II, Section 1, dated 9th January, 2012, pp. 1–3, No. 6
* Ed.: Act 6 of 2012 repealed by Act 23 of 2016, S. 2 & Sch. I. See also S. 4 of the Repealing and Amending Act, 2016:
"4. Savings.- The repeal by this Act of any enactment shall not affect any other enactment in which the repealed enactment has been applied, incorporated or referred to;
and this Act shall not affect the validity, invalidity, effect or consequences of anything already done or suffered, or any right, title, obligation or liability already acquired, accrued or incurred, or any remedy or proceeding in respect thereof, or any release or discharge of or from any debt, penalty, obligation, liability, claim or demand, or any indemnity already granted, or the proof of any past act or thing;
nor shall this Act affect any principle or rule of law, or established jurisdiction, form or course of pleading, practice or procedure, or existing usage, custom, privilege, restriction, exemption, office or appointment, notwithstanding that the same respectively may have been in any manner affirmed or recognised or derived by, in or from any enactment hereby repealed;
nor shall the repeal by this Act of any enactment revive or restore any jurisdiction, office, custom, liability, right, title, privilege, restriction, exemption, usage, practice, procedure or other matter or thing not now existing or in force."
Prefatory Note-Statement of Objects and Reasons.-The Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990 provides for the establishment of a Broadcasting Corporation of India, to be known as Prasar Bharati. The said Act came into force on the 15th September, 1997. Section 11 of the said Act provides for transfer of officers or employees serving in the Akashvani or Doordarshan to the Corporation, by the Central Government where it has ceased to perform any of the functions of the Corporation specified in Section 12 thereof. It further provides that no such order shall be made in respect of any officer who has intimated, within the specified period, his intention of not becoming an employee of the Corporation.
2. However, the employees were not given option in terms of Section 11 of the Act for transfer of their services to the Corporation. The Government kept receiving representations from the employees about their status as to whether they were to remain as Government employees or as employees on deemed deputation serving in an autonomous organisation. It gave rise to a number of litigation in various High Courts. After considering the grievances of the employees who were on deemed deputation to the Corporation, the Government decided to constitute a Group of Ministers on 7th March, 2006 to take a final view. Further, Supreme Court of India, in appeals clubbed together in Civil Appeal No. 3244/2002, while upholding the right of Prasar Bharati Broadcasting Corporation of India to transfer the employees, directed the Union of India on 2nd February, 2007 to take a firm decision in terms of Section 11 of the aforesaid Act and complete the entire process of deciding the service related issues of Prasar Bharati employees.
3. The Group of Ministers, in its meeting held on 5th October, 2007, recommended that the employees working in the Prasar Bharati may continue on deemed deputation with all benefits available to Central Government employees. Again in its meeting held on 26th September, 2008, the Group of Ministers reiterated its recommendation that the Government employees shall continue to serve in Prasar Bharati on "deemed deputation" basis till the time of their retirement with all facilities at par with Central Government employees and that the persons recruited after 23rd November, 1997, that is, the date on which, the Prasar Bharati was established, and serving in the Prasar Bharati on the date of decision of Group of Ministers dated 5th October, 2007, will also be treated as Government employees on "deemed deputation" basis to the Prasar Bharati and will enjoy all facilities at par with the Central Government employees. It further recommended for bringing necessary amendments to the Act for giving effect to the aforesaid decisions.
4. The Group of Ministers in its meeting held on 16th April, 2010 considered the issue relating to the status of the employees belonging to the Indian Information Service, the Central Secretariat Service and other cadres borne outside the cadre of Akashvani and Doordarshan and recommended that status quo be maintained in respect of the said employees subject to the conditions, inter alia, that Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Prasar Bharati may jointly work out the number of deputation posts to be manned by officers from Indian Information Service cadre.
5. Accordingly, a provision has been made in the Bill that the terms and conditions of service in the Corporation, and all matters relating to the posts borne on the strength of the cadres of the Indian Information Service, the Central Secretariat Service or any other cadre outside Akashvani or Doordarshan, insofar as such posts are concerned with the Corporation, shall be determined in such manner and on such terms and conditions as may be prescribed.
6. Since the above recommendations of the Group of Ministers will settle the long standing issues of the status of employees working in Prasar Bharati and empower the Prasar Bharati with all disciplinary and supervisory powers and control on the officers and employees including the power to transfer them from one place, post or media to another, it has become necessary and expedient to amend the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990.
7. The Bill seeks to achieve the aforesaid objectives.
1. Short title and commencement.-(1) This Act may be called the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Amendment Act, 2011.
(2) It shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.
2. Substitution of new sections for Section 11.-In the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990 (25 of 1990) (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act), for Section 11, the following sections shall be substituted, namely-
‘11. Status of officers and employees.-(1) All officers and employees recruited for the purposes of Akashvani or Doordarshan before the appointed day and in service in the Corporation as on the 1st day of April, 2000, shall be on deemed deputation to the Corporation with effect from the 1st day of April, 2000, and shall so continue till their retirement.
(2) All officers and employees recruited during the period on or after the appointed day till the 5th day of October, 2007, shall be on deemed deputation to the Corporation with effect from the 1st day of April, 2000 or the date of their joining service in the Corporation, whichever is later and until their retirement.
Explanation.-For the purposes of sub-sections (1) and (2), "officers and employees recruited" means officers and employees recruited either under the proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution or in accordance with the regulations made under the Act, but shall not include persons engaged or appointed on daily wages, casual, ad hoc or work charged basis.
(3) The officers and employees referred to in sub-section (1) and sub-section (2) shall be entitled to the pay and all other benefits as admissible to an employee of the Central Government:
Provided that such officers and employees shall not be entitled to any deputation allowance.
(4) Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, the Corporation shall have the disciplinary and supervisory powers and full control on the officers and employees referred to in sub-section (1) and sub-section (2), including the power to transfer them from one place, post or media to another, and to suspend, initiate disciplinary proceedings and impose major or minor penalties:
Provided that the power to impose major penalties of compulsory retirement, removal or dismissal from service shall be exercised by the Central Government.
(5) All officers and employees recruited after the 5th day of October, 2007 shall be officers and employees of the Corporation and shall be governed by such conditions of service as may be specified in the regulations.
11-A. Section 11 not to apply to certain officers and employees.-(1) The provisions of Section 11 shall not apply to officers and employees of the Indian Information Service, the Central Secretariat Service or any other service borne on any cadre outside Akashvani or Doordarshan, who have been working in Akashvani or Doordarshan before the appointed day or in service in the Corporation after that day.
(2) The terms and conditions of service in the Corporation of officers and employees referred to in sub-section (1) shall be such as may be prescribed.
11-B. Transfer of posts of Akashvani and Doordarshan to Corporation.-(1) All posts in the erstwhile Akashvani and Doordarshan other than the posts borne on the strength of the cadres referred to in sub-section (2) shall be deemed to have been transferred to the Corporation with effect from the 1st day of April, 2000.
(2) All matters relating to the posts borne on the strength of the cadres of the Indian Information Service, the Central Secretariat Service or any other cadre outside Akashvani or Doordarshan, insofar as such posts are concerned with the Corporation, shall be determined in such manner and on such terms and conditions as may be prescribed.’.
3. Amendment of Section 32.-In Section 32 of the principal Act, in sub-section (2), for clause (f), the following clauses shall be substituted, namely-
"(f) the terms and conditions of service in the Corporation of officers and employees under sub-section (2) of Section 11-A;
(ff) the manner and the terms and conditions subject to which matters relating to the posts borne on the strength of the cadres of the Indian Information Service, the Central Secretariat Service or any other cadre outside Akashvani or Doordarshan shall be determined under sub-section (2) of Section 11-B;".
4. Amendment of Section 33.-In Section 33 of the principal Act, in sub-section (2)-
(i) for clause (d), the following clause shall be substituted, namely-
"(d) the conditions of service of officers and employees under sub-section (5) of Section 11;";
(ii) clause (e) shall be omitted.