General Rules of Office Procedure – PWD Code

Public Works Department Code

161. No officer should correspond direct with an authority superior to the officer under whom he is immediately serving, or with the State Government or the Government of India, out of the regular course, except in a case of extreme emergency, in which case he must send copies of his communications to his immediate superior.

162. Letters containing proposals concerning other departments should, so far as is needful, be accompanied by reference to the opinion of the officer concerned (in the case of building, of the officer occupying it) and of the head of the department on the spot.

163. (1) Wherever, in any matter connected with the rights or conditions of his service, a Government servant wishes to press a claim of or to seek redress of a grievance, the proper course for him is to address his immediate official superior, or the Head of his office, or such other authority at the lowest level, as is competent to deal with the matter. An appeal or representation to a higher authority must not be made unless the appropriate lower authority has already rejected the claim or refused relief or ignored or unduly delay the disposal of the case. Representations to still higher authorities (e.g., those addressed to the Governor, or to Ministers) must not be made unless all means of securing attention or redress from lower authorities may have been exhausted; even in such cases the representation must be submitted through the proper channel (i.e., the Head of the office, etc., concerned). There will be no objection at that stage, but only at that stage, to an advance copy of the representation being sent direct to higher authority.

(2) If the Government servant persists in prematurely addressing the higher authorities, suitable disciplinary action should be taken against him.

(3) Any attempt by a Government servant to seek a decision on such issues in a court of law (even in cases where such a remedy is legally admissible) without first exhausting the normal official channels of redress, should also be regarded as contrary to official propriety and subversive of good discipline and may well justify the initiation of disciplinary action against the Government servant.