KATHMANDU, Sept 30: The government has decided to table the Federal Civil Service Bill in Parliament, effectively ruling out the possibility of introducing the long-awaited law through an ordinance.
The Cabinet meeting on Tuesday approved the bill concerning the formation, operation and service conditions of the federal civil service for submission to Parliament.
The Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives, Federal Affairs and General Administration had forwarded the bill to the Cabinet on Monday after receiving recommendations from the Public Service Commission (PSC). The Cabinet approved its submission to Parliament the following day.
The decision means the bill will now have to go through the regular parliamentary process before becoming law.
Why is the Civil Service Bill not being presented to parliament...
Senior constitutional lawyer Bhimarjun Acharya said the government cannot introduce an ordinance on a matter once the relevant bill has been registered in Parliament. It would first have to withdraw the bill.
“Bringing an ordinance after withdrawing a bill already registered in Parliament would raise questions of bad faith,” Acharya said. He added that parliamentary practice allows ordinances only in exceptional and urgent circumstances.
The regular legislative process could mean the country will have to wait until at least December or January for the new Civil Service Act.
One of the bill’s major provisions proposes a one-time mandatory retirement scheme for civil servants who have either reached 55 years of age or completed 30 years of service.
The bill also proposes allowing lateral entry into the civil service at the joint secretary and secretary equivalent levels.
The PSC has opposed both provisions. However, the Ministry forwarded the bill to the Cabinet along with the commission’s dissenting views. The finance and law ministries have endorsed the proposed “55 years or 30 years of service” retirement provision.
Had the government introduced the law immediately through an ordinance with this provision intact, around 13,000 civil servants, including many senior officials, could have faced compulsory retirement.
Nepal has been trying to enact a Federal Civil Service Act for about a decade, but repeated attempts have failed.
Despite the country adopting federalism, the civil service continues to operate largely under the Civil Service Act, 1993, which predates the federal system.
