Verification of Character and antecedents of Railway employees before appointment

1. At present before appointment to railway service, detailed verification of character and antecedents is made of all candidates, in accordance with procedure laid down in Board’s Secret letter No.E52GS4-3 dated 16.03.1955 as amended from to time.  In cases where there is a delay of over a month (excluding the period of 3 weeks within which the State authorities are expected to complete verification) the General Manager or the Head of the Department may authorise appointment of the screened candidate provided he is satisfied by informal inquiries that the person concerned is likely to have no undesirable antecedents.

2. The detailed procedure of character and antecedent verification, it is found, is really not necessary in a large number of posts on the Railways in Group ‘C’ and ‘D’ (Class III and IV).  Being a lengthy procedure it quite often causes delay in appointments to these categories.  The matter has been examined in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs (Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms), and it has been decided that prior detailed verification of character and antecedents before appointment need be made only in sensitive categories of posts where risk to security is substantial.  A list of such sensitive categories where detailed prior character verification is essential has been prepared and/are indicated in Annexure I under heading ‘A’.  In respect of the other categories indicated in the Annexure I under heading ‘B’ a simpler verification, as indicated below, with the help of character certificate will be adequate:-

(i) in the case of Group ‘C’ staff; the candidate should be required to furnish along with his application, the attestation form (copy attached) duly filled in together with the identity certificate from one of the prescribed authorities mentioned in the attestation form;

(ii) The candidate should be required to produce character certificate from the Head of the Educational Institution last attended by him and similar certificate from his employer, if any.  When the candidate is finally approved for appointment, he should be called upon to have the character certificate produced by him earlier attested by stipendary 1st Class executive magistrate (including district magistrate or sub-divisional magistrate).  The appointment may be offered to the candidates after the attested certificate is produced by him.
(iii) In the case of Group ‘D’ posts only one certificate of character from gazetted officer or a magistrate in the form prescribed as in Annexure II should be obtained. In addition, the attestation form should also be filled by the candidate but without identity certificate appended to the form.
A report may be sent on 31.12.79 giving an appreciation of any problem encountered and gains in terms of elimination of work/delays etc. so that a further review could be made of this trial measure.