The Indian Express has learnt that these premature exits are part of a drive by the Bhupendra Patel government to “cleanse” the system of “deadwood”.

While hearing a suo motu plea regarding the Rajkot TRP Game Zone fire on Friday, the HC pulled up the state government saying that it acted only on court orders. During the hearing, Advocate General Kamal Trivedi told the court that one of the steps taken by the government to “set the house in order” was to “review of administrative efficiency of employees in the 50-55 age group and retire them prematurely if found necessary”.

According to sources, the government has prematurely retired 13 Class 1 and 2 officials, who are aged 50 years or above, in this calendar year, and proposals to retire at least nine more are pending.

The development is being cited as a move to send a message to the state bureaucracy that non-performance will not be tolerated. The sources said the move was initiated following orders from the chief minister.

A senior government official said on the condition of anonymity that officials are being prematurely retired on the basis of a policy that was already in place, but was revised recently.

“Earlier, an official’s performance was reviewed only on the basis of annual confidential report or performance appraisal report. The revised policy has included other aspects for review, which is available on record, to figure out whether the official has become ineffective. For example, if an official is facing a serious departmental inquiry… it can also be additional basis for reviewing performance, which was not very clear in the earlier policy,” the officer said.

According to norms, before ordering an official to prematurely retire, the government is not bound to give them a hearing. But they can approach an appellate authority or a court.

Officials have been ordered to prematurely retire under the Gujarat Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 2002, and a government resolution issued by the General Administration Department on September 29, 2023, which empowers the government to prematurely retire an employee at the age of 50 or 55, if it is satisfied that it is necessary to do so in public interest.