Rights body nudges North Goa collector to scrap order denying comp off

Panaji: After facing complaints from staff and nudged by the state’s human rights body, the North Goa collector relented on a part of a memorandum that denied compensatory leave to employees who worked on Saturdays to assist in conducting tenancy and mundkar cases.
The collector withdrew the memorandum dated Oct 30, 2024, on the recommendation of the Goa Human Rights Commission but stated that compensatory leave shall be granted only if the staff mark their attendance on biometric machines every two hours on Saturdays. The attendance shall be certified by the mamlatdar/joint mamlatdar.
“Upon the certification by the mamlatdar, the staff concerned shall be granted compensatory leave as per eligibility and as per law,” North Goa collector Sneha Gitte said.
The Goa Human Rights Commission last month said that it did not agree with the part of the memorandum that denies compensatory leave to staff working on Saturdays and recommended withdrawing that part of the memorandum.
Some anonymous staff of the North Goa collectorate and five offices of the mamlatdars of the North Goa district complained to the commission that the office memorandum violated their human rights.
The memorandum stated that the staff of the offices of the deputy collector and mamlatdars shall work on Saturdays as directed by the presiding officers of revenue courts to assist them in hearings. The memorandum added that no compensatory leave shall be granted.
Govt said that the office memorandum was issued in pursuance of the order dated Sep 14, 2022, of the revenue department and the high court’s March 31, 2023, order to clear the backlog of cases.
The commission held that the memorandum goes against the office memorandum dated Aug 1976 of the Union finance ministry on overtime allowance to govt employees and the note of the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972.
“From the above provisions, it is seen that when a govt servant, other than a gazetted officer, works on holidays, he/she has to be granted compensatory leave in lieu of duty performed on holidays, as a rule, which generally has to be availed of within a month,” said the acting chairperson of the commission, Desmond D’Costa, and member Pramod V Kamat.