Appellate authority for disciplinary orders depends on the identity of the competent authority that made the order. Employees and former employees may appeal specified orders to the Authority, the Chairperson or a whole-time member, or the concerned Executive Director, as applicable. Appeals from common disciplinary proceedings follow a special route to the immediately superior authority. If the order-maker subsequently becomes the appellate authority, the appeal must be made to that person's immediately superior authority.

Employee appeal rights, subject to Regulation 96, cover suspension, disciplinary penalties and enhanced penalties, along with adverse orders affecting pay, allowances, pension, service conditions or interpretation of applicable service provisions. Appeals also extend to efficiency-bar stoppage, non-penal reversion, pension reduction or withholding, suspension allowances, reinstatement-period pay, and duty-status determinations. Employee includes a former employee, while pension includes additional pension, gratuity and other retirement benefits.

Regulation 96 bars appeals against orders made by the Authority, interlocutory orders or steps assisting final disposal of disciplinary proceedings, and orders passed by an inquiring authority during an inquiry. The appeal bar for interlocutory or step-in-aid orders does not apply to an order of suspension.

Borrowed employees facing suspension or disciplinary proceedings require prompt communication to the lending authority. Where specified penalties are contemplated following disciplinary findings, the disciplinary authority may act after consulting the lending authority. A disagreement between the borrowing and lending authorities requires the employee's services to be returned to the lending authority. For penalties specified under Regulation 87(1)(b)(i) to (v), the employee's services and inquiry proceedings must be referred to the lending authority for necessary action.

Employees lent to another authority may be suspended and subjected to disciplinary proceedings by the borrowing authority, which must immediately inform the lending authority. Following an inquiry, the borrowing authority may make appropriate orders after consultation with the lending authority for specified penalties. Disagreement requires the employee's return to the lending authority. For another specified category of penalties, the borrowing authority must return the employee and transmit the inquiry proceedings, after which the competent disciplinary authority may pass orders on the record or after further inquiry.

Special disciplinary procedure permits departure from the ordinary inquiry process following criminal conviction, where an inquiry is not reasonably practicable for recorded written reasons, or where an inquiry is considered inexpedient in the interest of State security. The disciplinary authority may issue appropriate orders after considering the circumstances. In conviction-based cases, the employee may be given an opportunity to represent against the proposed penalty before an order is made.

Common disciplinary proceedings may be ordered for two or more employees involved in the same case by the authority competent to impose dismissal on all of them. Where different authorities hold that power, the highest authority may order joint proceedings with the others' consent. The order must designate the disciplinary authority, specify its penalty competence, and identify the applicable procedural route.

Disciplinary orders must be communicated to the concerned employee together with findings on every article of charge. If the disciplinary authority disagrees with the inquiring authority, it must provide its own findings and brief reasons for disagreement, so that the employee receives the basis of the disciplinary determination.

Minor penalty proceedings require written notice of the proposed action and alleged misconduct or misbehaviour, a reasonable opportunity for representation, consideration of the representation and any inquiry record, and findings on each imputation. A prescribed inquiry is mandatory before withholding increments where pension may be adversely affected, the withholding exceeds three years, or it has cumulative effect. The record must include notices, imputations, representation, evidence, any Commission advice, findings, and a reasoned order.

The disciplinary authority may remit an inquiry for further inquiry on recorded written reasons. The employee must receive the inquiry report and any tentative reasons for disagreement with findings, and may make a written representation within fifteen days. The disciplinary authority must consider that representation and record findings before imposing an applicable penalty. Penalties falling within the specified categories may be imposed, with no separate opportunity required to represent against a proposed penalty in the latter category.

Regulation 88 makes a formal inquiry, conducted as far as practicable under its prescribed process, a precondition to imposing the specified major penalties. Proceedings commence with definite and distinct articles of charge, supporting imputations, relevant facts, and lists of proposed documents and witnesses. The employee must receive these materials and may file a written defence and seek a personal hearing within the stipulated period. Where charges remain disputed or no defence is filed, the disciplinary authority may itself inquire or appoint an inquiring authority and a Presenting Officer.

Employee misconduct may attract minor penalties, including censure, withholding promotion or increments, recovery of pecuniary loss, and limited non-cumulative pay-stage reduction, or major penalties, including specified reduction in pay, grade, post or service, compulsory retirement, removal, or dismissal. Established charges of disproportionate assets or unlawful gratification ordinarily require removal or dismissal, subject to exceptional recorded reasons. Recovery of quantified pecuniary loss may be made through lawful means without exceeding that loss. Specified administrative, probationary, retirement, and contractual employment actions are not penalties.

Employee suspension may be ordered for contemplated or pending disciplinary proceedings, conduct prejudicial to State security, or a criminal investigation, inquiry, or trial. Deemed suspension follows detention or qualifying imprisonment after conviction. Suspension continues unless modified or revoked and requires review before ninety days, with further extensions subject to periodic review. Subsistence allowance is payable at prescribed rates, with an enhanced rate after six months where delay is not attributable to the employee. If no penalty is imposed, the employee receives the difference between subsistence allowance and otherwise payable emoluments.

Sexual harassment of any woman employee at the workplace is prohibited, with its meaning governed by the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. Complaints are handled by the Internal Complaints Committee, which may initiate a reasoned inquiry, frame charges, receive the employee's defence and issue an inquiry report. The Committee may provide counselling or support services to the complainant, while the disciplinary authority initiates proceedings and imposes penalties for proven violations.

Misuse of Authority-granted facilities and concessions, including allotted residential accommodation, is prohibited. Residential accommodation may not be sub-let, leased, or occupied by another person unless expressly permitted. An employee must vacate allotted residential accommodation upon determination or cancellation of the allotment within the specified period.

Employees must not, through broadcasts, electronic media, named or anonymous publications, press communications or public utterances, make statements of fact or opinion adversely criticising any current or recent policy or action of the Authority or Government. The prohibition applies regardless of the medium used or whether publication is made in the employee's own name, pseudonymously or through another person.

Employee service discipline prohibits an employee from addressing an appeal, representation or petition to any outside authority or person concerning a matter relating to the employee's service in the Authority. Such external communication is deemed a breach of discipline.

Employees require prior sanction to approach a court or the press to vindicate an official act subjected to adverse criticism or defamatory attack. If no response is received within 30 days of the Competent Authority receiving the request, permission may be assumed. Actions to vindicate private character or acts done in a private capacity are not restricted, but the employee must report such action to the Competent Authority.

Arrest or detention for debt or on a criminal charge places an employee under deemed suspension, with payment subject to later adjustment according to whether the period is treated as duty or leave. Full pay and allowances require treatment as on duty and acquittal or proof that no improper conduct caused detention. Committal for debt or conviction involving moral turpitude or official duties may result in dismissal or other penalties. Acquittal after a higher court sets aside the conviction requires reinstatement.

Employees must avoid habitual indebtedness or insolvency and promptly disclose debt-recovery or insolvency proceedings to the Competent Authority. Employees deemed to be in debt must provide signed half-yearly financial statements identifying corrective steps. False statements, failure to submit statements, inability to liquidate debts within a reasonable time, or seeking insolvency-court protection may attract disciplinary action.