Cabinet Clears Disputed Civil Service Bill for Parliament
Nepal's Cabinet has cleared the Federal Civil Service Bill for submission to Parliament, moving forward with the draft despite pushback from the Public Service Commission over retirement rules.
The Cabinet on Tuesday approved the long-delayed Federal Civil Service Bill for tabling in Parliament, government spokesperson Sasmit Pokharel announced, advancing draft legislation that has ignited resistance from constitutional bodies and triggered sharp scrutiny in the federal legislature.
According to Setopati, Pokharel confirmed that the Council of Ministers cleared three legislative proposals during its Tuesday meeting for submission to the Federal Parliament. Alongside the civil service bill, the executive approved draft amendments to the Animal Slaughterhouse and Meat Inspection Act and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act.
The Cabinet's decision followed frantic internal reviews within the Ministry of Land Management, Co-operatives, Federal Affairs and General Administration after the Public Service Commission raised serious objections. The Kathmandu Post reported that ministry secretary Madan Bhujel and senior officials scrambled to redraft contested provisions after the commission warned that proposed changes would breach statutory protections guaranteed to civil servants under the Civil Service Act of 1993.
Clickmandu reported that the commission rejected several key proposals in the draft, including a one-time mandatory retirement rule for employees who turn 55 or complete 30 years in service, a reduction in the tenure of secretaries from five years to three, and a cap restricting pension calculations to 30 years. The commission argued that enforcing dual retirement rules created arbitrary discrimination, given that subsequent civil service recruits would be allowed to serve until age 60.
According to Clickmandu, implementing the contested provisions in their original form would force the abrupt departure of around 13,000 civil servants, including 47 of the 59 currently serving government secretaries. Deep-seated anxiety over altered terms of employment has already accelerated staff departures: Department of Civil Personnel Records figures cited by Clickmandu revealed that 538 civil servants resigned over the past five months, averaging more than 100 resignations each month under Prime Minister Balen Shah's government.
The commission cautioned that Section 58 of the 1993 legislation explicitly bars the state from worsening service conditions, salaries, or retirement pensions without an employee's written consent, commission spokesperson Purushottam Sharma told The Kathmandu Post. To circumvent potential court challenges, the ministry weighed concessions, such as offering staff retiring under the 55-year or 30-year threshold a pension calculated up to the existing mandatory retirement age of 58.
Meanwhile, the government faced intense criticism in the House of Representatives regarding legislative delays, Onlinekhabar reported. Lawmakers questioned why the draft had missed the 45-day tabling deadline promised in the government's 100-day policy roadmap. With the parliamentary session set to conclude this week, Communist Party of Nepal lawmaker Parbati BK and CPN-UML lawmakers Pushparaj Kandel and Guru Prasad Baral raised concerns that the government intended to bypass legislative debate and enact civil service rules through an ordinance instead.