Karnataka brings government employees’ services under Sakala Act; hefty fines for delays and malicious complaints

In a major administrative reform, the State government has issued a notification bringing a wide array of personnel and service-related requests of government employees under the ambit of the Karnataka Sakala Services Act, 2011. Concurrently, under the Karnataka Sakala Services (Amendment) Act, 2026, the government has revised financial penalties for defaulting officials as well as citizens filing frivolous or malicious grievances.

Following recommendations from the seventh report of the Administrative Reforms Commission-2, time-bound delivery of internal staff services has been extended across all field-level departments and organisations. The notification issued by Harsha Gupta, Principal Secretary of the Praja Seva Department, stated that strict timelines have been fixed to ensure public service delivery is transparent, efficient, and accountable.

Prescribed timelines for civil services

Under the notification, the disbursement of salary and issuance of salary certificates must be completed within three working days, while Form-16 issuance is set at five working days. A seven-working-day deadline applies to higher study permissions, festival advances, permission to draw first salary, and the routing of applications for KGID, GIS, and GPF. Sanctioning leave, charge allowances, and issuing No Objection Certificates (NOC) for passports must be settled within 10 working days.

A 15-working-day limit has been stipulated for processing time-bound pay advancements, annual increments, Last Pay Certificates (LPC), leave salary, vehicle and house construction advances, foreign trip permissions, and copies of service books. A 30-working-day timeline applies to medical reimbursement claims, forwarding pension and gratuity proposals to the Accountant General (AG), General Provident Fund (GPF) advances, Travelling Allowance (TA) sanctions, property or vehicle transaction approvals, probation declarations, and senior pay scale sanctions. The longest timeline of 90 working days has been allocated for compassionate appointments, pay arrears, and disability allowances.

Nodal officers from newly included departments must submit designated officer lists to the Sakala Mission within 15 days, while a uniform 35-working-day limit has been set for competent authorities to dispose of first and second appeals under the Act, the notification stated.

Revised penalties for officials and citizens

Under the amended provisions, officials who fail to deliver services or dispose of appeals within the stipulated timeframe will face financial penalties deducted directly from their salaries and awarded as compensation to the applicant. The penalty slab begins at ₹20 per day for the first one to five days of delay (capped at ₹100) and scales up to ₹100 per day for delays between 21 and 25 days, with a maximum cumulative penalty of ₹1,500. Additionally, for deficient service or wrongful rejection of applications without valid grounds, a penalty of up to ₹1,500 will be recovered from the responsible officer, according to the notification.

To curb misuse of the grievance mechanism, the amendment empowers authorities to penalise citizens who file false or malicious complaints intended to harass or intimidate government personnel. If an inquiry confirms a complaint was filed with ulterior motives, the applicant will be fined ₹1,500 per application, with repeat offenses attracting an additional fine of ₹1,500 per instance, recoverable as arrears of land revenue.