Gazetted Officer (India)

Gazetted Officer is a higher level ranked public servant. Authority for a gazetted officer to issue an official stamp comes from the President of India or governors of states or union territories. In India, "Gazette" is published on regular bases by The eGazette of India. It is an official central government or state government publication (also called "Gazette") which publishes the appointment or promotions of certain government officials. An officer or public servant, who is appointed under the seal of the Governor of the concerned state or by the President of India at national level, requires being listed in The INDIAN Gazette or State Government Gazette to be considered a Gazetted Officer. If a person's name is published in the Gazette, he/she is called Gazetted. Many are honorary Justices of the Peace and have the same standing as some of the Magistrates. Such officers, among other functions, have the power to verify the documents for academic, immigration and other purposes. The Government of India or the Government of States in India classifies public officials into Group A, B(Gazetted), B(Non-Gazetted), C and D. Earlier classification was Class I, II(Gazetted), II(Non-Gazetted), III and IV. Class A or Grade I is the highest rank class and the Class D or Grade IV is the least. The Government of India has plans to merge Group IV or D into Group III or C. Grade I and II(Gazetted) belong to the class of officers whose transfer, appointment, promotion and superannuation is published on a yearly basis in the official gazette of state or central government. These officials belong to the managerial class of the government services.

Ranks

Class I or Group A-Executive power vested in these categorised public servants with decision making powers:

Members of All India Services, though posted to states; State Government Services (selected through Public Service Commissions in States) or promoted public servants/ officers from states to the cadre of Assistant Commissioner or above and to the cadre of All India services; Assistant/ Associate Professors/Principal of Government Degree Colleges, Patent Examiner(Official Designation- Examiner of Patents and Designs) Additional District Civil surgeons,Assistant Executive Engineers(Selected through UPSC) Executive Engineers and above, District Medical Officer and above, , Geologists of Geological Survey of India etc are Gazetted officers and have the authority to verify and attest documents.

Class II(Gazetted) or Group B(Gazetted)-Officers with subordinate managerial role:

Section Officer; BDO, Tahsildar, Junior Doctors in Government hospitals, TDO , Magistrate (SDM) And Co (police department),Income Tax Officer(ITO), Lecturers/ Teachers in government intermediate/senior secondary education institutes or schools.

Class II(Non-Gazetted) or Group B(Non-Gazetted)-Officer with limited supervisory role:

Office Superintendents, Government School Teachers, Police Assistant Sub-Inspectors/Sub-Inspectors/Inspectors and Foreman(NG) etc. belong to Group B(Non-Gazetted)category of staff.

Class III or Group C-Semi skilled with no or lesser decision making authority:

Clerks, Head clerk, Assistant, Typist, Stenographer, Tax Assistant, Telephone operator aand Assistant Central Intelligence Officer in Intelligence Bureau under Ministry of Home Affairs come under grade C non-ministerial,non-gazetted posts

Class IV or Group D-manual workers, Unskilled or semiskilled:

Peon, attender, gardener, driver etc.

Who can certify documents

Attestation of copies of original documents for academic or immigration: Class I and Class II(Gazetted) public servants (officers mentioned above in ranks) plus bank managers of a nationalised bank.

Character certificate: Police records verification and gazetted officers.

Citizenship certification: Citizenship certification is limited to very few officials such as Sub-Divisional Magistrates.

Non-Gazetted Officers

There are Class II(Non-Gazetted) officers and all government/public servants who are in class III and IV are Non-Gazetted Officers, e.g. Nationalised bank officials are not gazetted officers but protocol ranks exist and they are authorised to certify copies of documents.

References

Class II (now Class B)services are further divided into gazetted and non-gazetted. It is however not desirable to compare status of commissioned officers with that of gazetted but still in order to have a common protocol all Junior Commissioned officers and their equivalents are given protocol equivalent to Group B Non-gazetted. Therefore, Naib Subedar, Subedar and Subedar Major of Indian army and their equivalents in Indian Navy and Airforce are having the status of Group B(earstwhile Group II) Non-gazetted and therefore they are not having any attestation power. The Commissioned Officers were given an edge in their pay scales by the 3rd and 4th Central Pay Commissions over their civil counterparts. This was done by keeping in mind their service conditions but with the passage of time they were granted higher grade pay by the 6th Central Pay Commission and their demand to get risk allowance in the form of Military Service Pay was also granted to them. The 6th CPC recommendations in its letter and spirit never advocated for the inter-functional comparison of grade pay as a status symbol. But, at implementation level since most of the entitlements were clubbed with Grade Pay, the latter automatically became the status symbol. Therefore, ranks upto Major in the Indian Army and their equivalents in the Indian Navy and Indian Airforce are having protocol equivalent to that of Group'B' Gazetted officers of Central and State Government Service. An army Lt. Colonel and his equivalent in the Indian Navy and Airforce is thus equivalent to a group'A' gazetted officer of the Central Government and State Civil Services.

External links

• http://egazette.nic.in/
• http://gazette.kar.nic.in/
• http://www.egazette.kerala.gov.in/
• http://delhi.gov.in/wps/wcm/connect/DoIT/delhi+govt/delhi+home
• http://delhi.gov.in/wps/wcm/connect/DoIT/delhi+govt/delhi+index.html
• http://wbxpress.com/2011/10/attestation-by-gazetted-officer.html
• http://www.askwb.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=335

Junior commissioned officers (JCO's) in the Indian army is appointed by the president of India and these Junior commissioned officers are gezetted officers as per publication of gazette the Misistry of DeFence. The JCO appointment is exist from pree-independence of republic of India. So, JCO's particularly in Indian Army treated as group 'B' gezetted officers from British rule.