All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968

The All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968 are the code of conduct for officers of the Indian Administrative Service, the Indian Police Service and the Indian Forest Service, made by the Central Government under section 3(1) of the All India Services Act, 1951 and notified as No. 8/91/62-AIS(III) on 18 December 1968, gazetted as G.S.R. No. 3 on 4 January 1969. They run from Rule 1 to Rule 23 with four lettered insertions, and they replaced the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1954.

The rules govern what an officer may own, accept, publish, invest in, marry into and stand for election to, and they reach conduct in a purely private capacity. They carry no penalty. Every consequence comes through the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969, and the two instruments are read together on any charge sheet.

One structural feature separates this code from the CCS (Conduct) Rules, 1964 that bind a central civil servant, and it controls the reading of almost every rule in the set. Rule 2(a) defines “Government” three different ways depending on where the officer is posted, so the authority whose sanction is required, whose knowledge must be obtained and to whom a report is due moves with the officer between the Union and the cadre state. A central civil servant has one Government; an All India Service officer has two, and the code allocates each obligation between them.

This article sets out the whole rule map, the general obligation in Rule 3 and the nineteen further duties inserted in 2014, the gift ceilings and the notification that set them, private trade and sports bodies, investment, the property obligations of Rule 16 with their two months basic pay thresholds, the 31 January return date and where it actually comes from, enforcement, the differences from the central civil code, and the amendment history.

Who the rules bind, and what they displace

Rule 2(c) binds every member of an All India Service as defined in section 2 of the All India Services Act, 1951, which means the Indian Administrative Service, the Indian Police Service and the Indian Forest Service, the last of which is the only service ever constituted under section 2A of that Act. There is no group or grade qualifier anywhere in the code: a probationer, a District Magistrate and a Secretary to the Government of India carry the same obligations.

The displacement runs the other way as well. The proviso to Rule 1(3) of the CCS (Conduct) Rules, 1964 excludes a member of an All India Service from that code by name, so the two sets never apply to the same officer at the same time. An officer on central deputation does not pick up the central civil rules on arrival at a ministry: Rule 2(a) simply changes which Government administers the All India Services rules.

Rule 23 is the transition provision. It provides that the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1954 cease to be in force, with the ordinary savings for their previous operation, for rights and liabilities accrued under them, for penalties incurred, and for investigations and proceedings already begun.

Rule 2(a): which Government sanctions, and who interprets

Rule 2(a) controls every sanction, knowledge and intimation requirement in the set, because it decides which authority they are owed to. It defines “Government” in three limbs. For a member serving in connection with the affairs of the Union, it means the Central Government. For a member serving under a Foreign Government or outside India, whether on duty or on leave, it again means the Central Government. For a member serving in connection with the affairs of a State, it means the Government of that State.

The Explanation to Rule 2(a) closes the deputation gap. A member whose services are placed at the disposal of a company, corporation, other organisation or a local authority by the Central Government or a State Government is deemed to be serving in connection with the affairs of the Union or of that State as the case may be, even though the salary is drawn from a source other than the Consolidated Fund of India or of the State. An officer seconded to a public sector undertaking therefore continues to route property intimations and sanction requests to the deputing Government.

Two rules refuse to move. Rule 21 provides that where a doubt arises on the interpretation of the rules, the Central Government decides it. Rule 22 allows the Government to make any power under the rules exercisable by a specified officer or authority, and expressly carves out the Rule 21 power and the Rule 22 power itself from that delegation. A State Government administering the code on its cadre officers cannot settle what a rule means.

Rule 2(b) defines “member of family” as the spouse, whether residing with the member or not but excluding a spouse separated by a decree or order of a competent court; a son, daughter, step-son or step-daughter wholly dependent on the member; and any other person related by blood or marriage to the member or to the member’s spouse and wholly dependent on the member. The words on residence were substituted by Notification No. 11017/23/77-AIS(II) dated 19 April 1978, gazetted as G.S.R. 583 on 6 May 1978. Two later definitions were added to carry a policy change: Rule 2(d), “private undertaking”, inserted in 1995, and Rule 2(cc), “Non-Governmental Organisation”, inserted by Notification No. 11017/18/96-AIS(III) dated 16 November 1998, which reaches any organisation other than one owned or controlled by the Central Government, a State Government or an international organisation.

Rule map

The code runs Rule 1 to Rule 23, with lettered insertions at 11-A, 13-A, 16-A and 17-A and nowhere else. Anyone mapping it onto the CCS numbering will look for a Rule 3-A, a Rule 3-C or a Rule 22-A and not find them.

Source: the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968 as printed in the official rule compilation, chapter 10 of Volume I, carrying amendments to G.S.R. 280(E) dated 10 April 2015.

Two central civil rules have no counterpart here. The code contains no provision corresponding to Rule 6 of the CCS (Conduct) Rules, 1964 on joining associations, and none corresponding to Rule 7 on demonstrations and strikes. Collective action is not addressed by name anywhere in the 1968 Rules.

Rule 3: integrity, devotion to duty and nothing unbecoming

Rule 3(1) has not been touched since 1968. Every member of the Service shall at all times maintain absolute integrity and devotion to duty, and shall do nothing which is unbecoming of a member of the Service. Those three duties are what a charge sheet against an officer normally quotes, because almost any proved misconduct is capable of being brought within one of them.

Rule 3(2) puts a supervision duty on every member holding a supervisory post, to take all possible steps to ensure the integrity and devotion to duty of all government servants under their control. Rule 3(2A), substituted by Notification No. 11017/27/93-AIS(III) dated 13 January 1995, requires every member to act in a courteous manner in the discharge of duties and bars the adoption of dilatory tactics in dealings with the public or otherwise.

Rule 3(3), inserted by Notification No. 11017/2/79-AIS(III) dated 24 August 1979 and gazetted as G.S.R. 1122 on 8 September 1979, is the written-direction rule. A member shall not act otherwise than in their own best judgement except when acting under the direction of an official superior; that direction shall ordinarily be in writing, with oral directions avoided as far as possible; where an oral direction is unavoidable the superior confirms it in writing immediately afterwards, and a member who receives one seeks written confirmation as soon as possible. Clause (iv), inserted by Notification No. 11017/25/99-AIS(III) dated 1 February 2000, bars a member from employing any child below the age of 14 years.

The two Explanations to Rule 3, substituted by Notification No. 11017/39/86-AIS(III) dated 1 January 1987 and gazetted as G.S.R. 34 on 17 January 1987, control how far the rule reaches. Explanation I deems a member who habitually fails to perform an assigned task within the time set, and to the quality expected, to be lacking in devotion to duty. Explanation II stops the written-direction rule being used as cover, providing that nothing in it entitles a member to evade responsibility by seeking instructions or approval from a superior where the distribution of powers does not require them.

The 2014 ethics code: Rule 3(1A) and Rule 3(2B)

The values code that officers now work to was inserted into the All India Services rules by the All India Services (Conduct) Amendment Rules, 2014, Notification No. 11017/01/2014-AIS(III) dated 6 August 2014, gazetted as G.S.R. 573(E) on 8 August 2014. It added two sub-rules and left Rule 3(1) alone.

Rule 3(1A) carries six obligations: high ethical standards, integrity and honesty; political neutrality; promotion of the principles of merit, fairness and impartiality in the discharge of duties; accountability and transparency; responsiveness to the public, particularly to the weaker sections; and courtesy and good behaviour with the public.

Rule 3(2B) carries thirteen. They require a member to uphold the supremacy of the Constitution and democratic values; to defend the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, public order, decency and morality; to maintain integrity in public service; to take decisions solely in the public interest and use public resources efficiently, effectively and economically; to declare private interests relating to public duties and resolve any conflict so as to protect the public interest; not to place themselves under any financial or other obligation to an individual or organisation that may influence the performance of official duties; not to misuse the position to derive financial or material benefit for themselves, their family or their friends; to make choices, decisions and recommendations on merit alone; to act with fairness and impartiality and not discriminate, particularly against the poor and the underprivileged; to refrain from anything contrary to law, rules, regulations and established practices; to maintain discipline and implement lawful orders duly communicated; to maintain confidentiality where disclosure would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, strategic, scientific or economic interests, or relations with foreign countries; and to discharge duties with the highest degree of professionalism.

Rule 3(1) of this code was not rewritten in 2014. It still carries its original three duties, and the nineteen obligations added that year sit in Rule 3(1A) and Rule 3(2B) as separate sub-rules. The twenty-one figure belongs to Rule 3(1) of the central civil code, which was expanded by a different notification later the same year.

Employment of near relatives, and non-governmental organisations

Rule 4 stops an officer converting official position into private employment for the family. Rule 4(1) bars a member from using their position or influence directly or indirectly to secure employment for a member of the family with a private undertaking or a non-governmental organisation. Rule 4(2)(a) requires previous sanction before a member permits a family member to accept employment with a private undertaking or non-governmental organisation having official dealings with the Government, with a proviso allowing provisional acceptance where a reference to the Government would cause undue delay, followed by a report. Rule 4(2)(b) requires a report where the member learns that a family member has taken such employment.

Rule 4(3) deals with the reverse case. A member who is dealing with, or about to deal with, any matter relating to a private undertaking or non-governmental organisation that employs a member of their family, including the award of a contract, must refer the matter to their official superior, and the matter is then disposed of by that superior.

Politics, elections and canvassing

Rule 5(1) bars a member from being a member of, or otherwise associated with, any political party or any organisation that takes part in politics, and from taking part in, subscribing in aid of, or assisting any political movement or activity. Rule 5(2) goes beyond the officer’s own conduct: it requires a member to endeavour to prevent any member of the family from taking part in, subscribing in aid of, or assisting any movement or activity subversive of the Government as by law established, and to report to the Government where that cannot be prevented. Rule 5(3) makes the Government’s decision final on whether a body is a political party or takes part in politics.

Rule 5(4) bars canvassing and interference in an election to any legislature or local authority. Two provisos preserve the officer’s vote and the officer’s duties: a member entitled to vote may do so but must give no indication of how they voted or propose to vote, and a member is not in breach merely by assisting in the conduct of an election as part of official duty. The Explanation makes the display of an electoral symbol on the person, on a vehicle or at the residence an exercise of influence within the meaning of the sub-rule.

Rule 18 is the internal counterpart. It bars a member from bringing or attempting to bring political or other influence to bear on any superior authority to further their own interests in service matters, which is the provision that reaches a posting or promotion approached through a political intermediary rather than through the seniority and appraisal machinery.

The press, public media and criticism

Rule 6 is permissive. As substituted by Notification No. 11017/27/93-AIS(III) dated 13 January 1995, it provides that previous sanction of the Government is not required where a member of the Service, in the bona fide discharge of duties or otherwise, publishes a book or contributes to or participates in a public media. The proviso attaches two conditions: the member observes the provisions of the rules, and at all times makes it clear that the views expressed are their own and not those of the Government.

Rule 7 is where the restriction actually sits. No member shall, in a radio broadcast, in a communication over any public media, in a document published anonymously, pseudonymously or in their own name or that of another person, in a communication to the press, or in a public utterance, make a statement of fact or opinion that adversely criticises a current or recent policy or action of the Central Government or a State Government, or that is capable of embarrassing relations between the Centre and any State, or between the Centre and a foreign State. A proviso saves statements made in an official capacity or under a general or special order of the Government.

Rule 8 governs evidence. Previous sanction is required before a member gives evidence in connection with an inquiry conducted by any person, committee or authority, and a member giving evidence under sanction may not criticise the policy or any action of the Central Government or a State Government. Rule 8(3) takes three categories out of the sanction requirement: evidence at an inquiry before an authority appointed by the Government, by Parliament or by a State Legislature, evidence in a judicial inquiry, and evidence in a departmental inquiry ordered by a subordinate authority. Rule 8(4) bars publicity for evidence given in those cases. Rule 9 bars the communication of any official document or information to any person to whom the member is not authorised to communicate it, except under a general or special order or in the good faith performance of assigned duties.

Subscriptions, gifts and dowry

Rule 10 requires previous sanction before a member asks for or accepts contributions to, or otherwise associates themselves with the raising of, any fund or other collection in cash or in kind in pursuance of any object whatsoever. The breadth of the closing words is deliberate: a collection for a charitable purpose needs sanction on the same terms as any other.

Rule 11 was not part of the 1968 text. It was inserted by Notification No. 11017/27/93-AIS(III) dated 13 January 1995, gazetted as G.S.R. 52 on 4 February 1995, and it works through two ceilings that apply on different occasions.

Source: Rule 11, All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968, as substituted by Notification No. 11017/31/1999-AIS(III) dated 10 April 2015, gazetted as G.S.R. 280(E) of the same date.

That 2015 notification replaced figures of Rs. 5,000 in Rule 11(1) and Rs. 1,000 in Rule 11(2) that had stood since 1995. Any compilation printed before April 2015 carries the earlier pair.

The Explanation to Rule 11, which governs the whole rule and not only the first sub-rule, defines a gift to include free transport, free boarding, free lodging, any other service and any other pecuniary advantage, where provided by a person other than a near relative or a personal friend having no official dealings with the member, and excludes a casual meal, a casual lift and other social hospitality. Rule 11(3) is a standard of behaviour rather than a threshold: a member is to avoid accepting lavish hospitality or frequent hospitality from persons having official dealings with them, or from industrial or commercial firms or other organisations.

Rule 11-A bars a member from giving or taking, or abetting the giving or taking of, dowry, and from demanding dowry directly or indirectly from the parent or guardian of a bride or a bridegroom. The Explanation adopts the meaning of dowry in the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, so the disciplinary and the criminal liability turn on the same definition.

Rule 12 covers the ceremonial case. Previous sanction is required before a member receives a complimentary or valedictory address, accepts a testimonial, or attends a meeting or entertainment held in their own honour or in the honour of another government servant. A farewell entertainment of a substantially private and informal character, and simple and inexpensive entertainments arranged by public bodies or institutions, are excepted. Rule 12(2) bars the exercise of pressure or influence on any government servant to subscribe towards such a farewell.

Private trade, outside employment, fees and sports bodies

Rule 13(1) lists seven activities that need the previous sanction of the Government: engaging directly or indirectly in any trade or business; negotiating for or undertaking any other employment; holding an elective office, or canvassing for a candidate for one, in any body whether incorporated or not; canvassing in support of an insurance agency, a commission agency or a similar business owned or managed by a family member; taking part in the promotion, registration or management of a bank, a company or a co-operative society for commercial purposes; participating in a sponsored media programme or a privately produced media programme; and involving themselves in a non-governmental organisation aided by the Central Government, a State Government or an international organisation, the last of these inserted by Notification No. 11017/1/86-AIS(III) dated 16 November 1998.

Rule 13(2) permits five activities without sanction: honorary work of a social or charitable nature; occasional work of a literary, artistic or scientific character; participation in sport as an amateur; non-elective participation in the registration, promotion or management of a literary, scientific or charitable society, or of a club or similar organisation whose aims or objectives relate to the promotion of sports, cultural or recreation activities, registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860; and non-elective participation in a co-operative society substantially for the benefit of members of the Service or of government servants. The last two carry a reporting condition: the member reports the details of the participation within one month of taking part, and stops if the Government so directs.

Rule 13(3) requires a report where a member of the family is engaged in a trade or business, or owns or manages an insurance agency or a commission agency. Rule 13(4) bars the acceptance of any fee for work done for a public body or a private person without sanction, and the Explanation to it excludes unearned income and income from literary, cultural, artistic, scientific, technological and amateur sporting activity from the meaning of a fee. Where a payment is made by the Government for work of an occasional character, the question is whether it is a fee or an honorarium, and the two go to different sanctioning authorities.

Rule 13(5) is the sports provision, inserted by Notification No. 11017/9/92-AIS(III) dated 27 September 1995. Previous sanction of the Central Government is required to hold an elective office in a sports association, federation or body at State or National level, and the sanction runs for a term of more than four years or for one term, whichever is less. Officers holding such posts in an ex officio capacity at divisional, district, sub-divisional or taluk level, such as a District Magistrate or a Superintendent of Police, are outside the restriction. Clause (iv) requires prior cadre clearance from the Central Government for travel abroad in connection with such a body, which is a central gate on an officer who may be serving a state.

Rule 13-A, inserted in 1995, bars a member from sub-letting, leasing or otherwise allowing occupation by any other person of government accommodation allotted to them. Unauthorised occupation is separately recoverable as damages and commonly surfaces at retirement through the no demand certificate.

Investment, lending and borrowing

Rule 14(1) bars speculation in any stock, share or other investment, with a proviso saving occasional investments made through a stock broker or other person duly authorised or licensed under the law. The Explanation supplies the test: frequent purchase or sale, or both, of shares, securities or other investments is deemed to be speculation. Frequency decides the question, not the size of the holding.

Rule 14(2) bars a member, and any family member or person acting on the member’s behalf, from making an investment likely to embarrass or influence the member in the discharge of official duties, and deems the purchase of shares out of a quota reserved for the directors of a company or their friends and associates to be such an investment. The Department of Personnel and Training applied that provision directly in letter No. 11017/52/92-AIS(III) dated 27 January 1993, which records that a purchase from a directors’ quota is likely to embarrass the officer at some time or other and directs that neither the officer nor a family member should make one. Rule 14(3) sends a doubtful case to the Government, whose decision is final.

Rule 14(4) governs lending and borrowing. Save in the ordinary course of business with a bank or a public limited company, a member shall not lend, borrow or deposit money as principal or agent with any person, firm or private limited company within the local limits of their authority or with whom they are likely to have official dealings, and shall not otherwise place themselves under a pecuniary obligation to such a person. Provisos permit a purely temporary interest-free loan of a small amount to or from a relative or personal friend, a credit account with a bona fide tradesman, and a transaction entered into with the previous sanction of the Government. Where a member is appointed or transferred to a post that would put an existing transaction in breach, Rule 14(4)(ii) requires a report forthwith.

Rule 15 deals with debt. A member is to manage private affairs so as to avoid habitual indebtedness or insolvency, and must report the full facts forthwith where a legal proceeding is instituted for the recovery of a debt or for adjudging them insolvent. The reporting duty is triggered by the institution of the proceeding, not by its result. Rule 15(3) reverses the ordinary burden: once indebtedness or insolvency is established, the member must prove that it resulted from circumstances which, with ordinary diligence, could not have been foreseen or were beyond their control, and that it did not proceed from extravagant or dissipated habits.

Rule 16: movable, immovable and valuable property

Rule 16 is the rule that makes an officer’s assets visible to both governments, and it is what allows a disproportionate assets case to be built years after the event, because each return is a dated statement of what the officer held at the time.

Source: Rules 16 and 16-A, All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968, with the monetary thresholds as substituted by the All India Services (Conduct) Amendment Rules, 2011, Notification No. 11017/5-A/2011-AIS(III), gazetted as G.S.R. 363(E) on 5 May 2011.

The 2011 amendment is the reason no rupee figure can be quoted for the Rule 16(4) intimation threshold. The notification amends Rule 16 in two places: it substitutes two months basic pay of the member of the Service for the figure of Rs. 15,000 in sub-rule (4), and substitutes the same formula in clause (a) of Explanation I for the earlier insurance premium test of fifteen thousand rupees or one sixth of the total annual emoluments received from the Government, whichever is less. The compilation carries the same formula in the Note I lump sum under Rule 16(1). For an officer at the first cell of Level 10 of the pay matrix, Rs. 56,100 a month, that is Rs. 1,12,200; at Rs. 1,44,200, the first cell of Level 14, it is Rs. 2,88,400. The threshold is basic pay alone, so dearness allowance and every other allowance stay out of the calculation.

Rule 16-A is stricter than Rule 16(3) on purpose. Property inside India needs the previous knowledge of the Government, given by prior intimation; property outside India, and any transaction with a foreign counterparty, needs previous sanction.

The proviso requiring previous sanction where the counterparty has official dealings was substituted into Rules 16(3) and 16(4) by Notification No. 11017/85/84-AIS(III) dated 15 October 1985, gazetted as G.S.R. 1009 on 2 November 1985. The Department of Personnel and Training explained in letter No. 11017/95/84-AIS(III) dated 4 May 1993 how that is to be administered: the officer reporting a transaction or seeking permission must state whether they had any official dealings with the other party, and the Government then decides whether the transaction is consistent with the rules, having regard in particular to Rule 3(1).

Filing the return: Form I, 31 January and the two governments

The annual immovable property return is filed in Form I, in duplicate, and it goes to two governments. Decision 1 under Rule 16 requires a member serving in connection with the affairs of the Union, under a Foreign Government or outside India to forward one copy to the State Government on whose cadre the member is borne and the other to the Establishment Officer to the Government of India. For a member serving in connection with the affairs of a State, the State Government may adopt the same form with changes for local conditions, and the return is again filed in duplicate, with one copy forwarded to the Government of India.

The 31 January date is not in Rule 16, though the Ministry of Home Affairs itself attributes it to Rule 16(2) in the letter of 11 December 2023 described below. The rule requires an annual return in a form prescribed by the Government and prescribes no date at all. The date comes from Department of Personnel and Training letter No. 11017/74/93-AIS(III) dated 4 January 1994, printed as decision 24 under Rule 16, which asks all State Governments to ensure that returns of immovable property are submitted by every member under their control for every calendar year by 31 January of the next year, and records that failure to comply constitutes good and sufficient reason for the institution of disciplinary proceedings. The same decision records the underlying instruction that the Form I return is filed on first appointment within one month of appointment and in the month of January in every year after that.

The filing mechanism has moved online, service by service. For the Indian Police Service, Ministry of Home Affairs letter No. 45020/20/2021-IPS.II dated 11 December 2023, addressed to Chief Secretaries and Directors General of Police, requires the return to be filed through ips.gov.in or the SPARROW system using the officer’s NIC credentials and authenticated with the digital signature certificate already issued under SPARROW, and states that a return filed in any other form is not accepted. The same letter records that no request for condonation of delay in filing will be entertained, that vigilance clearance is denied where the return is not filed within the time limit, in terms of Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 104/76/2022-AVD.IA dated 28 September 2022, and that a Department of Personnel and Training notification dated 30 December 2021 made timely submission of the return a condition for appointment at the next level of the pay matrix. The Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Forest Service equivalents are issued by their own cadre controlling authorities, the Department of Personnel and Training and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Vindication, marriage, intoxicants and cultural norms

Rule 17 bars a member from having recourse to a court or to the press to vindicate an official act that has been the subject of adverse criticism or an attack of a defamatory character, without the previous sanction of the Government. A proviso inserted in 1995 supplies a deadline the officer can rely on: where no sanction is conveyed within 12 weeks of the date the Government receives the request, the member is free to assume that sanction has been granted. The Explanation preserves the officer’s private standing, permitting vindication of private character or of an act done in a private capacity, subject to a report to the Government.

Rule 19 restricts marriage. No member who has a spouse living shall enter into or contract a marriage with any person, and no member shall marry a person who has a spouse living. The Government may permit such a marriage where it is permissible under the personal law applicable to both parties and there are other grounds for doing so. Rule 19(3) requires a member who marries a person not of Indian nationality to intimate the fact to the Government forthwith.

Rule 20 addresses intoxicants in five limbs. A member is to abide by the local law on intoxicating drinks and drugs, is not to be under the influence of any intoxicating drink or drug during the course of duty, is not to consume any intoxicating drink in a public place, is not to appear in a public place in a state of intoxication, and is not to use intoxicating drinks or drugs to excess. The Explanation defines a public place to include any place or conveyance to which the public have or are permitted to have access, whether on payment or otherwise.

Rule 17-A is the provision with no counterpart in the central civil code. Inserted in 1995, it requires every member, in a personal capacity or otherwise, to observe strictly the existing policies on the age of marriage, the preservation of the environment, wild life and cultural heritage; to observe the existing policies on crime against women; and to observe the two children family norms. It is the only rule in the set that regulates family size, and it is written as a positive obligation rather than as a prohibition.

Sexual harassment: the 1998 Regulations under Rule 3

Sexual harassment is not dealt with in the 1968 Rules. There is no equivalent of Rule 3-C of the CCS (Conduct) Rules, 1964, which the Department of Personnel and Training inserted into the central civil code in 1998. For All India Service officers the obligation was created in a separate instrument on the same footing: the All India Services (Prevention of Sexual Harassment) Regulations, 1998, made by the Central Government under section 3(1) of the All India Services Act, 1951 in consultation with the State Governments, and framed expressly under Rule 3 of the Conduct Rules. They were notified by Department of Personnel and Training No. 11017/30/97-AIS(III) dated 24 July 1998 and gazetted as G.S.R. No. 143 on 8 August 1998.

Regulation 2 defines sexual harassment as unwelcome sexually determined behaviour, whether direct or otherwise, and lists physical contact and advances, a demand or request for sexual favours, sexually coloured remarks, showing pornography, and any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature. Regulation 3 imposes three duties. Every member of the Service is to take all possible steps to ensure that government servants under their control or authority keep away from any act of sexual harassment of working women. Every member in charge of a workplace is to take appropriate steps to prevent sexual harassment of any woman at that workplace. And no member of the Service shall indulge in any act of sexual harassment of any woman at a workplace, which is the limb that corresponds to Rule 3-C(1) of the central civil code.

Because the obligation is framed under Rule 3, a breach is a breach of the general obligation in Rule 3(1) and travels through the disciplinary code in the ordinary way. The statutory machinery of the Internal Complaints Committee under the law on sexual harassment at the workplace operates alongside it and is not displaced by it.

How a breach is punished

The Conduct Rules create obligations and stop there. Enforcement runs through the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969, notified as No. 7/15/63-AIS-II on 20 March 1969, and the allocation of power between the two governments is what distinguishes the process from a central civil departmental inquiry.

Rule 7(1)(b)(i) of the 1969 Rules makes the Government of the State competent to institute proceedings and impose a penalty where the act or omission was committed while the officer was serving in connection with the affairs of that State. Rule 7(2) reserves the three career-ending penalties: dismissal, removal and compulsory retirement may be imposed only by an order of the Central Government. A State Government may impose every other penalty in rule 6, including the major penalties of reduction to a lower stage or to a lower time scale, grade or post in clauses (v) and (vi); where it considers dismissal, removal or compulsory retirement warranted, rule 8(22) requires it to forward the inquiry record to the Central Government.

Rule 6(1) lists the penalties in two groups, with the minor penalties running from censure to reduction to a lower stage in the time scale for up to three years without cumulative effect, and the major penalties running from reduction in time scale, grade or post to removal and dismissal. The first proviso to Rule 6(1), inserted by Notification No. 11018/7/87-AIS-III dated 26 February 1988 and extended by No. 11018/5/2000-AIS(III) dated 4 April 2002, makes removal or dismissal mandatory where a charge of possessing assets disproportionate to known sources of income, or of accepting gratification other than legal remuneration, is established. Rule 8(1) requires an inquiry before any major penalty, and Article 311 of the Constitution sits above the whole process.

Two consequences do not need an inquiry at all. Decision 25 under Rule 16 records that lapses in submitting property returns attract action under the 1969 Rules, but the faster consequence is vigilance clearance: Part A of Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 104/33/2024-AVD-IA dated 9 October 2024, which governs All India Service officers, lists the failure to file the previous year’s return among the grounds on which clearance is denied, at paragraph 3(k). A denial blocks empanelment, deputation, inter-cadre transfer, confirmation in service and post-retirement commercial employment, none of which requires a charge sheet. The pension consequence arrives only through a penalty: dismissal or removal forfeits pension under the All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958, and compulsory retirement as a penalty does not.

Differences from the CCS (Conduct) Rules, 1964

The two codes cover much of the same ground under different numbers, and an officer moving between the frameworks, or an administrator handling both, has to renumber the obligations.

The gift row is where the two codes are furthest apart in practice. The All India Services ceilings are Rs. 25,000 and Rs. 5,000, set by G.S.R. 280(E) of 10 April 2015, and they are not the central civil pair of Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 2,000 in Rule 13(3) of the CCS rules, which came from a separate notification in 2019. The two codes also count the occasions differently: the central civil code grades the social-occasion ceiling by group, and the All India Services code has no groups to grade.

Amendment history

The official compilation prints the amendment history in footnotes against each rule, running from 1971 to 2015. The table below carries the notifications that changed an obligation an officer meets today.

The 1995 notification is the dividing line in this code. Before it there was no gift rule, no investment rule, no bar on sub-letting government accommodation and no cultural norms rule, and Rule 6 required sanction to publish. Everything a serving officer now thinks of as the core of the code, apart from Rule 3 and Rule 16, arrived on 13 January 1995 or later.

G.S.R. 280(E) of 10 April 2015 is the last amendment carried in the compilations published by the Department of Personnel and Training and by the Indian Police Service, both of which reproduce the rules with their footnoted amendment history.

Related Articles

• Government accommodation
• All India Services
• Indian Administrative Service
• Indian Police Service
• Indian Forest Service
• Indian Foreign Service
• IAS salary
• IPS salary
• Article 312 of the Constitution
• Article 311 of the Constitution
• CCS (Conduct) Rules, 1964
• CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965
• CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021
• CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016
• All India Services (Leave) Rules, 1955
• All India Services (Group Insurance) Rules, 1981
• Probation in the All India Services
• Immovable property return
• Misconduct
• Departmental inquiry
• Disciplinary authority
• Charge sheet and articles of charge
• Major and minor penalty proceedings
• Minor penalty
• Compulsory retirement
• Vigilance clearance
• Central Vigilance Commission
• Prevention of Corruption Act
• Disproportionate assets
• Sexual harassment of women at the workplace
• Internal Complaints Committee
• Empanelment
• Central Staffing Scheme
• Deputation to central government
• SPARROW
• APAR
• Department of Personnel and Training
• Ministry of Home Affairs
• Union Public Service Commission
• Civil Services Examination
• Cadre review
• Seniority
• Promotion
• Lien
• Resignation from government service
• Premature retirement
• Retirement age
• Honorarium
• No demand certificate
• General Provident Fund
• Basic pay
• Pay matrix
• Dearness allowance
• Central government pension
• Central government employees

External references

• All India Services (Conduct) Amendment Rules, 2011, the notification replacing the Rule 16 thresholds: dopt.gov.in
• All India Services Act, 1951 and the rules made under section 3(1), chapter 2 of the revised rule compilation, Volume I: dopt.gov.in
• All India Services (Prevention of Sexual Harassment) Regulations, 1998, chapter 11 of the same compilation: dopt.gov.in
• All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969, chapter 12 of the same compilation: dopt.gov.in
• Ministry of Home Affairs, online filing of the immovable property return by IPS officers, letter dated 11 December 2023: mha.gov.in
• Department of Personnel and Training, blank immovable property return proforma: dopt.gov.in
• Department of Personnel and Training circulars, establishment and vigilance divisions: doptcirculars.nic.in
• Central Vigilance Commission: cvc.gov.in

References

1. All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968, Notification No. 8/91/62-AIS(III) dated 18 December 1968, gazetted as G.S.R. No. 3 on 4 January 1969, made under section 3(1) of the All India Services Act, 1951.
2. All India Services (Conduct) Amendment Rules, 2015, Notification No. 11017/31/1999-AIS(III) dated 10 April 2015, gazetted as G.S.R. 280(E), substituting the gift ceilings in Rule 11(1) and Rule 11(2).
3. All India Services (Conduct) Amendment Rules, 2014, Notification No. 11017/01/2014-AIS(III) dated 6 August 2014, gazetted as G.S.R. 573(E) on 8 August 2014, inserting Rule 3(1A) and Rule 3(2B).
4. All India Services (Conduct) Amendment Rules, 2011, Notification No. 11017/5-A/2011-AIS(III), gazetted as G.S.R. 363(E) on 5 May 2011, substituting two months basic pay for the fixed thresholds in Rule 16.
5. Notification No. 11017/27/93-AIS(III) dated 13 January 1995, gazetted as G.S.R. 52 on 4 February 1995, inserting Rules 11, 13-A, 14 and 17-A and substituting Rule 6.
6. Department of Personnel and Training letter No. 11017/74/93-AIS(III) dated 4 January 1994, decision 24 under Rule 16, on the 31 January date for the annual immovable property return.
7. Government of India decisions under Rules 14 and 16 of the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968: letter No. 11017/52/92-AIS(III) dated 27 January 1993 on shares from a directors’ quota, and letter No. 11017/95/84-AIS(III) dated 4 May 1993, decision 23 under Rule 16, on official dealings and permission for a property transaction.
8. All India Services (Prevention of Sexual Harassment) Regulations, 1998, Department of Personnel and Training Notification No. 11017/30/97-AIS(III) dated 24 July 1998, gazetted as G.S.R. No. 143 on 8 August 1998, made under Rule 3 of the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968.
9. All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969, Notification No. 7/15/63-AIS-II dated 20 March 1969, Rules 6(1), 7(1)(b)(i), 7(2) and 8(1).
10. Ministry of Home Affairs letter No. 45020/20/2021-IPS.II dated 11 December 2023 on the online filing of the immovable property return by IPS officers, and Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 104/33/2024-AVD-IA dated 9 October 2024, Part A paragraph 3(k), on denial of vigilance clearance for a default.