Probation in the All India Services

Probation in the All India Services is the trial period that an officer of the Indian Administrative Service, the Indian Police Service or the Indian Forest Service serves before confirmation, governed by three separate rule sets made under section 3(1) of the All India Services Act, 1951, and running two years for a direct recruit and one year for a promotee.

The three rule sets are the Indian Administrative Service (Probation) Rules, 1954, the Indian Police Service (Probation) Rules, 1954 and the Indian Forest Service (Probation) Rules, 1968. They look alike at a distance and diverge as soon as a rule number is quoted. Discharge is rule 12 in the IAS and the IPS and rule 13 in the Indian Forest Service. Salary is rule 13 in the first two and rule 14 in the third. The IPS rules have no definition of “Academy” at all, because rule 2(a) was deleted on 11 September 1968. An article, a judgment note or an office file that maps one service’s numbering onto another is citing a rule that does not say what it is said to say.

Probation here does more work than its central civil services counterpart. It carries a compulsory training course at a national academy, a final examination conducted by the Director of that academy, a marks based seniority list that fixes an officer’s place in the service for the rest of a career, and a discharge provision that cannot be used for unsuitability without a summary enquiry. The pay position has also moved out from under the rules: rule 13 of the 1954 IAS rules still prescribes a two stage junior time scale, while rule 5(1) of the Indian Administrative Service (Pay) Rules, 2016 fixes a direct recruit at the first cell of Level 10 of the pay matrix, Rs. 56,100 a month, from the date of appointment.

This page sets out the three instruments and their reliability, the periods and their provisos, extension and the outer limits, the training and the examination, what a probationer is paid and when the next increment falls, seniority, leave, confirmation, the grounds of discharge and the enquiry that must precede it, and the points at which All India Service probation departs from probation in central government service. The neighbouring machinery of the service, cadre, recruitment and seniority, is set out on the All India Services hub.

Three services, three sets of probation rules

Every All India Service probation rule is subordinate legislation made under section 3(1) of the All India Services Act, 1951, after consultation with the State Governments, which is the same power that produced the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968 and the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969. The Probation Rules are service specific, so there is no single All India Services (Probation) Rules to cite.

One identifier in the official compilation cannot be used. The footnotes credit G.S.R. No. 152(E) to the IAS rules of 8 September 1954, to the IPS rules of the same date, and to the Indian Forest Service rules of 6 May 1968. A single gazette serial cannot belong to three instruments across two dates, so this site cites the Probation Rules by title, date and, where one is printed, file number, and does not publish that G.S.R. number. The file numbers for the IPS and the Indian Forest Service rules are internally consistent and are used above. This is the same defect the corpus has already recorded in the All India Services compilation elsewhere, where a footnote credits an amendment to a provision the notification does not name.

Structural staleness sits inside the IAS rule text as well. Rule 3(2)(ii) still names the Indian Administrative Service (Appointment by Selection) Regulations, 1956, which were superseded by the Indian Administrative Service (Appointment by Selection) Regulations, 1997. The Probation Rules were never consequentially amended, so the operative reading is that the one year period attaches to a selection appointment made under the 1997 Regulations.

How long probation runs

Two years is the direct recruit period in all three services and one year is the promotee period, but no two services put those periods in the same sub-rule, and the special recruit is treated differently in the IAS and the IPS.

The special recruit is the trap. An IAS special recruit under the 1956 Regulations serves two years, because clause (ii) of rule 3(1) places him there. An IPS special recruit under the 1957 Regulations serves one year, because clause (ii) of rule 3(2) places him there. A general statement that every All India Service direct recruit serves two years is therefore wrong for the IPS.

Two provisos qualify the one year period, and they sit under the promotion sub-rule in each service rather than under the direct recruit sub-rule. The first allows any period for which the officer has already been appointed to a cadre post to count towards probation, having regard to performance in that post, with “cadre post” taking its meaning from rule 2(b) of the Indian Administrative Service (Cadre) Rules, 1954. The second allows the Central Government, in exceptional circumstances and after consulting the Union Public Service Commission, to reduce the period of probation.

The Indian Forest Service adds a dispensation the other two lack. The proviso to rule 3(1) lets the Central Government dispense with probation altogether for a person who, immediately before recruitment, substantively held a post of or above the rank of Conservator of Forests or its equivalent.

Extending probation, and the outer limits

Rule 3(3) of the IAS rules gives the Central Government a plain power to extend probation by one year, and rule 3(3A) gives it a longer power in two defined situations. Both sub-rules, and rule 3(1), were substituted by Department of Personnel and Training Notification No. 11037/3/86-AIS(III) dated 25 August 1986.

Rule 3(3A) of the IAS rules reads, in its operative part, that notwithstanding rule 3(3), a probationer who has not undergone the training course prescribed under rule 5(2) may have probation extended up to a maximum limit of two years, and a probationer who is under suspension, against whom a charge sheet has been issued, against whom disciplinary proceedings are pending, or against whom a prosecution on a criminal charge is pending may have probation extended for such period as the Central Government thinks fit. Four separate limbs, so a charge sheet alone is enough.

The IPS and Indian Forest Service versions carry three limbs, not four, because the charge sheet and the pending disciplinary proceedings are conjoined in a single clause: an officer against whom a charge sheet has been issued and disciplinary proceedings are pending. The IPS provision was substituted by Department of Personnel and Training Notification No. 11058/2/2000-AIS-III dated 29 August 2002, and the Indian Forest Service counterpart by Notification No. 11058/3/2000-AIS-III dated 2 September 2002.

Only two of the three services cap the total. Rule 3(3) of the IPS rules provides that the total period for which a direct recruit may be kept on probation shall not ordinarily exceed three years, and two years for a promotee. Rule 3(4)(a) of the Indian Forest Service rules sets two years for recruits under rules 3(1) and 3(3). The IAS rules set no ceiling of their own.

What fills that gap in the IAS is an instruction, not a rule. Department of Personnel and Training letter No. 11037/11/1987-AIS-III dated 23 December 1987, which reproduces the earlier Department of Personnel letter No. 22/3/71-AIS.III dated 13 July 1972, states that probation should not be extended by more than one year save for exceptional reasons, that no member of the service should by convention be kept on probation for more than double the normal period of two years, and that a probationer who does not complete the final examination within four years should ordinarily be discharged. The same letter requires the confirm or extend decision to be taken ordinarily within six to eight weeks of the expiry of probation and communicated with reasons where probation is extended.

That letter also creates a warning step the rules do not contain. A probationer making unsatisfactory progress should be informed of the shortcomings well before the original period expires, in writing, and the letter says in terms that although this is not required by the rules, discharge being a severe, final and irrevocable step, the probationer should be given that opportunity before the drastic step of discharge is taken.

A first extension in the IAS is administratively capped at six months. Department of Personnel and Training letter No. 11037/6/87-AIS(III) dated 2 February 1988, issued in supersession of Ministry of Home Affairs letter No. 16/3/69-AIS(III) dated 24 June 1970, fixes the reporting chain and limits the first extension to six months beyond the two years. Where probation is extended a second time by six months, the consolidated Department of Personnel and Training document of 7 October 2022 records that the probationer’s services are placed at the disposal of the State Government.

Training at the academies

The Probation Rules impose the training obligation and prescribe no duration for it. Rule 5(1) of the IAS rules requires a probationer to undergo training in the academy and in the State for such period as the Central Government may direct. Rule 5 of the IPS rules routes the probationer through the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration at Mussoorie under sub-rule (1), the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy at Hyderabad under sub-rule (2), and the State under sub-rule (3), with sub-rule (4) for promotees. Rule 6 of the Indian Forest Service rules routes the probationer through Mussoorie and the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy. None of the three names a number of weeks.

The schedule is published by the academy. The Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration states the Foundation Course at 14 weeks, run once a year usually from September to December, shared by the IAS, the IPS, the Indian Forest Service, the Indian Foreign Service and the Group A central services, with some 650 candidates a year at the academy and its partner institutions. It states the IAS Professional Course Phase I at approximately 20 weeks, starting in December and running to May, comprising 12 weeks of academic instruction, a 7 week winter study tour covering nearly 20,000 kilometres in groups of about 18 to 20, and one week of block leave. Phase II is stated at approximately 8 weeks, commencing in the third week of May and concluding in June, and the academy describes it as consolidating the district experience gained over one year.

The rule level anchor for that phase structure is the 1988 letter. It requires the Director to recommend continuance on the basis of performance during the Foundation Course, Phase I training, the final examination and the Director’s assessment, and to send further recommendations immediately on completion of Phase II training including performance in the regional language test. The same letter puts Phase II at ten weeks, which the academy’s current figure of approximately eight weeks has overtaken.

Two amendments narrowed the induction training obligation for promotees. Rule 5(2) of the IAS rules was inserted by Notification No. 11058/01/2002-AIS(III) dated 10 May 2011, and a second proviso was inserted by Notification No. 11058/03/2014-AIS(III) dated 4 December 2014 providing that a probationer who has less than four years of service left to superannuation at the time of induction into the IAS, or who has already undergone the mid career training programme category III after induction, need not be nominated for induction training, and that the first proviso, which visits failure to undergo induction training with reversion to the substantive State Civil Service post, does not then apply. That 2014 insertion is the only amendment to any of the three Probation Rules traceable inside the last ten years.

The Indian Forest Service carries a restriction the other two do not. A proviso to rule 8, inserted by Department of Personnel and Training Notification No. 11058/1/94-AIS(III) dated 24 June 1994, bars a probationer under training at the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy from sitting the Civil Services Examination or any other open competitive examination for a Central or State service. The revised copy the Department of Personnel and Training publishes also carries a rule 6(3) restricting the training obligation to a promotee probationer who has not attained 52 years of age on appointment and who has not already undergone training prescribed under rule 6(1), and permitting that training at Mussoorie, at the forest academy, at a State training institution or at another recognised institution.

The probationers’ final examination

The final examination is conducted by the Director of the academy under regulations made separately by the Central Government, and rule 7 of the IAS Probation Rules is the enabling provision for them. Failure has graded consequences under rules 8 and 9: a probationer who fails to appear sits a special examination normally within three months, and a probationer who fails to pass sits a re-examination whose marks, by the proviso to rule 9, are excluded from the seniority calculation.

The IPS and Indian Forest Service instruments are the ones most often cited wrongly, because both were replaced in 2023. The Indian Police Service (Probationers’ Final Examination) Rules, 2023, G.S.R. 377(E) dated 19 May 2023, superseded the 2012 Rules, which had themselves replaced Regulations of 1999; rule 2(1)(a) defines the academy as the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy, and the examination carries 1,200 marks for indoor subjects and 600 for outdoor subjects with a minimum of 50% in each compulsory subject. The Indian Forest Service (Probationers’ Training and Evaluation) Rules, 2023, G.S.R. 862(E) dated 23 November 2023, superseded the Final Examination Regulations of 2016 and set a 20 month course at the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy: 13 months in Phase IA, four months of on-the-job training in Phase IB and three months in Phase II. A probationer’s failure still runs back into the Probation Rules, which is how an examination result becomes a discharge question.

Both the IAS and the Indian Forest Service examination instruments were amended on 9 March 2022, each deemed in force from 7 January 2021, and each amending the Second Schedule of languages: the IAS amendment, G.S.R. 181(E) under F. No. 14015/40/2021-AIS-I(5), omits Jammu and Kashmir and its regional languages following the reorganisation, and substitutes “Urdu, Kashmiri, Dogri or Gujarati” for “Urdu or Gujarati” against Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and the Union Territories.

The academy record is assessed separately from the examination. Rule 6 of the IAS Probation Rules requires the Director to maintain a record of the probationer’s work and conduct at the academy and to assess it out of a maximum of 900 marks. The IPS equivalent, rule 6, is headed “Attendance at Lectures” and splits its marks differently, with 50 at the Foundation Course and 400 at the police academy under rule 6(2)(b).

What a probationer is paid

An IAS direct recruit draws basic pay of Rs. 56,100 a month during probation, the first cell of Level 10 of the pay matrix, fixed by rule 5(1) of the Indian Administrative Service (Pay) Rules, 2016 from the date of appointment. Rule 3(A) of those Rules names Level 10 as the Junior Scale. Dearness allowance, house rent allowance and transport allowance are reckoned on that basic from appointment, and the Pay Rules make no separate provision for the training period.

Rule 13 of the Probation Rules has not been repealed and still reads, in sub-rule (1), that a person referred to in clause (i) of sub-rule (1) of rule 3 receives salary at the lowest stage of the junior time scale during the first year and at the second stage of that scale during the remaining period of probation, with a proviso that a probationer holding or entitled to hold a lien on a permanent post carrying higher pay draws the pay of that post. Two limits on that rule are usually missed. It applies only to the Civil Services Examination recruit, because clause (i) of rule 3(1) is what it names, with the special recruit covered by rule 13(2) and the promotee and selection entrant by rule 13(3). And in the Indian Forest Service the equivalent, rule 14(1)(i), prescribes three stages, the lowest in the first year, the second in the second year and the third for the remainder.

What actually moves a probationer off cell 1 is the departmental examination, not the anniversary. Rule 10 of the Indian Administrative Service (Pay) Rules, 2016 opens with the words “Notwithstanding anything contained in rule 13 of the Indian Administrative Service (Probation) Rules, 1954” and requires the State Government to sanction the second and third increments due to a direct recruit with effect from the prescribed date of increment once the prescribed departmental examination is passed, irrespective of length of service, with a proviso making the third increment retrospective on successful completion of probation and confirmation. Rule 9 runs the other way and lets the State Government withhold an increment, without cumulative effect, from a recruit who fails to pass the examination within the time the State fixes. The IPS Pay Rules of 2016 carry the same pair of provisions in the same numbering.

Two older instruments still govern the edges. The priority question was settled by Ministry of Home Affairs letter No. 22/2/70-AIS(III) dated 14 April 1970, which records that the special provision in the Probation Rules prevails over the general provisions of the other rules so long as a person is on probation. For promotees, the Government of India decision printed under rule 13 records that although sub-rule (3) is silent about increments, promoted officers are to be allowed increments during probation from the dates on which they accrue, resting on Ministry of Home Affairs letter No. 2/1/61-AIS(I) dated 11 September 1961 read with letter No. 920/71-AIS(III) dated 23 January 1971. The general working of the annual increment and of pay fixation is unchanged by probation.

Seniority of probationers

Seniority inside the All India Services is fixed during probation and by the Probation Rules themselves, which is why an examination result here has consequences that a departmental examination in a central civil service does not. Rule 10(1) of the IAS rules requires the Central Government to prepare a list of probationers recruited under rule 3(1) and assigned the same year of allotment, in order of merit determined by aggregate marks at the competitive examination, the record maintained at the academy and in the State, and the final examination or the special examination under rule 8, with date of birth breaking a tie. Rule 10(2) makes that list the inter se seniority of probationers of the same year of allotment, and rule 10(3) excludes special recruitment entrants. The sub-rule was substituted by Department of Personnel and Training Notification No. 11037/2/88-AIS(A) dated 23 June 1989.

The proviso to rule 9 is the sharp edge of the scheme. Marks awarded at a re-examination are not taken into account in determining seniority, so a probationer who fails and re-sits keeps a place in the service and loses the marks that would have set the rank within it.

Two service specific differences apply. Rule 10(2) of the IPS rules adds that probationers appointed on the result of an earlier competitive examination rank above those appointed on a later one, whatever the marks. Rule 11(1)(b) of the Indian Forest Service rules weights the academy and final examination component at 50%, against the full aggregate at the competitive examination.

The year of allotment itself is not a probation question. It is fixed by rule 3(3) of the Indian Administrative Service (Regulation of Seniority) Rules, 1987, and Note 2 to rule 3 of the IAS (Pay) Rules, 2016 counts the four, nine, thirteen and sixteen years of service that carry an officer to the Senior Time Scale, the Junior Administrative Grade, the Selection Grade and the Super Time Scale from that year, which is why an extension of probation does not by itself delay a grade.

Leave during probation

A probationer in the All India Services earns leave on the ordinary footing, because rule 2(c)(i) of the All India Services (Leave) Rules, 1955 includes service as a probationer within the meaning of duty. There is no reduced entitlement of the kind rule 33 of the CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972 creates on the central civil side, and rule 18(B) names the probationer expressly in granting 15 days of paternity leave to a male member with fewer than two surviving children, not debited to the leave account. The wider scheme is set out on All India Services leave rules.

Rule 29 is the one restriction written for probation. Where it is proposed to terminate the services of a member on probation, leave granted cannot extend beyond the date on which the probationary period already sanctioned or extended expires, or any earlier date on which services are terminated by an order of the Central Government. The effect is that leave cannot be used to outlast the probation it is taken during.

An administrative overlay sits on top of the rules. The Department of Personnel letter No. 22/3/71-AIS.III dated 13 July 1972, reissued on 23 December 1987, states that probationers should be discouraged from taking long spells of leave except for unavoidable reasons because it affects their training. For women probationers, the operative text is paragraph 3(iii) as replaced by Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 11037/10/2004-AIS(III) dated 16 November 2004: lady IAS officers who are capable of completing the training will be allowed to complete it, and those who require leave will be allowed leave as due and admissible and will complete the training with the batch then training at Mussoorie. That replaced the harsher paragraph of Office Memorandum No. 11037/15/93-AIS(III) dated 3 December 1993, which tied absence to extraordinary leave and maternity leave with probation extended accordingly.

Confirmation at the end of probation

Confirmation in the All India Services is by formal order and is never automatic. Rule 3-A of the IAS rules, added by Ministry of Home Affairs Notification No. 2/1/61-AIS dated 5 June 1961, and rule 3A of the IPS rules, added by Ministry of Home Affairs Notification No. 11/2/60-AIS(I) dated 12 January 1962, both provide that where a probationer has completed the period of probation to the satisfaction of the Central Government, he shall, subject to the other provisions of the rules, be confirmed in the service at the end of the period of probation. Rule 4 of the Indian Forest Service rules is to the same effect.

The Government of India decision printed under rule 3-A closes the argument: confirmation of a probationer after completion of the period of probation is not automatic but is to be followed by formal orders, per Ministry of Home Affairs letter No. 16/3/65-AIS(I) dated 4 July 1965. That is the same position the central civil services reached by a different route, and it is why the deemed confirmation line of cases discussed under confirmation in service does not transfer to an All India Service officer without checking the rule first.

The process is now consolidated in a single Department of Personnel and Training document, F. No. 11011/01/2022-AIS-III, an information document on the process of confirmation of direct recruit and promotee officers of the Indian Administrative Service, marked updated as on 7 October 2022, which lists the six earlier letters it replaces in practice. Four points in it change how an establishment section works.

• The academy, not the State Government, compiles the whole probation record and sends the confirmation proposal to the Department of Personnel and Training in the Annexure-I proforma within one month of the end of training.
• The State Government holds a review board immediately after State training and sends its recommendation, with vigilance clearance, to the academy.
• Character and antecedents verification is obtained from District Collectors within three months of appointment, and silence for three months is read as nothing adverse.
• Paragraph 9 states the purpose of the instructions in terms: to obviate any legal claim to automatic confirmation after completion of the normal period of probation.

Discharge and the five grounds

Rule 12 of the IAS and IPS rules makes a probationer liable to be discharged from the service, or reverted to the permanent post on which he holds or would hold a lien, on five grounds, and the grounds are exhaustive.

1. Failure to pass the re-examination under rule 9.
2. Satisfaction of the Central Government that the probationer was ineligible for recruitment to the service or is unsuitable for being a member of it.
3. Wilful neglect, in the opinion of the Central Government, of probationary studies or duties.
4. Being found lacking in the qualities of mind and character needed for the service.
5. Failure to comply with any of the provisions of the rules.

The Indian Forest Service carries the same five at rule 13, lettered (a), (b), (c), (cc) and (d), with clause (cc), wilful neglect, inserted by Department of Personnel and Training Notification No. 11058/2/94-AIS(III) dated 12 January 1996. Its clause (c) is wider than the IAS text: a probationer found lacking in the qualities of mind and character needed for the service or in the constructive outlook and human sympathy needed in the public services generally. Its ground (a) is failure to pass the final examination in the circumstances mentioned in rule 10.

Discharge is not the only exit. Rule 15 of the IAS and IPS rules saves the power of the Central Government, for good and sufficient reasons, to dismiss or remove a probationer from the service at any time, so the five grounds govern discharge and not the disciplinary route. The IPS adds a third limb at rule 11(3), removal or dismissal for disobedience, wilful neglect or conduct unbecoming, following the rule 8 procedure of the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969 and with consultation of the Union Public Service Commission compulsory before final orders. The Indian Forest Service carries the equivalent at rule 12(3).

The disciplinary code applies during probation in two of the three services by an express provision. Rule 11(2) of the IAS and IPS rules applies the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968 and the Discipline and Appeal Rules, 1969 to a probationer so far as may be, and rule 11(1) places a probationer at the academy under the disciplinary control of its Director. The Indian Forest Service (Probation) Rules, 1968 contain no provision applying the Conduct Rules, which is a gap worth noting before an article asserts that all three services are on the same footing. A probationer is in any case a member of the service for the purposes of Article 311, and an order that is punitive in substance attracts its protection whatever the rule it is passed under.

The summary enquiry and when a discharge becomes a punishment

The proviso to rule 12 requires the Central Government to hold a summary enquiry before passing an order of discharge in every case except failure at the re-examination under rule 9. That single sentence is the largest difference between All India Service probation and probation in the central civil services, where the Master Circular allows discharge on assessment reports and a written warning with no enquiry of any kind.

The proviso does not make the discharge a disciplinary proceeding. It is a summary enquiry, so the full apparatus of an inquiry under the CCS (CCA) Rules with an inquiring authority, a presenting officer and articles of charge is not what rule 12 contemplates. What it requires is that the probationer be confronted with the material and heard before an order issues, which is also what the 1987 instruction on the written warning is aimed at.

Where the enquiry is skipped and the real reason is misconduct, the order falls. In Anoop Jaiswal v. Government of India, (1984) 2 SCC 369, decided on 24 January 1984, the Supreme Court set aside a discharge passed under clause (b) of rule 12 of the Indian Police Service (Probation) Rules, 1954 by Ministry of Home Affairs order No. 1-22011/9/81 Pers. III dated 9 November 1981. The probationer had reached a changed venue for physical training about ten minutes late in the rain on 22 June 1981, was treated as a ring leader, and was recommended for discharge by the Director of the police academy without any enquiry. The Court held that where the form of the order is merely a camouflage for an order of dismissal for misconduct, a court may go behind the form and ascertain the true character of the order; that the Director’s recommendation is the foundation of the order and must be read with it; and that if the alleged misconduct was the cause of the order, the discharge cannot stand without the reasonable opportunity Article 311(2) requires. The Court also recorded that the order had been passed in the middle of the probationary period and that other probationers treated as ring leaders were not dealt with severely.

The 1988 guidelines were themselves issued in the light of a judgment. Department of Personnel and Training letter No. 11037/6/87-AIS(III) dated 2 February 1988 states that it is issued in the light of the pronouncement of the Supreme Court in Civil Appeal 1237 of 1979, State of Gujarat v. A. C. Bhargava and Others, pronounced on 26 August 1987. The letter is the citable source for that fact. A discharge order that survives the rule 12 test can still be challenged before the Central Administrative Tribunal on the ordinary grounds.

Probation, qualifying service and pension

The probation period counts in full for pension. Rule 8(1) of the All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958 runs qualifying service from the date of substantive appointment to the service, with a proviso that where a member was appointed initially on probation, the period of probation also counts as qualifying service. Rule 8(2) carries forward earlier Central or State service to the extent it would have counted under the rules previously applicable, provided the service is continuous.

That matters more for a promotee than for a direct recruit. A State Civil Service officer inducted into the IAS brings the earlier service across under rule 8(2) and adds the one year probation under the proviso to rule 8(1), so neither the induction nor the probation creates a break in the reckoning that feeds pension calculation. The service is otherwise governed by the same retirement scheme as the rest of the All India Services, described on the All India Services hub.

Where All India Service probation differs from the central civil services

Four differences change the answer to a practical question, and none of them is a matter of degree.

Two things are the same in both systems and are often stated as differences. Confirmation is by formal order and is not automatic in either, and in both systems a discharge that is punitive in substance is struck down on the reasoning in Parshotam Lal Dhingra v. Union of India and the cases that follow it. The point of departure is procedural: the All India Services build the hearing into the rule, while the central civil services leave it to an instruction.

Errors that recur in the record

Five mistakes appear often enough in secondary writing on this subject to be worth naming, and each of them can be checked against a rule in a minute.

• Quoting one service’s rule numbers for another. Discharge is rule 12 in the IAS and the IPS and rule 13 in the Indian Forest Service; salary is rule 13 and rule 14 respectively; the whole Indian Forest Service set is shifted by one from rule 4 onward.
• Saying every direct recruit serves two years. An IPS special recruit under regulation 3 of the 1957 Regulations serves one year under rule 3(2)(ii).
• Citing a superseded final examination instrument as current. The IPS Regulations of 1999 gave way to Rules in 2012 and those to the 2023 Rules; the Indian Forest Service Final Examination Regulations of 2016 gave way to the Training and Evaluation Rules, 2023.
• Treating rule 13 of the 1954 rules as the pay position. Rule 10 of the Pay Rules of 2016 overrides it by name, and the entry figure is Rs. 56,100 in Level 10.
• Publishing G.S.R. No. 152(E) as the gazette reference for the principal rules. The compilation credits that serial to three different instruments across two dates.

A sixth is worth a sentence of its own. The All India Services (Probation) Rules, in that form, do not exist: there is no generic instrument, only the three service specific sets, in the same way that there has never been an All India Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016 and each service makes its own Pay Rules.

Related Articles

• All India Services
• All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968
• All India Services leave rules
• All India Services Group Insurance Scheme
• Probation in central government service
• Confirmation in service
• Indian Administrative Service
• Indian Police Service
• Indian Forest Service
• IAS salary
• IPS salary
• Civil Services Examination
• Union Public Service Commission
• Department of Personnel and Training
• Ministry of Home Affairs
• Seniority
• Qualifying service
• Lien
• Pay matrix
• Basic pay
• Annual increment
• Pay fixation
• Dearness allowance
• Departmental examination
• Induction training
• Direct recruitment
• Promotion
• APAR
• Vigilance clearance
• Suspension
• Charge sheet and articles of charge
• Departmental inquiry
• Major and minor penalty proceedings
• CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965
• CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972
• Article 311
• Article 312
• Central Administrative Tribunal
• Departmental Promotion Committee
• Central government pension
• Pension calculation
• Resignation from central government service
• Technical resignation
• Premature retirement
• Central Staffing Scheme
• Central government jobs
• 7th Central Pay Commission

External references

• Indian Administrative Service (Probation) Rules, 1954, https://dopt.gov.in/sites/default/files/Revised_AIS_Rule_Vol_II_IAS_Rule_07.pdf
• Indian Police Service (Probation) Rules, 1954, https://dopt.gov.in/sites/default/files/Revised_AIS_Rule_Vol_III_IPS_Rule_06.pdf
• Indian Forest Service (Probation) Rules, 1968, https://dopt.gov.in/sites/default/files/IFS%28Probation%29Rules%28revised%29.pdf
• Indian Administrative Service (Probationers’ Final Examination) Regulations, 1955, https://dopt.gov.in/sites/default/files/Revised_AIS_Rule_Vol_II_IAS_Rule_08.pdf
• Indian Administrative Service (Pay) Rules, 2016, https://dopt.gov.in/sites/default/files/IAS_PAY_Rules2016.pdf
• Process of confirmation of direct recruit and promotee IAS officers, Department of Personnel and Training, https://dopt.gov.in/sites/default/files/process%20of%20confirmation%20of%20direct%20recruit%20promotee%20IAS%20officers_compressed.pdf
• Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Foundation Course, https://www.lbsnaa.gov.in/course_listing/foundation-course

References

1. Indian Administrative Service (Probation) Rules, 1954, made under section 3(1) of the All India Services Act, 1951: rule 2(a) as substituted by DP&AR Notification No. 9/3/73-AIS(III) dated 2 May 1974, rule 3(1), 3(2) and its two provisos, rules 3(3) and 3(3A) as substituted and inserted by Department of Personnel and Training Notification No. 11037/3/86-AIS(III) dated 25 August 1986, rule 3-A as added by Ministry of Home Affairs Notification No. 2/1/61-AIS dated 5 June 1961, rule 5(2) as inserted by Notification No. 11058/01/2002-AIS(III) dated 10 May 2011 with the second proviso inserted by Notification No. 11058/03/2014-AIS(III) dated 4 December 2014, rules 6 to 9, rule 10 as substituted by Notification No. 11037/2/88-AIS(A) dated 23 June 1989, rules 11 to 13, and rule 15.
2. Indian Police Service (Probation) Rules, 1954, Notification No. 4/2/54-AIS(II) dated 8 September 1954: rule 2(a) as deleted by Ministry of Home Affairs Notification No. 25/2/68-AIS-III dated 11 September 1968, rule 3 as amended by Notification No. 11037/4/87-AIS-III dated 31 March 1987, rule 3(3) outer limits, rule 3(3A) as substituted by Notification No. 11058/2/2000-AIS-III dated 29 August 2002, rules 5 and 6, rules 10 to 12, and rule 3A as added by Ministry of Home Affairs Notification No. 11/2/60-AIS(I) dated 12 January 1962.
3. Indian Forest Service (Probation) Rules, 1968, DP&AR Notification No. 2/4/65-AIS(IV) dated 6 May 1968: rules 3 and 4, rule 3(2) as substituted by Notification No. 11058/1/2005-AIS-III dated 11 April 2007, rule 3(4)A as substituted by Notification No. 11058/3/2000-AIS-III dated 2 September 2002, rule 6, the proviso to rule 8 inserted by Notification No. 11058/1/94-AIS(III) dated 24 June 1994, rule 11, rule 12(3), rule 13 with clause (cc) inserted by Notification No. 11058/2/94-AIS(III) dated 12 January 1996, and rule 14.
4. Indian Administrative Service (Pay) Rules, 2016, G.S.R. 870(E) dated 8 September 2016: rule 3(A) on the Junior Scale, Note 2 to rule 3 on the year of allotment, rule 5(1) on the initial pay of a direct recruit, and rules 8, 9 and 10 on increments and the departmental examination. Indian Police Service (Pay) Rules, 2016, G.S.R. 910(E) dated 23 September 2016, rules 9 and 10.
5. Department of Personnel and Training letter No. 11037/11/1987-AIS-III dated 23 December 1987, reproducing Department of Personnel letter No. 22/3/71-AIS.III dated 13 July 1972, on the four year convention, the six to eight week decision window, the written warning and leave during probation.
6. Department of Personnel and Training letter No. 11037/6/87-AIS(III) dated 2 February 1988, in supersession of Ministry of Home Affairs letter No. 16/3/69-AIS(III) dated 24 June 1970, on the reporting chain from the academy and the State review board and on the six month first extension, issued in the light of Civil Appeal 1237 of 1979, State of Gujarat v. A. C. Bhargava and Others, pronounced on 26 August 1987.
7. Department of Personnel and Training, F. No. 11011/01/2022-AIS-III, information document on the process of confirmation of direct recruit and promotee officers of the Indian Administrative Service, updated as on 7 October 2022, paragraph 9 and Annexure-I; Ministry of Home Affairs letter No. 16/3/65-AIS(I) dated 4 July 1965, Government of India decision under rule 3-A, on confirmation by formal order.
8. Indian Police Service (Probationers’ Final Examination) Rules, 2023, F. No. 11058/05/2022-AIS-III, G.S.R. 377(E) dated 19 May 2023, rule 2(1)(a); Indian Administrative Service (Probationers’ Final Examination) Regulations, 1955, Notification No. 4/3/54-AIS(II) of June 1955, as amended by G.S.R. 181(E) dated 9 March 2022; Indian Forest Service (Probationers’ Training and Evaluation) Rules, 2023, F. No. 11058/06/2022-AIS-III, G.S.R. 862(E) dated 23 November 2023, rule 3.
9. All India Services (Leave) Rules, 1955, rules 2(c)(i), 18(B) and 29; Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 11037/10/2004-AIS(III) dated 16 November 2004, replacing paragraph 3(iii) of Office Memorandum No. 11037/15/93-AIS(III) dated 3 December 1993.
10. All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958, rule 8(1) and its proviso, and rule 8(2).
11. Ministry of Home Affairs letter No. 22/2/70-AIS(III) dated 14 April 1970, Government of India decision under rule 13 on the priority of the Probation Rules over the general pay rules during probation; Ministry of Home Affairs letter No. 2/1/61-AIS(I) dated 11 September 1961 read with letter No. 920/71-AIS(III) dated 23 January 1971, on increments to promotee probationers.
12. Anoop Jaiswal v. Government of India, (1984) 2 SCC 369, decided 24 January 1984, on discharge under clause (b) of rule 12 of the Indian Police Service (Probation) Rules, 1954 and the test for a punitive discharge; Parshotam Lal Dhingra v. Union of India, AIR 1958 SC 36, decided 1 November 1957, on substance over form.