Appointments Committee of the Cabinet

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) is a Standing Committee of the Union Cabinet, set up under rule 6(1) of the Government of India (Transaction of Business) Rules, 1961, that decides the senior appointments, empanelments, extensions of tenure and extensions of service of the Government of India listed in entry 1 of the First Schedule to those Rules. Its members are the Prime Minister and the Minister of Home Affairs.

Civilian posts at or above the Joint Secretary scale, subject to three exceptions, board appointments in Schedule A and Schedule B central public sector enterprises other than ex-officio ones, the three service chiefs, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and the Chairman of the Railway Board all pass through it. So do the Joint Secretary, Additional Secretary and Secretary panels that decide which All India Services and organised Group A officers can be posted at the top of the Secretariat at all. For an officer at Level 14 or above in the pay matrix, the ACC is the body whose approval decides whether a promotion, a deputation or an extension takes effect, and from what date.

The committee has no statute of its own and no published proceedings. Its functions sit in a schedule to executive Rules made by the President under Article 77(3) of the Constitution and amended up to Amendment Series No. 75 of 13 January 2025, and its working procedure sits in Office Memoranda issued by the Establishment Officer of the Department of Personnel and Training, who is its Secretary.

This article covers the legal basis and the 2014 change in membership, the fourteen functions in the First Schedule, the posts in Annexure I and the empanelments in Annexure II, the proposal route and its timelines, additional charge, extension of service, disagreement with the Union Public Service Commission, and the points at which the ACC’s power stops and the full Cabinet’s begins.

Legal basis in the Transaction of Business Rules

The ACC exists because rule 6(1) of the Government of India (Transaction of Business) Rules, 1961 provides for “Standing Committees of the Cabinet as set out in the First Schedule to these Rules with the functions specified therein”, and the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet is entry 1 in that Schedule. The Rules were made by the President on 14 January 1961 “In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (3) of article 77 of the Constitution”, and the Cabinet Secretariat publishes the consolidated text as amended up to Amendment Series No. 75 dated 13 January 2025.

Rule 6 gives the Prime Minister control of the committee system in two sentences. Rule 6(1) continues: “The Prime Minister may from time to time amend the Schedule by adding to or reducing the numbers of such Committees or by modifying the functions assigned to them.” Rule 6(2) reads: “Each Standing Committee shall consist of such Ministers as the Prime Minister may from time to time specify.” The ACC’s membership and its list of functions can therefore both change without a gazette notification or an amendment to any Act.

Two further provisions bound the committee. Rule 6(6) states: “Any decision taken by a Standing or Ad hoc Committee may be reviewed by the Cabinet.” And Note (i) to the Second Schedule, which lists the cases that must go to the full Cabinet, says that a case covered by the First Schedule is disposed of by the committee concerned and is not placed before the Cabinet except under rule 6(6). An ACC decision is final in the ordinary course and reviewable by the Cabinet in the exceptional one.

The ACC is a committee of ministers, not a department. Its secretariat work is done in DoPT, and its decisions reach ministries through the Establishment Officer; the ministry concerned then issues the order that implements them.

Composition since June 2014

The ACC has had two members since June 2014: the Prime Minister and the Minister of Home Affairs. Before that it had three, the third being the minister in charge of whichever ministry owned the post under consideration.

The 19 June 2014 release, issued by the Cabinet Secretariat through the Press Information Bureau, announced the reconstitution of six committees: Appointments, Accommodation, Economic Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs, Political Affairs and Security. It listed the ACC’s composition as “Prime Minister. Minister of Home Affairs.” The three-member list of 10 June 2013 had read “Prime Minister. Minister of Home Affairs. Minister in-charge of the concerned Ministry.” A date of 14 July 2016 for dropping the departmental minister appears in online summaries; no Cabinet Secretariat list or order supports it, and the primary lists show the change in force two years earlier.

The departmental minister’s removal changed where the ministry’s voice is heard. Under paragraph 21 of the 1996 Central Staffing Scheme the minister in charge still chooses from the panel the Establishment Officer offers, but no longer sits when the ACC decides. Every Cabinet Secretariat list from 2013 to 2026 names the Prime Minister first, and none names any other chairperson.

The Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions is not a member of the ACC in any of these lists. That minister holds delegated powers in the CPSE stream, covered in the section on additional charge below.

The fourteen functions in the First Schedule

Entry 1 of the First Schedule gives the ACC fourteen numbered functions, (i) to (xiv), and an inserted item (vii)(a). Read together, they cover appointment, panels, tenure, movement between cadres, extension beyond superannuation and a set of disagreement cases.

Item (i) reads differently in older compilations. DoPT’s compendium of instructions on Board-level appointments in central public sector enterprises, issued with D.O. No. 28/43(EO)/2013-ACC dated 29 August 2017, words the upgradation power in terms of Grade Pay Rs. 10,000 in Pay Band 4 and a maximum of two years, and carries no item (vii)(a). The January 2025 text, in Level 14 terms with a five-year outer limit, is the current one.

Item (xiv) connects the ACC to re-employment after retirement. Paragraph 9 of Department of Expenditure OM No. 3-25/2020-E.IIIA dated 9 December 2020 lets the ACC allow special terms that depart from the general five-year outer limit on re-employment after superannuation.

Item (x) covers representations against adverse remarks from officers at Joint Secretary rank or pay and above, and excludes in terms “those working in the cadre”.

Posts in Annexure I

Annexure I to the First Schedule, headed “Appointments requiring the approval of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet”, lists eight classes of post for all ministries in Part A and a set of named posts in Part B.

Part A: all ministries and departments

1. Secretariat appointments of and above the rank of Joint Secretary.
2. All other appointments of civilian officers carrying a scale or pay equal to or above the minimum payable to a Joint Secretary, with three exceptions: IPS officers at Inspector General and Additional Director General level in the Central Police Organisations under the Ministry of Home Affairs; Defence officers of Major General rank or equivalent in those Organisations; and organised Group A officers posted in their own cadre below the Secretary scale.
3. Appointment of officers abroad, other than Ministry of External Affairs officers, at Third Secretary or equivalent and above, in Indian Missions or outside them.
4. Private Secretaries and Officers on Special Duty in the offices of members of the Union Council of Ministers.
5. Chief executives of central autonomous bodies and statutory bodies at or above the Joint Secretary scale.
6. Chairman and members of the Board of Management, salaried or not, of Schedule A and Schedule B public corporations, public sector banks, public sector insurers and financial institutions, except ex-officio appointments.
7. Part-time non-official directors on the board of any State-owned corporation, company or enterprise.
8. Chief Vigilance Officers in PSUs, autonomous organisations and statutory bodies at or above the Joint Secretary scale.

Exception (iii) to item 2 takes appointments to cadre posts of an organised Group A service below the Secretary scale out of Annexure I. The panel for the Senior Administrative Grade of most of those services is still an ACC matter, through item 6 of Annexure II, and the railway services reach the ACC at Additional General Manager and above through item 7.

Part B: named posts

A note to the Defence entries removes the need for a fresh reference when an officer already approved for a post in entries 14, 15, 17, 19, 20 or 22 moves to another post in the same entry. In the words of the Annexure: “No reference to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet is required for transfer of an officer approved for an appointment to any post included in entries 14, 15, 17, 19, 20 and 22 to another post included in the same entry”. A Lieutenant General moved from one Army command to another as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief therefore needs no second approval.

Annexure I names no head of a Central Armed Police Force, the Intelligence Bureau or the Research and Analysis Wing. Those posts carry pay above the Joint Secretary minimum, so they fall within the general words of Part A item 2; exception (i) to that item stops at Inspector General and Additional Director General.

Empanelments in Annexure II

Annexure II, “Empanelments requiring the approval of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet”, has nine entries. An empanelment is a finding of fitness for a level, separate from appointment to a particular post.

Entry 8 still states its threshold as a pre-revised pay scale of Rs. 67,000 to Rs. 79,000, and the Rules give no pay matrix level for it.

Empanelment under entry 1 rests on no service rules. DoPT told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel in 2017 that “For empanelment, there are no rules”, and the Committee’s 92nd Report recorded that the procedure rests on executive instructions. Under paragraphs 8 and 9 of the Central Staffing Scheme, DoPT OM No. 36/77/94-EO(SM-I) dated 5 January 1996, the Civil Services Board, assisted by a Screening Committee of Secretaries, finalises the Joint Secretary panel for the ACC, and inclusion “would not confer any right to such appointment”. Expert panels of retired Secretary-level officers, constituted with the ACC’s approval, read the officers’ records before the Screening Committee sits.

The ACC also sets the eligibility rules for entry 1 by direction. DoPT OM No. 32/29/2020-EO(MM-II) dated 18 June 2020 records the ACC’s direction that the qualifying service for IAS Joint Secretary empanelment is 16 years, and OM No. 12/03/2008-EO(SM-III)(Vol.II) dated 7 May 2025 records its direction making two years of central deputation at Under Secretary, Deputy Secretary or Director level mandatory for that panel.

The Establishment Officer and the proposal route

Every ACC proposal goes through the Establishment Officer, an Additional Secretary-level officer of DoPT. Paragraph 6.0 of the DoPT Annual Report 2024-25 states that “the Establishment Officer in the Department is the Secretary to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC)” and that all proposals for senior appointments needing ACC approval “are processed through the Establishment Officer”, including Board-level PSU appointments, Joint Secretary posts and promotions needing ACC approval.

Paragraph 22 of the 1996 Central Staffing Scheme gives the same officer two more roles: Member-Secretary of the Civil Services Board and of the Central Establishment Board. Paragraph 23 requires every requisition for an All India Services or Group A officer to be “canalised through the Establishment Officer”, which stops a ministry from borrowing a named officer directly. Paragraph 6.3 of the DoPT Annual Report 2024-25 records 470 officers appointed under the Central Staffing Scheme in 2024-25: 42 at Secretary level, 32 at Additional Secretary, 105 at Joint Secretary and 291 at Director and below. Of the 470, 217 were IAS officers and 110 were women.

The route for a Joint Secretary posting under paragraph 21 of the 1996 Scheme runs in four steps:

1. The cadre controlling authority puts the officer on the offer list for the year, and the Civil Services Board, chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, matches offered officers to vacancies.
2. The Establishment Officer, “acting on behalf of the Boards”, offers a panel of three names for each vacancy, or fewer where fewer suitable officers are available.
3. The minister in charge of the borrowing ministry chooses from the panel, normally within 7 days.
4. The ACC approves the appointment, the cadre relieves the officer, and the ministry implements the order.

Timelines for submission

A proposal should reach the Establishment Officer at least two months before the vacancy, and a later one must carry a Delay Statement. The Cabinet Secretary’s D.O. letter of 10 December 2015, reproduced in DoPT’s 2017 compendium, requires that a proposal not submitted “at least two months in advance of the date of vacancy/ending of the additional charge arrangement/ending of the approved tenure” be accompanied by a “Delay Statement” signed by the Secretary of the ministry. The statement records the time taken at each stage, the reasons for delay and the action taken to avoid a repeat. The same letter requires the ACC Vacancy Monitoring System to be updated within seven days, with a certificate of the update attached to every ACC proposal.

For CPSE board posts, DoPT OM No. 27(4)EO/2014(ACC) dated 22 October 2014 sets two months before an anticipated vacancy, and 10 days from vigilance clearance by the Central Vigilance Commission for an unanticipated one. DoPT D.O. No. 27(3)EO/2007(ACC) dated 5 October 2007 makes the Secretary of the ministry personally responsible for timely initiation.

For a promotion within a service, the DPC model calendar in DoPT OM No. 22011/4/2013-Estt.(D) dated 8 May 2017, carried into the consolidated DPC instructions of 22 July 2024, sets 15 April of the year preceding the vacancy year as the last date for the complete proposal to reach the UPSC where ACC approval is needed, against 30 April otherwise, and allows October to December of that year for ACC approval and its communication. Where the post falls within the ACC’s delegation, DoPT OM No. 22012/5/97-Estt.(D) dated 12 January 1998 requires a DoPT nominee on the committee.

Implementation, date of effect and reconsideration

ACC orders take effect prospectively. DoPT OM No. 28(15)-EO/84(ACC) dated 12 December 1984 provides that the date of effect “will be prospective unless otherwise specifically stated in the orders of the Committee”. For a promotion to a post within the ACC’s purview, the date from which the promotion is regular, and from which pay is fixed on promotion, is the later of the ACC’s approval and the date of actual promotion, unless the ACC approves from another date (Section 16 of the DoPT consolidated DPC instructions of 22 July 2024).

A ministry has one month to implement. DoPT D.O. No. 28(15)-EO/84(ACC) dated 31 January 1986 requires ACC orders to be implemented within a month of issue and a copy of the implementing order to reach the Establishment Officer’s Secretariat within a month of receipt. D.O. No. 28(14)EO/2005(ACC) dated 2 December 2005 makes the Secretary oversee implementation and requires unimplemented cases, with the explanation of the official responsible, to reach the ACC Secretariat by the fifth day of each month.

Requests for reconsideration are discouraged. DoPT OM No. 27(2)/EO91(ACC) dated 14 February 1991 directs ministries to avoid sending proposals to reconsider ACC decisions taken after due consideration, and puts the Secretary personally in charge of implementing the orders on receipt.

When an ACC decision is challenged before the Central Administrative Tribunal, the ministry consults the Establishment Officer before filing a reply, claims privilege over the ACC’s proceedings and sends the affidavit to the Establishment Officer at least 14 days before filing, under DoPT OMs No. 27(7)-EO/86(ACC) of 15 April 1986 and 1 May 1986.

Additional charge of ACC posts

The ACC must approve additional charge of a post whenever it would approve a regular appointment to that post. DoPT OM No. 27/12/97-EO(ACC) dated 15 October 1997 states the guiding principle: if a proposal for regular appointment to the post would have needed ACC approval, so does a proposal for additional charge. Delegations then release short arrangements from the ACC to a minister. The current duty charge allowance payable to the officer holding the charge is a separate question from who approves the arrangement.

The CPSE delegation to the Minister in charge carries four conditions: charge of the Chairman and Managing Director’s post goes to the senior-most functional director, charge of a functional director’s post goes to the CMD, the officer is clear from the vigilance angle, and timely action has been taken to fill the vacancy. A proposal that departs from any of them goes to the ACC whatever the period.

The 2022 CVO guidelines apply “the procedure followed for CSS posts”, which means the Central Staffing Scheme posts. The OM’s own wording is: “For approval beyond one year, approval of ACC will be required.”

Extension of service beyond superannuation

Item (viii) of the First Schedule gives the ACC the cases of “extension of service beyond the age of superannuation under Fundamental Rule 56(d)”. The ACC decides the case; FR 56(d) itself sets the ceilings and does not name the committee. The general rule in FR 56(d) is that no Government servant is granted extension beyond the age of superannuation, and the provisos then name the exceptions.

All India Services officers are covered by the parallel rule 16(1A) of the All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958. It names the Cabinet Secretary, Defence Secretary, Home Secretary, Director of the Intelligence Bureau, Secretary of RAW and Director of the CBI; the four-year cap on the Cabinet Secretary’s total term was substituted by G.S.R. 612(E) dated 9 August 2011. The DoPT consolidation of the 1958 Rules does not list the Foreign Secretary or the Director of Enforcement, both of whom FR 56(d) names.

Extension of service is distinct from re-employment after retirement. Extension keeps the officer in service past the date of superannuation; re-employment begins after the officer has retired, with pay fixed under the re-employment orders. The ACC approves both for its posts, under items (viii) and (xiv) respectively.

Disagreement with the Union Public Service Commission

A ministry that wants to depart from the UPSC’s advice on an appointment must take the case to the ACC. Item (iii) of the First Schedule gives the ACC power “to decide all cases of disagreement relating to appointments between the Department or Ministry concerned and the Union Public Service Commission”. Consultation with the Commission is required by Article 320 of the Constitution, read with the UPSC (Exemption from Consultation) Regulations, 1958.

The DPC procedure carries the same route. Where the UPSC was associated with a departmental promotion committee and the appointing authority proposes to disagree with its recommendations, the case goes to the Establishment Officer for placing before the ACC within three months of the date the panel’s validity commences.

Disagreement on discipline takes a different path. Entry 39(ii) of the Third Schedule requires cases of disciplinary action against All India Services and Group A officers, where the departments concerned differ or a department differs from the UPSC, to be submitted to the Prime Minister, not to the ACC. Entry 39(i) requires any case where dismissal, removal, compulsory retirement or reduction in rank is justified against “the holder of a post, appointment to which ordinarily requires approval of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet” to be submitted to the Prime Minister and the President before orders issue. The ACC has no disciplinary function in its own list. The penalties themselves are imposed under the CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965 or the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969.

Every non-acceptance reaches Parliament. Article 323(1) requires the Commission’s annual report to be laid before each House “together with a memorandum explaining, as respects the cases, if any, where the advice of the Commission was not accepted, the reasons for such non-acceptance”. The UPSC’s 74th Annual Report for 2023-24 lists five disciplinary cases of non-acceptance in Chapter 9.

Limits on the ACC’s power

The ACC cannot create a senior post. Entry (i) of the Second Schedule reserves “Proposals relating to creation of all posts in the Pay Matrix at the Level 14 and above” to the full Cabinet, with an exclusion for PSU posts and scientific posts under the Flexible Complementing Scheme. Note (ii) to the same Schedule repeats that new Level 14 posts go to the Cabinet and are not disposed of by Standing Committees, except where national security requires, and then hands back to the ACC only the temporary upgradation and downgradation already listed in its item (i). A cadre review that adds Senior Administrative Grade or Higher Administrative Grade posts at Level 14 and above therefore goes to the Cabinet, while the officers who fill the new posts come through the ACC.

The ACC does not set pay. The pay of every post it fills is fixed by the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016 and the levels of the pay matrix, and pay on deputation by the deputation orders. The Cabinet Secretary’s pay at Level 18 is fixed by those Rules, not by the committee that approves the appointment.

The Cabinet can review it. Rule 6(6) allows the Cabinet to review any Standing Committee decision, and Note (i) to the Second Schedule names rule 6(6) as the only route by which a First Schedule case reaches the full Cabinet.

The ACC in Supreme Court judgments

The Supreme Court gave the ACC a specific role by direction in the CBI cases, since overtaken by statute, and has quoted reform proposals that would have widened its role.

In Vineet Narain v. Union of India, (1998) 1 SCC 226, the Court directed that “The final selection shall be made by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) from the panel recommended by the Selection Committee” for the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, and that “Only cases pertaining to the appointment or extension of tenure of officers of the rank of Joint Director or above shall be referred to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) for decision”. The directions are reproduced in Dr. Jaya Thakur v. Union of India, 2023 INSC 616, decided on 11 July 2023. The CBI Director is now appointed on the recommendation of the committee under Section 4A(1) of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, as substituted by the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013: the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and the Chief Justice of India or a Supreme Court judge the Chief Justice nominates.

In T.S.R. Subramanian v. Union of India, (2013) 15 SCC 732, decided on 31 October 2013, the Court reproduced paragraph 5.11 of the report of the Hota Committee, appointed on 3 February 2004, which proposed that certain proposals go “through the Home Minister, a Member of the ACC to the Prime Minister, who heads the ACC for a final decision”. That passage is a committee recommendation quoted by the Court, not a holding on the ACC’s powers.

The ACC also sits at the end of statutory selection processes. Paragraph 14.5 of the DoPT Annual Report 2024-25 records that the Chairman and Members of the Central Administrative Tribunal are appointed on the recommendation of a Search-cum-Selection Committee chaired by the Chief Justice of India or a nominated Supreme Court judge, with the approval of the ACC. Item (ix) of the First Schedule gives the ACC every case in which a ministry disagrees with a Search-cum-Selection Committee’s recommendations for a post at or above Joint Secretary rank or pay.

Consequences for the officer

For an officer at Joint Secretary level and above, ACC approval governs three practical points, and a fourth marks where its reach ends.

Debarment. An officer who does not join an assignment the ACC has ordered under the Central Staffing Scheme is “ordinarily … debarred for further Central deputation for a 5 years period” under paragraph 19.3 of the 1996 Scheme. The offer list can be amended without penalty only before the Civil Services Board approves it.

Tenure. Central deputation tenure is fixed by DoPT orders “unless otherwise directed in the ACC orders”. For Additional Secretaries, DoPT OM No. 26/4/2011-EO(SM-I)(Pt.II) dated 15 January 2015 sets four years for an officer coming direct from the cadre, and graded combined Joint Secretary and Additional Secretary tenures for officers moved up during a Joint Secretary tenure. Any extension beyond the prescribed limit is an ACC case under item (iv), as is premature repatriation to the cadre under item (vi).

Vigilance. The ACC considers an officer only with a vigilance clearance, and DoPT’s 2017 compendium sends a CPSE proposal to the ACC where the Central Vigilance Commission has neither granted nor refused clearance within two months.

Allowance. The Central Secretariat (Deputation on Tenure) Allowance of 10% of basic pay, subject to the ceiling in the DoPT orders, is paid only below Joint Secretary level, on postings that do not need ACC approval; an officer approved by the ACC for a Joint Secretary or higher post draws no such allowance. Pay on deputation is protected under the deputation orders.

Related Articles

• Government of India (Transaction of Business) Rules, 1961
• Establishment Officer
• Civil Services Board
• Central Staffing Scheme
• Empanelment
• Department of Personnel and Training
• Cabinet Secretariat
• Cabinet Secretary
• Cabinet Secretary pay
• Union Public Service Commission
• Article 320
• Public Enterprises Selection Board
• Departmental promotion committee
• Promotion in central government service
• Pay fixation on promotion
• All India Services
• Indian Administrative Service
• Indian Police Service
• Indian Forest Service
• Indian Foreign Service
• Organised Group A services
• Central Secretariat Service
• Deputation in central government
• Tenure allowance
• Lateral entry
• Chief Vigilance Officer
• Central Vigilance Commission
• Vigilance clearance
• Vigilance angle
• FR 56
• Retirement age in central government
• Re-employment after retirement
• Compulsory retirement
• Adverse remarks
• Cadre review
• Higher Administrative Grade
• Central Bureau of Investigation
• Central Administrative Tribunal
• Central autonomous bodies
• Central Armed Police Forces
• All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules
• Charge allowance and current duty charge
• Levels of the pay matrix

External references

• Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India (Transaction of Business) Rules, 1961, as amended up to Amendment Series No. 75 dated 13 January 2025: cabsec.gov.in
• Cabinet Secretariat, Cabinet Committees and their composition: cabsec.gov.in
• Cabinet Secretariat, composition of the Cabinet Committees as on 3 July 2024: cabsec.gov.in
• Press Information Bureau, Reconstitution of Cabinet Committees, 19 June 2014: pib.gov.in
• Department of Personnel and Training, OM No. 36/77/94-EO(SM-I) dated 5 January 1996, the Central Staffing Scheme: documents.doptcirculars.nic.in
• Department of Personnel and Training, OM No. 26/4/2011-EO(SM-I)(Pt.II) dated 15 January 2015, Additional Secretary tenure: documents.doptcirculars.nic.in
• Department of Personnel and Training, Establishment Officer’s circulars: doptcirculars.nic.in

References

1. Government of India (Transaction of Business) Rules, 1961, made under Article 77(3) on 14 January 1961, rule 6 and the First, Second and Third Schedules, as amended up to Amendment Series No. 75 dated 13 January 2025.
2. Cabinet Secretariat, Composition of the Cabinet Committees as on 10 June 2013, 28 November 2014, 6 June 2019, 3 July 2024 and 27 July 2026; Press Information Bureau release, Reconstitution of Cabinet Committees, 19 June 2014.
3. Department of Personnel and Training, compendium of instructions on Board-level appointments in CPSEs, D.O. No. 28/43(EO)/2013-ACC dated 29 August 2017, reproducing OMs and D.O. letters of 12 December 1984, 31 January 1986, 14 February 1991, 15 October 1997, 17 August 2005, 2 December 2005, 26 February 2009, 22 October 2014 and the Cabinet Secretary’s D.O. of 10 December 2015.
4. Department of Personnel and Training, OM No. 36/77/94-EO(SM-I) dated 5 January 1996 (Central Staffing Scheme), paragraphs 8, 9, 19.3, 22 and 23.
5. Department of Personnel and Training, Annual Report 2024-25, paragraphs 6.0, 6.3 and 14.5.
6. Department of Personnel and Training, OM No. 40/1/2022-EO(CVO) dated 18 November 2022, and OM No. 372/7/2016-AVD-III dated 28 April 2017, on CVO appointments and additional charge.
7. Fundamental Rule 56(d), and rule 16(1A) of the All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958, as amended by G.S.R. 612(E) dated 9 August 2011.
8. Constitution of India, Articles 77(3), 320 and 323(1).
9. Vineet Narain v. Union of India, (1998) 1 SCC 226, as reproduced in Dr. Jaya Thakur v. Union of India, 2023 INSC 616 (11 July 2023); T.S.R. Subramanian v. Union of India, (2013) 15 SCC 732 (31 October 2013).