Child Adoption Leave for Central Government Employees
Child adoption leave is 180 days at full pay under Rule 43-B for a woman central government employee adopting or fostering a child below one year of age.
Child adoption leave is 180 days of leave at full pay for a female central government employee with fewer than two surviving children, granted under Rule 43-B of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 on accepting a child below the age of one year in pre-adoption foster care or on the valid adoption of such a child, running immediately after that event and not debited to the leave account. An adopting father draws 15 days under Rule 43-AA.
The leave was built as the adopting mother’s equivalent of maternity leave, and the drafting says so. The Office Memorandum that first extended it in its modern form, No. 13018/4/2004-Estt.(L) dated 31 March 2006, granted 135 days to adoptive mothers “on the lines of maternity leave admissible to natural mothers”, and the enhancement to 180 days followed once maternity leave itself was raised to 180 days on the 6th Central Pay Commission recommendations. The two heads now match on quantum, on leave salary and on the treatment of the leave account, and they differ only in the event that triggers them.
Two changes since 2009 decide most live questions. The Central Civil Services (Leave) (Amendment) Rules 2023, notified as G.S.R. 374(E) dated 15 May 2023, brought a child accepted in pre-adoption foster care within the leave, so the entitlement no longer waits for the adoption order. The Central Civil Services (Leave) (Amendment) Rules 2024, notified as G.S.R. 331(E) dated 18 June 2024, dealt with surrogacy through Rules 43, 43-A and 43-C and left Rule 43-B alone, which is why a commissioning mother is on the maternity leave side of the code rather than the adoption side.
This article sets out the quantum and the conditions, the foster-care extension and its recovery proviso, the leave salary and the non-debit, the leave that can follow the 180 days, what the rules treat as a valid adoption, the ward provision, the adopting father’s leave, and how the head sits among the other parental leaves. The wider leave code is in the CCS (Leave) Rules article.
The 180-day entitlement
Rule 43-B(1) fixes child adoption leave at 180 days, granted by an authority competent to grant leave. The quantum does not vary with length of service, pay level, or which child is being adopted. There is no accrual and no accumulation, because the leave is not earned over time: it arises on the event, and it lapses with it.
The leave runs immediately after the foster placement or the valid adoption. That word is doing work. Rule 43-B(1) grants the 180 days “immediately after accepting the child in pre-adoption foster care or on valid adoption, as the case may be”, so the leave is not a floating entitlement that can be parked and taken at a chosen point later in the year. It is the settling-in leave, and it attaches to the moment the child enters the home.
Rule 43-B sits in Chapter V of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972, among the special kinds of leave, alongside maternity leave under Rule 43, paternity leave under Rule 43-A, paternity leave for child adoption under Rule 43-AA and child care leave under Rule 43-C. It is a lettered rule, inserted after 1972 rather than part of the original notification of 8 April 1972.
Eligibility conditions
Three conditions decide eligibility, and all three are in Rule 43-B(1). The servant must be a woman: the rule reads “a female Government servant”, and the adopting father is dealt with separately under Rule 43-AA. She must have fewer than two surviving children at the time. The child must be below the age of one year on the date of the foster placement or the valid adoption.
The family-size condition is the small-family norm that runs through the whole of the parental-leave code, and it is the same test in Rule 43 for maternity leave, Rule 43-A for paternity leave and Rule 43-AA for the adopting father. A woman with two or more surviving children is outside Rule 43-B entirely. The proviso to Rule 43-B(3)(b) states the bar a second time for the continuation leave, so a servant who has two surviving children at the time of adoption gets neither the 180 days nor the leave that would otherwise follow them.
The age condition is the one most often misread, because the neighbouring child care leave runs until a child turns eighteen and the two are easy to conflate. Child adoption leave stops at a child below one year. A woman who adopts a two-year-old gets no child adoption leave at all, though she can draw on the 730-day child care leave pool under Rule 43-C to look after the child.
Pre-adoption foster care since 15 May 2023
Child adoption leave has been available on a pre-adoption foster placement since 15 May 2023. The Central Civil Services (Leave) (Amendment) Rules 2023, notified as G.S.R. 374(E) dated 15 May 2023 under F. No. A-24011/6/2023-Estt.(Leave) and published in the Gazette of India on 18 May 2023, substituted the opening words of Rule 43-B(1). Before that substitution the leave ran only on a valid adoption. After it, the 180 days are granted to a female government servant with fewer than two surviving children “on accepting a child in pre-adoption foster care or on valid adoption of a child below the age of one year”.
This matters because the two events can be a year apart. An infant is commonly placed with prospective adoptive parents on a pre-adoption foster basis while the adoption petition is pending before the court, and the adoption order can follow months later. Before 15 May 2023 the mother had no leave for the period that mattered most, the first weeks with the child, and the entitlement crystallised only when the court order issued. The amendment moved the trigger to the placement.
The extension carries a recovery condition. The proviso inserted by the same notification provides that where the pre-adoption foster care is not followed by a valid adoption of the child, the leave already availed is debited from any other kind of leave available to the credit of the female government servant. So the leave is granted on the expectation of the adoption, and if the adoption does not follow, the 180 days are charged back against earned leave, half pay leave or whatever else stands to her credit. The identical proviso was inserted into Rule 43-AA for the adopting father by the same notification. G.S.R. 374(E) was issued by the Department of Personnel and Training under the proviso to article 309 read with clause (5) of article 148 of the Constitution, after consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India for the Indian Audit and Accounts Department.
Leave salary and the leave account
Child adoption leave is paid at full pay and is not charged to any leave balance. Rule 43-B(2) provides that during the period of the leave the servant is paid leave salary equal to the pay drawn immediately before proceeding on leave, which is the same basis Rule 40(1) applies to earned leave, maternity leave and commuted leave. Dearness allowance is payable on that leave salary under the dearness allowance orders rather than under Rule 40. All 180 days carry the full rate, with no step down partway through, which is the point of difference from child care leave under Rule 43-C, paid at 100% for the first 365 days and 80% for the next 365.
The contrast with the ordinary leave heads is sharp. Half pay leave pays half of basic pay with dearness allowance on that half, and extraordinary leave carries no leave salary at all. On child adoption leave the woman draws her pay.
Rule 43-B(4) states that child adoption leave is not debited against the leave account. The 180 days do not reduce the earned leave or half pay leave balance, those balances keep accruing through the leave, and the 300 days of earned leave that can be encashed at retirement are untouched, a point the leave encashment article develops. The single exception is the 2023 foster-care proviso, which reverses the position where a foster placement does not end in an adoption.
Leave in continuation, and the one-year cap
More leave can follow the 180 days. Rule 43-B(3)(b) provides that in continuation of the child adoption leave a female government servant may also be granted, if applied for, leave of the kind due and admissible, including leave not due and commuted leave not exceeding 60 days without production of a medical certificate, for a period up to one year reduced by the age of the adopted child on the date of the valid adoption, without taking into account the child adoption leave itself.
Three parts of that provision decide what an adopting mother actually gets. The 180 days are excluded from the computation, so the cap is on the continuation leave alone and not on the total absence. Commuted leave up to 60 days is available without a medical certificate, which is a relaxation of the requirement in Rule 30(1), and leave not due is available even where nothing stands to credit. And the cap shrinks as the child’s age at adoption rises. The illustrations given in paragraph 4(ii) of the Office Memorandum dated 31 March 2006, which the rule carried forward, set out the arithmetic.
| Age of the child on the date of adoption | Continuation leave admissible |
|---|---|
| Less than one month | Up to one year |
| Six months and above, but less than seven | Up to six months |
| Nine months and above, but less than ten | Up to three months |
A woman who adopts a newborn can therefore be away for 180 days of child adoption leave and up to a further year of leave of the kind due and admissible, while a woman who adopts a child of ten months gets the 180 days and around two months of continuation leave. The proviso bars the continuation leave altogether where the servant already has two surviving children at the time of adoption.
Commuted leave, earned leave and leave not due are the usual fillers, each granted on its own terms. In practice many adopting mothers take child care leave instead, because child care leave draws on a separate 730-day whole-service pool under Rule 43-C rather than on the balances a woman wants to keep for encashment, and it can be taken in spells as the child grows.
Combination with other kinds of leave
Rule 43-B(3)(a) provides that child adoption leave may be combined with leave of any other kind. The provision is short and it is permissive: there is no restriction on what may sit on either side of the 180 days, and no requirement that the leave be sandwiched between duty.
Casual leave is the standing exception across the leave code, and not because Rule 43-B says so. Casual leave sits outside the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 altogether, is not treated as leave for the purposes of those rules, and is not combinable with any leave granted under them. That is the same reason casual leave cannot be prefixed or suffixed to paternity leave or to earned leave.
What counts as a valid adoption
A valid adoption for Rule 43-B is an adoption under a law in force that makes the government servant the legal parent of the child. Informal care of a child, or a family arrangement without a legal instrument, does not attract the leave. The sanctioning authority looks for the document that establishes the legal relationship, the adoption deed or the court order, and reads the child’s age as on the date the adoption becomes valid.
Two routes cover almost all adoptions in India. The first is the process administered by the Central Adoption Resource Authority, the statutory body under the Ministry of Women and Child Development that regulates in-country and inter-country adoption under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015, which ends in a court order vesting the child in the adoptive parent. The second is an adoption under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act 1956, which governs adoption among Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs and takes effect through a registered adoption deed.
Since 15 May 2023 the distinction matters less at the front end, because the leave now runs from the pre-adoption foster placement rather than the order. It still matters at the back end, because the proviso to Rule 43-B(1) recovers the leave from the servant’s other leave if the foster placement never becomes a valid adoption.
Wards under the Guardians and Wards Act 1890
A ward can count as a child for Rule 43-B. The Note under the rule provides that “child” includes a child taken as a ward by the government servant under the Guardians and Wards Act 1890 or under the personal law applicable to that servant, subject to three conditions: the ward lives with the government servant, the ward is treated as a member of the family, and the servant has, through a special will, conferred on the ward the same status as a natural born child.
The special will is the operative condition and the one most often missed. Guardianship alone is not enough, and neither is the ward living in the household. Without a will conferring the status of a natural born child, a guardian is not within the Note, and the leave is not admissible. The same Note appears under Rule 43-A, so the treatment is common to the parental leaves rather than special to adoption.
The adopting father under Rule 43-AA
An adopting father draws 15 days under Rule 43-AA, not 180. A male government servant, including an apprentice, with fewer than two surviving children who accepts a child below the age of one year in pre-adoption foster care or validly adopts such a child is granted 15 days of paternity leave, to be availed within six months from that date. The quantum, the pay and the fewer-than-two-children condition mirror ordinary paternity leave under Rule 43-A, with the adoption or the placement standing in for the birth.
The provision was created alongside the enhancement of the mother’s leave. Paragraph 3 of the Office Memorandum No. 13018/1/2009-Estt.(L) dated 22 July 2009, the same order that raised child adoption leave from 135 days to 180, decided that a male government servant with fewer than two surviving children could be sanctioned 15 days of paternity leave on the valid adoption of a child below one year. G.S.R. 374(E) dated 15 May 2023 then substituted the same foster-care wording into Rule 43-AA(1) that it substituted into Rule 43-B(1), with the same proviso debiting the leave from the father’s other leave if the foster care does not lead to a valid adoption.
The result is a matched pair. On the adoption or the foster placement of an infant, an adopting couple in central service draws 180 days for the mother and 15 for the father, the same shape as the 180 and 15 that a birth produces under Rules 43 and 43-A.
Comparison with child care leave
Child adoption leave and child care leave are separate pools, and using one does not touch the other. Child adoption leave under Rule 43-B is a one-off 180 days at full pay, triggered by the foster placement or valid adoption of a child below one year, available to a woman. Child care leave under Rule 43-C is a career reserve of up to 730 days to look after a child up to the age of eighteen, available to a woman government servant and to a single male government servant, paid at 100% for the first 365 days and 80% for the next 365, and taken in spells rather than at once.
| Feature | Child adoption leave, Rule 43-B | Child care leave, Rule 43-C |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger | Foster placement or valid adoption of a child below one year | Care of a child up to eighteen |
| Quantum | 180 days, one-off | Up to 730 days across the whole service |
| Pay | Full pay throughout | 100% for 365 days, then 80% |
| Spells | Runs immediately after the event | Three a calendar year, Rule 43-C(3)(i) |
| Who | Female government servant | Woman, or a single male government servant |
| Leave account | Not debited, Rule 43-B(4) | Not debited, Rule 43-C(7) |
An adopting mother of an infant typically uses them in sequence: the 180 days to settle the child in, then child care leave from the 730-day pool through the rearing years. Because the pools are separate, the 180 days cost nothing from the 730.
Place among the parental leaves
Child adoption leave is one of a family of parental leaves in Chapter V of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972, and seeing them together prevents the common confusions.
| Leave | Rule | Quantum | Who | Pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maternity leave | 43 | 180 days | Woman, on the birth of a child, fewer than two surviving children | Full pay |
| Miscarriage or abortion | 43(3) | Up to 45 days in the whole service | Woman, no two-child bar | Full pay |
| Special maternity leave | OM dated 2 September 2022 | 60 days | Woman, on the death of a child soon after birth or a stillbirth | Full pay |
| Paternity leave | 43-A | 15 days | Man, on the birth of a child, fewer than two surviving children | Full pay |
| Child adoption leave | 43-B | 180 days | Woman, on foster placement or adoption of a child below one year, fewer than two surviving children | Full pay |
| Paternity leave on adoption | 43-AA | 15 days | Man, on foster placement or adoption of a child below one year, fewer than two surviving children | Full pay |
| Child care leave | 43-C | Up to 730 days in the whole service | Woman or single man, to rear a child up to eighteen | 100%, then 80% |
Child adoption leave is the adoption-side twin of maternity leave: the same 180 days, the same leave salary, the same fewer-than-two-children condition, the same non-debit, with the trigger being the arrival of an adopted or fostered infant rather than a birth. A woman does not draw both for the same child. The special maternity leave of 60 days on the death of a child soon after birth or on a stillbirth, and the up-to-45-day leave for a miscarriage under Rule 43(3), are birth-side heads and are covered in the maternity leave article.
Surrogacy as a separate head
Surrogacy is not adoption, and it is dealt with outside Rule 43-B. The Central Civil Services (Leave) (Amendment) Rules 2024, notified as G.S.R. 331(E) dated 18 June 2024, inserted Rule 43(6), under which the surrogate and the commissioning mother with fewer than two surviving children may each be granted 180 days of maternity leave where either or both are government servants; Rule 43-A(6), under which a commissioning father with fewer than two surviving children may be granted 15 days of paternity leave within six months from the date of delivery; and Rule 43-C(8), under which a commissioning mother with fewer than two surviving children may be granted child care leave. Notes to the amendment define the commissioning mother as the intending mother of the child born through surrogacy, the surrogate mother as the woman who bears the child on her behalf, and the commissioning father as the intending father.
Rule 43-B was not amended by that notification. The route to the child therefore decides the head: a child born through a surrogacy arrangement takes the couple to Rules 43(6) and 43-A(6), and a child taken into the family through a foster placement or a legal adoption takes them to Rules 43-B and 43-AA.
How the entitlement was built, 1989 to 2023
The leave has been extended four times, and each step is traceable to a dated instrument. Office Memorandum No. 13018/4/89-Estt.(L) dated 25 October 1989 was the first grant of leave to female government servants on the adoption of a child. Office Memorandum No. 13018/4/2004-Estt.(L) dated 31 March 2006 replaced it with 135 days of child adoption leave for adoptive mothers with fewer than two surviving children, on the adoption of a child up to one year of age, and it recorded that the decision followed the justifications given by the Association of Adoptive Parents and the views of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Department of Women and Child Development. That order also settled the architecture still in force: leave salary equal to the pay drawn immediately before the leave, combination with leave of any other kind, the continuation leave with its one-year cap and its illustrations, and the bar on debiting the leave account.
The 2009 enhancement followed maternity leave rather than leading it. After the 6th Central Pay Commission recommendations were implemented, maternity leave was raised from 135 days to 180, and Office Memorandum No. 13018/1/2009-Estt.(L) dated 22 July 2009 raised child adoption leave to 180 days to match, with effect from the date of issue. Paragraph 2 of that order carried a transitional rule: a female government servant whose 135 days had not expired on the date of issue was also eligible for the 180 days. Paragraph 3 created the adopting father’s 15 days, and paragraph 7 recorded that the relevant rule was being amended to give effect to the change.
The most recent change is the foster-care extension of 15 May 2023 by G.S.R. 374(E). The gazette note to that notification records that the principal rules were published on 8 April 1972 by S.O. 940 dated 15 March 1972 and were last amended by G.S.R. 1209(E) dated 11 December 2018, which places the foster-care amendment as the first change to Rule 43-B in nearly five years.
Applying for the leave
An application for child adoption leave is made to the leave-sanctioning authority for the 180 days, stating the date of the foster placement or the valid adoption and the age of the child on that date, and supported by the document that proves both. That is the pre-adoption foster care placement order or the adoption order or deed, together with the child’s date of birth, so the authority can confirm that the child was below one year on the relevant date. Rule 43-B(1) requires the grant to be made by an authority competent to grant leave, and the leave then runs immediately from the event.
Leave beyond the 180 days is applied for separately and is best applied for at the same time. Rule 43-B(3)(b) grants the continuation leave only “if applied for”, so it is not automatic, and the application should name the kind of leave sought, whether earned leave, commuted leave, leave not due or child care leave, and show the arithmetic of the one-year-reduced-by-the-age-of-the-child cap. Applying for the whole absence at the outset avoids a gap between the 180 days ending and the next spell being sanctioned.
Effect on pay, increment, pension and tax
The 180 days cost the employee nothing in pay, service or leave balance. The leave salary is the pay drawn immediately before the leave under Rule 43-B(2), so the pay slip is unchanged in substance. The period is authorised leave on full pay, so it counts for the continuity of service, does not disturb the annual increment, and does not reduce qualifying service for pension. Rule 43-B(4) keeps the leave off the leave account, so the earned leave available for encashment at retirement is untouched.
The tax treatment needs no special provision. Leave salary drawn during service is ordinary salary income, taxed under the head Salaries in the year of receipt at the employee’s slab rate, and no exemption applies or is needed, because the woman is simply paid her pay for the six months. This is different from the leave encashment position at retirement, where Section 10(10AA) of the Income-tax Act 1961 exempts the cash equivalent for a government employee, and that distinction is covered in the leave encashment article.
Applicability beyond the CCS (Leave) Rules
Rule 43-B binds central government civilian employees governed by the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972. Members of the All India Services get the same entitlement through a separate instrument: Department of Personnel and Training letter No. 11019/27/2008-AIS-III dated 20 August 2009 circulated the 22 July 2009 orders to the Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories and applied them mutatis mutandis to members of the All India Services, who are otherwise governed by the All India Services (Leave) Rules 1955.
Railway servants are governed by the Railway Servants (Leave) Rules, and staff of autonomous bodies, public sector undertakings and statutory authorities by their own leave rules. Those rules commonly track the central provision, but they are separate instruments and an adopting mother has to read her own. Where an autonomous body has adopted the CCS (Leave) Rules, the 2023 foster-care amendment reaches its employees only to the extent that its adoption of the central rules is dynamic rather than frozen at a date, which is a question of the body’s own regulations.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How many days of child adoption leave does a woman central government employee get?
Is child adoption leave available for a child taken in pre-adoption foster care?
What is the age limit of the child for child adoption leave?
Is child adoption leave paid at full salary?
Is child adoption leave debited to the leave account?
What leave can be taken after the 180 days of child adoption leave?
Can child adoption leave be combined with other leave?
Does an adopting father get any leave?
What counts as a valid adoption for child adoption leave?
Is child adoption leave available if the employee already has two children?
Is child adoption leave the same as maternity leave?
Does child adoption leave cover a child born through surrogacy?
Does child adoption leave affect the increment, the pension or the income tax?
Does child adoption leave apply to All India Services officers and railway employees?
Related Articles
- Maternity leave for central government employees
- Paternity leave
- Child care leave
- Special maternity leave
- Central Adoption Resource Authority
- CCS (Leave) Rules 1972
- Earned leave
- Half pay leave
- Commuted leave
- Leave not due
- Extraordinary leave
- Casual leave
- Leave encashment
- Department of Personnel and Training
- Central government employees in India
- Take-home salary for central government employees
- Annual increment
- Central government pension
- Family pension
- 6th Central Pay Commission
- 7th Central Pay Commission
- Dearness allowance
- House-rent allowance
- All India Services (Revised Pay) Rules 2016
External references
- Department of Personnel and Training, CCS (Leave) Rules 1972
- Department of Personnel and Training
- Central Adoption Resource Authority
- Ministry of Women and Child Development
- Institute of Secretariat Training and Management, leave rules material
- The Gazette of India
References
- Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, Rule 43-B: sub-rule (1) the 180-day grant, sub-rule (2) leave salary, sub-rule (3)(a) combination with other leave, sub-rule (3)(b) leave in continuation, sub-rule (4) non-debit, and the Note on a ward under the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890.
- Central Civil Services (Leave) (Amendment) Rules, 2023, notified as G.S.R. 374(E) dated 15 May 2023, F. No. A-24011/6/2023-Estt.(Leave), published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i), dated 18 May 2023 (pre-adoption foster care brought within Rules 43-AA and 43-B, with the debit-back proviso).
- Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 13018/1/2009-Estt.(L) dated 22 July 2009 (child adoption leave enhanced from 135 days to 180 days; paternity leave on adoption introduced for an adopting father).
- Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. 13018/4/2004-Estt.(L) dated 31 March 2006 (child adoption leave of 135 days, leave salary, combination, and the illustrations of the continuation-leave cap), superseding Office Memorandum No. 13018/4/89-Estt.(L) dated 25 October 1989.
- Department of Personnel and Training letter No. 11019/27/2008-AIS-III dated 20 August 2009 (the 2009 orders applied mutatis mutandis to members of the All India Services).
- Central Civil Services (Leave) (Amendment) Rules, 2024, notified as G.S.R. 331(E) dated 18 June 2024 (surrogacy provisions inserted as Rules 43(6), 43-A(6) and 43-C(8); Rule 43-B unchanged).
- Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, Rule 40(1) (leave salary at the pay drawn immediately before the leave), Rule 43-AA (paternity leave on adoption) and Rule 43-C (child care leave).
- Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and the Central Adoption Resource Authority adoption regulations; Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956; Guardians and Wards Act, 1890.