Compassionate allowance

Compassionate allowance is the discretionary monthly allowance that a competent authority may sanction, under the proviso to Rule 41(1) of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021, to a central government servant who has been dismissed or removed from service and has thereby forfeited pension and gratuity, capped at two-thirds of the pension or gratuity or both that would have been admissible had the employee retired on superannuation pension. It is not a class of pension the employee can claim.

Dismissal and removal are the two heaviest penalties the disciplinary rules impose, and Rule 41(1) makes their pension consequence absolute: the servant forfeits the entire pension and gratuity earned across a career. The proviso tempers that. Where the case deserves special consideration, the authority that ended the service may sanction a fraction of the notional pension, subject to a floor of Rs. 9,000 a month under Rule 41(6), so that a dependent family is not left with nothing.

Two provisions decide the money and one decides the timing. Rule 44(5) fixes what the fraction is applied to, splitting on ten years of qualifying service. Rule 41(6) sets the floor. Rule 41(2) gives the authority three months from the date of the order of dismissal or removal to decide the question at all, a deadline the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 did not contain.

This article covers the forfeiture, the ceiling and the superannuation pension it is now measured against, the Rule 44(5) calculation, the floor, dearness relief and its suspension on re-employment, the old-age additional quantum, the decision deadline and the mandatory considerations, the judicial limits on the discretion, pre-2021 dismissals, the comparison with a compulsory retirement pension, commutation, family pension, the sanction procedure, the tax, and a worked example. For the framework as a whole, see central government pension.

Forfeiture of pension and gratuity on dismissal or removal

Rule 41(1) of the CCS (Pension) Rules 2021 provides that a government servant who is dismissed or removed from service shall forfeit his pension and gratuity. The forfeiture is complete and it is automatic. An employee dismissed after 25 years does not draw a reduced pension for the honest years; the pension is gone, and so is the retirement gratuity that qualifying service had earned.

What survives is the employee’s own money. The General Provident Fund balance is the employee’s accumulated subscription with interest, not a government payment for past service, so it is not touched by the penalty. The retirement gratuity is a government payment for past service and falls with the pension, as the gratuity for central government employees article sets out. That line, own money kept and government payment forfeited, is what separates the two.

Only these two penalties reach Rule 41. A servant who resigns, retires on superannuation, takes voluntary retirement, or is prematurely retired in the public interest keeps the pension earned. Dismissal is imposed under Rule 11(ix) and removal under Rule 11(viii) of the CCS (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965, both after the inquiry that Article 311 requires; the lesser penalties of censure, withholding of increments, or reduction to a lower post do not forfeit anything. The dismissal and removal from service article carries the penalty mechanics, and major and minor penalty proceedings the procedure that precedes them.

The two-thirds ceiling and the superannuation pension it is measured against

The proviso to Rule 41(1) of the CCS (Pension) Rules 2021 caps a compassionate allowance at two-thirds of the pension or gratuity or both which would have been admissible to the employee if he had retired on superannuation pension. The reference is the superannuation pension, and this is the one point on which the 2021 Rules changed the rule rather than renumbering it.

Rule 41 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 expressed the same ceiling against a compensation pension, the class payable on abolition of a permanent post. That reference was itself an amendment: notification No. Q-18011/2/75-E.V(A) dated 10 April 1975 substituted it into the proviso to Rule 41(1) and inserted the words full compensation pension into Rule 40(1), so the compensation pension served as the yardstick for both the compassionate allowance and the compulsory-retirement band from 1975 onward. The 2021 Rules did not carry compensation pension forward as a class of pension at all, as the compensation pension article records, so the old reference had nothing left to point at, and Rule 40(1) was changed to superannuation pension in the same movement. The proviso was rewritten to read superannuation pension, and Rule 44(5)(a) uses the identical phrase. A statement that the ceiling runs on a compensation pension is quoting the superseded 1972 text.

In practice the change is one of drafting rather than of amount, because a compensation pension under the 1972 Rules and a superannuation pension under the 2021 Rules are both computed at 50% of emoluments, so the notional figure is the same. It matters for citation. An office working a case in 2026 has to compute the reference under Rule 44(1) of the 2021 Rules, and a file that still cites a compensation pension is citing a class that no longer exists.

Two-thirds is a ceiling, not a rate. The rule does not fix the allowance at two-thirds; it caps it there. Within the cap the authority may sanction any fraction it considers appropriate, or refuse an allowance altogether, and the quantum is expressly part of what Rule 41(3)(a) requires the authority to decide on the merits of the case.

Calculation under Rule 44(5) and the ten-year split

Rule 44(5) of the CCS (Pension) Rules 2021 is the provision that turns the two-thirds ceiling into a rupee figure, and the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare pointed all ministries and departments back to it in Office Memorandum F. No. 38/10(03)/2025-P&PW(A) dated 30 October 2025, signed by Madhu Mankotia, Under Secretary to the Government of India, under the subject “Provisions under Rule 44 of the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules 2021, Compassionate Allowance”. The basis splits on ten years of qualifying service.

Rule 44(5)(a) applies where the employee was dismissed or removed after completing a qualifying service of not less than ten years. The compassionate allowance is then such portion or percentage of the pension which would have been admissible had the employee retired on superannuation pension as the competent authority may sanction under Rule 41. The reference is a full monthly pension computed under Rule 44(1), which is 50% of emoluments or of average emoluments, whichever is more beneficial, and the sanctioned fraction is applied to it.

Rule 44(5)(b) applies where the employee was dismissed or removed before completing ten years. No monthly pension would have been admissible on ordinary retirement in that case, only a service gratuity under Rule 44(2) at half a month’s emoluments for every completed six-monthly period, so the compassionate allowance is a portion or percentage of that superannuation service gratuity instead. The benefit takes the character of a lump sum rather than a monthly payment.

The ten-year line is not as sharp as it reads. Rule 44(8) provides that a government servant who has rendered nine years and nine months or more but less than ten years is treated as having ten years of qualifying service for the purposes of Rule 44, so a dismissal at nine years and ten months is computed on the pension basis under clause (a), not the gratuity basis under clause (b). Rule 44(7) treats a fraction of a year of three months and above as a completed six-monthly period. Rule 44(9) then requires the finally determined amount to be expressed in whole rupees, rounded off to the next higher rupee.

The floor of Rs. 9,000 a month

Rule 41(6) of the CCS (Pension) Rules 2021 provides that a compassionate allowance sanctioned under the proviso to sub-rule (1) shall not be less than the amount of minimum pension under Rule 44. Rule 44(1) fixes that minimum at Rs. 9,000 a month, in the rule text itself rather than in an executive order, alongside a maximum of Rs. 1,25,000 a month, as the minimum and maximum pension article works through.

The floor is a statutory guarantee inside Rule 41 and not an administrative practice imported from elsewhere. It operates after the discretionary fraction has been fixed: an authority that sanctions one-fourth of a notional pension of Rs. 30,000, giving Rs. 7,500, is overridden by Rule 41(6) and the amount payable becomes Rs. 9,000. The same floor is written into the neighbouring rule, Rule 40(5), for a compulsory retirement pension.

Rule 41(6) speaks of the minimum pension, so it has no application to a case falling under Rule 44(5)(b), where the benefit is a fraction of a service gratuity and not a monthly pension at all.

Dearness relief and its suspension on re-employment

Rule 52(1) of the CCS (Pension) Rules 2021 grants relief against price rise to pensioners, expressly including the persons drawing compassionate allowance under Rule 41, at such rates and subject to such conditions as the central government may specify. The rate is 60% of the sanctioned allowance from 1 January 2026, fixed by Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 1/1(i)/2026-E.II(B) dated 22 April 2026, and it moves at each half-yearly revision in step with dearness relief for every other central government pensioner. A compassionate allowance therefore keeps pace with prices rather than being frozen at the figure sanctioned on the day of dismissal.

Rule 52(2) is the restriction, and it bites hard. A person drawing a compassionate allowance who is re-employed under the central government, a state government, or a corporation, company, body or bank under them, in India or abroad, including on permanent or immediate absorption, is not eligible to draw dearness relief on the allowance for the whole period of that re-employment. The proviso restores it only where all three of its conditions are met: the person was not holding a post included or classified as Group ‘A’ before the re-employment; the pay on re-employment was fixed at the minimum of the scale, and that minimum was less than the pay drawn immediately before retirement or absorption; and the entire amount of the pension sanctioned by the central government was ignored in fixing that pay. Rule 52(3) requires a certificate from the re-employing office covering each of the three, and the pay fixation on re-employment article covers the pay side.

The result is that a former Group ‘A’ officer drawing a compassionate allowance loses dearness relief outright for any period of re-employment, because the first condition of the proviso can never be satisfied.

Additional quantum from the age of 80

Rule 44(6) of the CCS (Pension) Rules 2021 grants an additional quantum after the age of 80, and it names the compassionate allowance in every row of its table, not only in the first. The additional amount is expressed as a percentage of the basic compassionate allowance, in the same way it is expressed as a percentage of basic pension for an ordinary pensioner.

Source: Rule 44(6), CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021, notified 20 December 2021.

Rule 44(6)(b) makes the additional quantum payable from the first day of the calendar month in which it falls due, and the illustration appended to the rule works both edges of that: a pensioner born on 20 August 1942 and a pensioner born on 1 August 1942 are both eligible from 1 August 2022. Dearness relief is payable on the additional compassionate allowance as well, and the additional pension in old age article carries the wider position.

The three-month decision deadline

Rule 41(2) of the CCS (Pension) Rules 2021 requires the competent authority to decide the compassionate-allowance question within three months of the date of issue of the order imposing the penalty of dismissal or removal. The authority must examine the question either on its own or after taking into consideration the representation of the government servant, if any, and take a decision in accordance with the proviso to sub-rule (1) within that period.

Two things follow from the wording. The authority is obliged to apply its mind whether or not the employee asks: “either on its own” makes the examination a duty attached to the penalty, so an office that simply issues the dismissal order and closes the file has not complied. And the employee has a route in, because a representation, if made, is material the authority must take into consideration.

The 1972 Rules carried no deadline of any kind. Under them the question could sit undecided for years, which is the background to much of the litigation on Rule 41, and the three-month limit in the 2021 Rules is a direct answer to it.

What the sanctioning authority must consider

Rule 41(3) of the CCS (Pension) Rules 2021 names exactly three considerations, and it is worth reading them as written rather than as a general instruction to be sympathetic.

Clause (a) requires each case of dismissal and removal from service to be considered on its merit, to decide whether the case deserves special consideration for the sanction of a compassionate allowance and, if so, the quantum. Both questions are for the authority, and both have to be answered on the individual facts.

Clause (b) directs the authority to the actual misconduct which occasioned the penalty and the kind of service rendered by the government servant. The rule pairs them deliberately: the misconduct is weighed against the career, not in isolation.

Clause (c) permits the authority, in exceptional circumstances, to weigh factors like the family members dependent on the government servant along with other relevant factors. Dependency is therefore a permitted consideration in an exceptional case rather than an ordinary element of the test, and neither age nor health appears in Rule 41(3) at all.

Judicial limits on the discretion

The Supreme Court has held that the severity of the misconduct cannot by itself decide the question. In Mahinder Dutt Sharma v. Union of India, Civil Appeal No. 2111 of 2009, decided on 11 April 2014 by a bench of M. Y. Eqbal and Jagdish Singh Khehar JJ, a constable of the IInd Battalion of the Delhi Armed Police with 24 years of service and 34 commendations had been dismissed for unauthorised absence of 320 days between 18 January and 4 December 1995, and his claim under Rule 41 was rejected on the gravity of the misconduct. The Court held that the authorities had misdirected themselves by conflating the severity of the misconduct with eligibility.

At paragraph 13 the Court set out five classes of delinquency that ordinarily disentitle an employee from compassionate consideration: an act of moral turpitude; conduct showing dishonesty and untrustworthiness towards the employer; acts designed for personal gain through corruption or fraud; action deliberately harming third-party interests through misused authority; and behaviour otherwise depraved, wicked or treacherous. Absence from duty falls outside all five, and at paragraph 17 the Court set aside the rejections and directed the competent authority to reconsider the claim on those parameters.

The Delhi High Court applied the same reading in Usha Devi v. Union of India, neutral citation 2024:DHC:7783-DB, decided on 8 October 2024 by a division bench of C. Hari Shankar and Sudhir Kumar Jain JJ. A Safai Karamchari in the Ministry of Defence had been dismissed for habitual absenteeism, and his widow, with four dependent children and a Below Poverty Line certificate, was refused a compassionate allowance by the Ministry and then by the Central Administrative Tribunal. The High Court held that the severity of the misconduct which resulted in dismissal or removal is irrelevant to the entitlement, quashed the Tribunal’s order and declared the widow entitled.

The Kerala High Court went to a narrower point in S. Surendran v. Director General, Central Industrial Security Force, 2022 LiveLaw (Ker) 81, decided on 15 February 2022 by V. G. Arun J. A security guard appointed in 1972 and removed for absence from 20 September 1983 was refused an allowance partly because his wife and children were employed. The Court held that the employment of family members cannot by itself disqualify a dismissed employee, and directed reconsideration within two months. Read together, the three decisions leave the discretion intact but confine the grounds on which it may be exercised against the employee.

Dismissals ordered before 20 December 2021

The CCS (Pension) Rules 2021 came into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette, 20 December 2021, and Rule 41(4) and Rule 41(5) deal with penalties imposed before that date. Rule 41(4) required the competent authority, where an order of dismissal or removal had been issued before commencement and the authority had not at that time examined or decided whether a compassionate allowance was to be granted, to take that decision not later than six months from the date of commencement. Rule 41(5) then provides that no compassionate allowance shall be sanctioned after the expiry of that six-month period to a government servant on whom the penalty was imposed before commencement.

Read literally, the two sub-rules opened a window in the first half of 2022 and closed it. The practical reach of the bar is not settled, because the courts have continued to direct reconsideration of pre-commencement cases under the 1972 Rules well after the window expired, as the Delhi High Court did in Usha Devi on 8 October 2024 on a dismissal governed by the 1972 Rules. Neither the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare Office Memorandum of 30 October 2025 nor any later instruction addresses the interaction. A pre-2021 claimant is therefore in the position of pressing the claim under the rules in force at the time of the penalty rather than under Rule 41 of the 2021 Rules.

Comparison with compulsory retirement pension

Compulsory retirement imposed as a penalty does not forfeit the pension; dismissal and removal do. That is the sharpest distinction in this area, and the two-thirds figure appears on both sides of it from opposite directions.

Source: Rules 40, 41 and 44, CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021, notified 20 December 2021.

The consequence is that the choice of penalty in a disciplinary case carries a large and calculable pension effect. On a notional superannuation pension of Rs. 30,000 a month, compulsory retirement guarantees at least Rs. 20,000 as of right, while dismissal guarantees nothing above the Rs. 9,000 floor and only if an allowance is sanctioned at all.

Commutation through the medical route

A compassionate allowance can be commuted, but only after a medical examination. Rule 12 of the CCS (Commutation of Pension) Rules, 1981 lists the classes that may commute a fraction of the pension without a medical examination, and a compassionate allowance is not among them. Rule 18 brings the invalid pension, the compulsory retirement pension and the compassionate allowance within the medical-examination route instead.

The practical difference is the date on which the commutation becomes absolute. For a case inside Rule 12 applying within a year of retirement, it is the date the application is received. For a compassionate allowance under Rule 18, it is the date on which the medical authority signs Part I of the certificate, which fixes both the commutation factor by age next birthday and the date from which the reduced allowance is paid. The commutation of pension article carries the machinery and the commutation factor table the factors.

Family pension on the death of the holder

The family of a person drawing a compassionate allowance is entitled to a family pension on the death of the holder. Rule 50(1)(iii) of the CCS (Pension) Rules 2021 grants family pension where a government servant dies after retirement from service and was, on the date of death, in receipt of a pension or a compassionate allowance referred to in those Rules.

Explanation 3 to Rule 50(2)(a) removes any doubt about the rate. It provides that for the purposes of sub-clause (iii), the expression “pension authorised on retirement” includes the pension authorised on compulsory retirement and the compassionate allowance sanctioned on dismissal or removal from government service, which is the amount the enhanced family pension is measured against for the limited period it runs.

The corollary matters as much as the rule. Where the pension was forfeited under Rule 41(1) and no compassionate allowance was ever sanctioned, the deceased was not in receipt of anything on the date of death, and Rule 50(1)(iii) does not apply. Sanctioning a compassionate allowance therefore protects a second person after the employee’s death, which is a consideration distinct from the dependency factor in Rule 41(3)(c).

Re-employment and the bar on a second pension

Rule 6(2) of the CCS (Pension) Rules 2021 provides that, except as provided in Rule 19 or Rule 20, a government servant who is in receipt of a compassionate allowance on having been dismissed or removed from service and is subsequently re-employed is not entitled to a separate pension or gratuity for the period of that re-employment. The rule places a compassionate-allowance holder on the same footing as a person who retired on a superannuation, retiring or compulsory retirement pension.

Re-employment therefore has two separate effects on a compassionate allowance, arising under different rules. Rule 6(2) prevents the re-employed service from earning a fresh pension. Rule 52(2) suspends dearness relief on the existing allowance for the period of re-employment unless all three conditions of its proviso are met. The allowance itself continues to be paid throughout.

A dismissal, unlike a removal, ordinarily disqualifies the person from further government employment in the first place, so in practice Rule 6(2) reaches a removed employee more often than a dismissed one.

Sanction procedure and the pension case papers

The authority competent to dismiss or remove the employee is the authority that sanctions the compassionate allowance under the proviso to Rule 41(1), which is why the question is taken up alongside or immediately after the penalty order. The disciplinary authority has the full record of the misconduct and the mitigating material, and Rule 41(2) ties its decision to the date of that order.

Once an allowance is sanctioned the case is processed as a pension case. Item 6 of the checklist in Format 10 to the CCS (Pension) Rules 2021 requires the orders of the competent authority regarding the grant of a compulsory retirement pension or a compassionate allowance to be forwarded with the pension papers, alongside the family details in Form 4, the completed Form 6 or 10 and Form 7 or 11 with their enclosures, and the undertaking to the bank in Format 9. Item 7 of the same checklist calls for a brief statement where the government servant has been reinstated after being suspended, compulsorily retired, removed or dismissed.

Payment then runs through the ordinary machinery: a Pension Payment Order is issued and disbursement is handled through the Central Pension Accounting Office, under the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare. The annual life certificate applies to a compassionate allowance as it does to any pension in payment.

Income tax treatment

A compassionate allowance is taxed as salary. Section 15(2) of the Income-tax Act 2025 provides that an employer includes a former employer, and Section 16(b) provides that salary includes any annuity or pension, so the allowance is chargeable under the head Salaries in the hands of the recipient exactly as a superannuation pension is.

The standard deduction of Rs. 75,000 under serial number 2 of the Table in Section 19(1) is available against it, and the rebate under Section 156 applies in the ordinary way, which is why a modest compassionate allowance carries no tax at all. Nothing in the Act exempts a compassionate allowance as such, and the fact that it arose from a dismissal rather than an honourable retirement makes no difference either way. The income tax for pensioners article carries the full position, including the treatment of a commuted portion.

Worked example

Take an employee removed from service after 18 years of qualifying service, whose notional superannuation pension computed under Rule 44(1) on the emoluments at the date of removal is Rs. 30,000 a month. Rule 41(1) forfeits the pension and the retirement gratuity outright. The competent authority, deciding within the three months Rule 41(2) allows and applying Rule 41(3), finds the misconduct outside the five Mahinder Dutt Sharma categories and the case deserving of special consideration, and sanctions the allowance at one-half of the notional pension.

Source: computed by salary-calculator.in from Rules 41, 44 and 52 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021, at the dearness relief rate of 60% effective 1 January 2026.

The sanctioned Rs. 15,000 sits below the Rs. 20,000 ceiling and above the Rs. 9,000 floor, so both limits are respected, and Rs. 24,000 a month is payable. Three variations change the answer. Had the removal come at eight years of service, Rule 44(5)(b) would have made the reference the superannuation service gratuity and the benefit a fraction of a lump sum, with the Rule 41(6) floor having nothing to operate on. Had it come at nine years and ten months, Rule 44(8) would have deemed the service to be ten years and clause (a) would still apply. And had the penalty been compulsory retirement rather than removal, Rule 40 read with Rule 44(4)(a) would have guaranteed at least Rs. 20,000 as of right, with no question of special consideration arising.

Related Articles

• CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021
• Central government pension
• Central government pension calculation
• Minimum and maximum pension
• Compensation pension
• Compulsory retirement
• Dismissal and removal from service
• Major and minor penalty proceedings
• Article 311 of the Constitution
• Withholding of pension
• CCS (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965
• CCS Conduct Rules
• Central Administrative Tribunal
• Qualifying service
• Superannuation
• Premature retirement
• Voluntary retirement
• Resignation from government service
• Technical resignation
• Invalid pension
• Disability and invalid pension
• Extraordinary pension
• Service gratuity
• Gratuity for central government employees
• General Provident Fund
• Commutation of pension
• Commutation factor table
• Family pension
• Additional pension in old age
• Dearness relief
• Pay fixation on re-employment
• PPO and the annual life certificate
• Central Pension Accounting Office
• Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare
• Income tax for pensioners
• Central government employees in India

External references

• Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare
• Pensioners’ Portal
• The Gazette of India
• Central Pension Accounting Office
• Department of Personnel and Training
• Income Tax Department

References

1. Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 2021 (notified and in force from 20 December 2021), Rule 41: sub-rule (1) and its proviso (forfeiture of pension and gratuity on dismissal or removal, and a compassionate allowance not exceeding two-thirds of pension or gratuity or both admissible on superannuation pension), sub-rule (2) (decision within three months of the penalty order), sub-rule (3) (the three mandatory considerations), sub-rules (4) and (5) (pre-commencement penalties and the six-month bar), and sub-rule (6) (floor at the minimum pension under Rule 44).
2. Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 2021, Rule 44: sub-rule (1) (pension at 50% of emoluments, minimum Rs. 9,000 and maximum Rs. 1,25,000 a month), sub-rule (4)(a) and (b) (compulsory retirement pension), sub-rule (5)(a) and (b) (compassionate allowance on the superannuation pension or the superannuation service gratuity), sub-rule (6) (additional quantum from 80 years), sub-rule (7) (six-monthly periods), sub-rule (8) (nine years nine months treated as ten years), and sub-rule (9) (rounding to the next higher rupee).
3. Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare Office Memorandum F. No. 38/10(03)/2025-P&PW(A), dated 30 October 2025, “Provisions under Rule 44 of the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules 2021, Compassionate Allowance”, addressed to all Ministries, Departments and Organisations.
4. Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 2021, Rule 6(2) (no separate pension or gratuity for a period of re-employment), Rule 50(1)(iii) and Explanation 3 to Rule 50(2)(a) (family pension where the deceased was in receipt of a compassionate allowance), and Rule 52(1), (2) and (3) (dearness relief, its suspension on re-employment, and the certificate).
5. Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972, Rule 41 (the superseded provision, which measured the two-thirds ceiling against a compensation pension), as amended by notification No. Q-18011/2/75-E.V(A) dated 10 April 1975, which substituted that reference into the proviso to Rule 41(1) and inserted it into Rule 40(1).
6. Central Civil Services (Commutation of Pension) Rules, 1981, Rule 12 (classes exempt from medical examination) and Rule 18 (medical examination for an invalid pension, a compulsory retirement pension and a compassionate allowance).
7. Mahinder Dutt Sharma v. Union of India and others, Civil Appeal No. 2111 of 2009, Supreme Court of India, decided 11 April 2014, paragraphs 13 and 17.
8. Usha Devi v. Union of India and another, neutral citation 2024:DHC:7783-DB, High Court of Delhi, decided 8 October 2024.
9. S. Surendran v. Director General, Central Industrial Security Force, 2022 LiveLaw (Ker) 81, High Court of Kerala, decided 15 February 2022.
10. Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 1/1(i)/2026-E.II(B), dated 22 April 2026 (dearness allowance and dearness relief at 60% with effect from 1 January 2026).
11. Income-tax Act, 2025, Section 15(2) (former employer), Section 16(b) (salary includes any annuity or pension), Section 19(1) Table serial number 2 (standard deduction of Rs. 75,000) and Section 156 (rebate).