Department of Personnel and Training

The Department of Personnel and Training, known as DoPT, is the department of the Government of India to which the Allocation of Business Rules, 1961, allot recruitment, training, cadre management, conduct, discipline and the service conditions of central government employees, in 45 numbered entries in the Second Schedule. It is one of three departments of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, which is held by the Prime Minister and assisted by a Minister of State.

DoPT does not set pay. Entry 23(a) of its allocation gives it the administration of all service rules, including the Fundamental Rules, Supplementary Rules and Civil Service Regulations, and then carves out six subjects and hands them to the Ministry of Finance: revision of the pay structure, revision of pay scales, appointment of a Pay Commission and implementation of its recommendations, dearness allowance and other compensatory and travelling allowances, any new facility carrying significant recurring financial implications, and amendments to service rules of a predominantly financial character. That single sub-entry is the statutory boundary between DoPT and the Department of Expenditure, and it explains why every allowance order cited on this site carries a Department of Expenditure file number rather than a DoPT one.

For a central government employee, DoPT is the department behind almost every rule of the job other than the salary. Recruitment through the Union Public Service Commission and the Staff Selection Commission, the conduct rules, the discipline and penalty rules, leave, seniority, probation, promotion, deputation, career progression, the annual appraisal and the immovable property return all trace to a DoPT instrument.

This article sets out where DoPT sits in the government and how it got there, the 45 entries that define its jurisdiction, the pay boundary in entry 23(a), the division of work between the four departments an employee deals with, its cadre control and the Central Staffing Scheme, recruitment, the service rules it administers, how to read a DoPT file number, training under Mission Karmayogi, the vigilance and integrity functions, the bodies attached to it with their 2026-27 budget provisions, and the online systems through which its work now reaches the employee.

Place in the government

DoPT is a department within a ministry, not a ministry in its own right. The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions comprises three departments: the Department of Personnel and Training, the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, and the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare. DoPT is the largest of the three and is the one that deals with the serving employee.

The ministry is held by the Prime Minister. It has been under the direct charge of the Prime Minister since January 1985, assisted by a Minister of State who handles the day-to-day work; Dr. Jitendra Singh has held that charge since 2014 and assumed it for a further term in June 2024. The arrangement follows the recommendation of the Administrative Reforms Commission, whose 1969 report on the machinery of the Government of India and its procedure of work asked for a separate personnel department directly under the Prime Minister. The department functions under a Secretary (Personnel) and its offices are in the North Block of the Central Secretariat in New Delhi.

Budget provision for the whole ministry, covering all three departments and their attached offices, is Rs. 2,607.45 crore for 2026-27 under Demand No. 74 of the Union Budget, against Rs. 2,656.46 crore budgeted for 2025-26.

History

The department was created in August 1970 and has changed its name, its parent and its subjects seven times since. A new Department of Personnel was set up under the Cabinet Secretariat in that month by transferring the subjects concerning public services out of the Ministry of Home Affairs, in pursuance of the 1969 Administrative Reforms Commission recommendation.

Source: Department of Personnel and Training, induction material, Annexure I; Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961, Second Schedule, footnote to entry 20A.

Two of those dates carry more weight than the rest. December 1978 is when the department acquired the service rules themselves, which until then were administered by the Ministry of Finance, and it is the origin of the split that entry 23(a) now records. March 1985 is when pension was separated out, which is why a serving employee and a pensioner deal with two different departments of the same ministry.

Subjects allotted under the Allocation of Business Rules

DoPT’s jurisdiction is fixed by 45 numbered entries in 12 groups in the Second Schedule to the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961, made by the President under Article 77(3) of the Constitution and dated 14 January 1961. Entry 7 was omitted vide amendment series no. 278 dated 15 December 2004; entry 20A, on the Central Bureau of Investigation, was inserted vide amendment series no. 274 dated 7 June 2004.

Four services are carved out of most of these entries by name: the Department of Railways, the Department of Atomic Energy, the Department of Space, and the scientific and technical personnel of the Defence Research and Development Organisation. A railway employee’s recruitment, seniority and service conditions are therefore not DoPT’s subject, which is the reason a railway service rule is issued by the Railway Board rather than by DoPT.

The pay boundary in entry 23(a)

Entry 23(a) gives DoPT the administration of all service rules, including the Fundamental Rules, Supplementary Rules and Civil Service Regulations, excluding those relating to pension and other retirement benefits, and then removes six subjects from that grant:

1. Proposals relating to revision of the pay structure of employees.
2. Proposals for revision of pay scales of central government employees.
3. Appointment of a Pay Commission, processing of its recommendations and their implementation.
4. Dearness allowance and other compensatory allowances and travelling allowances.
5. Any new facility to government employees by way of service conditions or fringe benefits involving significant recurring financial implications.
6. Amendments to service rules having a predominantly financial character.

All six belong to the Department of Expenditure. That is why the Central Pay Commission is serviced by the Department of Expenditure and not by DoPT, why the pay matrix was notified through the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules 2016 by the Ministry of Finance, and why the orders fixing house rent allowance and transport allowance carry an E.II(B) file number of that department. The distinction is not cosmetic. A representation on pay fixation addressed to DoPT is addressed to a department that has no power over the subject.

The boundary is finer than “DoPT does rules, Finance does money”. Entry 23(c) leaves DoPT with the issue of formal orders of the Government of India on amendments to service rules, including those of a predominantly financial character. Entry 31 gives it the administration of service rules with financial content under specific delegation by the Ministry of Finance, and entry 32 makes it the adviser to the Ministry of Finance on proposals affecting the number or grade of posts. So DoPT can be the department that signs an order whose financial content the Department of Expenditure decided.

Division of work between the four departments

A central government employee deals with four departments across a career, and the question determines which one. The table below maps the subject to the department that owns it and to the instrument that says so.

This table is a salary-calculator.in construction, derived by reading the Second Schedule entries for all three departments of the ministry against the Department of Expenditure carve-out in entry 23(a).

Cadre control and the Central Staffing Scheme

DoPT is the cadre controlling authority for the Indian Administrative Service and for the three Central Secretariat services, namely the Central Secretariat Service, the Central Secretariat Stenographers’ Service and the Central Secretariat Clerical Service, under entry 41. Cadre control covers the sanctioned strength of the service, allocation of officers to state cadres, seniority, cadre review and empanelment for senior posts.

It is the nodal department for the All India Services framework as a whole, making the rules and regulations under the All India Services Act, 1951, under entry 41(b). It does not control every All India Service cadre: the Indian Police Service is with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Indian Forest Service with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. DoPT frames the common rules; those two ministries run their own cadres.

The Central Staffing Scheme is the mechanism through which officers of the All India Services and the Group A central services are selected and posted on tenure deputation to Deputy Secretary, Director and Joint Secretary posts in the ministries. Proposals for senior appointments requiring approval of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet are processed through the Establishment Officer to the Government of India, who is the Secretary of that committee, under entry 38. The same office handles board-level appointments to central public sector undertakings. For an officer, this is the machinery that decides whether a central deputation happens, and it sits in DoPT rather than in the parent ministry.

Recruitment and the two commissions

Entry 40 makes the Union Public Service Commission DoPT’s subject, and entry 2 gives it general questions of recruitment, promotion and seniority for the central services. The two bodies through which recruitment actually happens stand in different relationships to the department.

The Union Public Service Commission is a constitutional body established under Article 315 and is not subordinate to DoPT. It carries no provision in Demand No. 74, because Article 322 charges its expenses on the Consolidated Fund of India. DoPT is the department through which the government deals with it, nothing more. The Staff Selection Commission, which recruits to most Group B non-gazetted and Group C posts, is an attached office of DoPT and is funded through the department, with Rs. 525.20 crore provided for 2026-27.

Recruitment policy itself is DoPT’s, and it has changed. Interviews for junior posts up to Group B non-gazetted have been discontinued for all modes of appointment under Office Memorandum No. 39020/01/2013-Estt.(B) dated 9 October 2015; an interview now forms part of selection only where the recruitment rules for the post specifically provide for one. Entry 1 gives DoPT reservation of posts in services for certain classes of citizens, which is the source of the reservation roster instructions, and entry 14 gives it the policy on verification of character and antecedents, which is why a fresh appointee’s attestation form is a DoPT proforma.

Service rules administered

The rules DoPT administers under entries 21 to 36 are the ones a serving employee is actually governed by. The Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964 set the standards of behaviour and carry the Rule 18 obligation to file an annual property return. The Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965 govern penalties, the charge sheet, the inquiry and the appeal. The Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972 govern every kind of leave. The Central Services (Temporary Service) Rules, 1949 are named in entry 26. The Fundamental Rules and Supplementary Rules cover joining time, pay fixation on promotion, seniority and the general conditions of service.

Three entries in this group are easy to miss and are worth naming, because they are the source of orders employees see every year. Entry 25 gives DoPT leave travel concession for civil employees other than railway employees. Entry 30 gives it working hours and holidays for Government of India offices, which is why the annual holiday list is issued by DoPT and not by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Entry 33 gives it the policy on reimbursement of legal expenses incurred by government servants.

Pension is excluded from entry 23(a) in terms, so the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 2021 and the commutation rules are administered by the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare, not by DoPT. The retirement age and premature retirement sit on the DoPT side, because they are conditions of service rather than retirement benefits.

Reading a DoPT file number

Every DoPT Office Memorandum carries a file number whose suffix names the division that issued it, and the suffix is the fastest way to place an order’s subject before reading it. The map below is a salary-calculator.in construction, derived from the DoPT orders already cited across this site rather than from a published index.

An order carrying an E.II(B) suffix is not a DoPT order at all. That is the Establishment II(B) section of the Department of Expenditure, which issues the dearness allowance, house rent allowance and transport allowance orders, and the difference in the file number is the quickest test of which department a rule came from.

Training and Mission Karmayogi

Entry 19 makes DoPT responsible for the formation and coordination of training policy for the All India Services and the central services, and names the two institutions it administers: the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration at Mussoorie, which runs the induction training for the Indian Administrative Service and the other All India Services, and the Institute of Secretariat Training and Management in New Delhi, which trains the Central Secretariat Service. The two academies and the Training Division carry a combined provision of Rs. 120.80 crore for 2026-27.

Mission Karmayogi, the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building, was approved by the Union Cabinet on 2 September 2020 with an outlay of Rs. 510.86 crore over five years from 2020-21 to 2024-25, covering about 46 lakh central employees, partly funded by multilateral assistance of USD 50 million. Its approved structure has four parts: the Prime Minister’s Public Human Resources Council, the Capacity Building Commission, a wholly owned special purpose vehicle set up under Section 8 of the Companies Act 2013 to own and operate the iGOT Karmayogi online platform, and a coordination unit headed by the Cabinet Secretary. The programme is built on calibrating every civil service post to a Framework of Roles, Activities and Competencies, and it continues as a separate budget line, with Rs. 126.00 crore provided for 2026-27 against a revised Rs. 125.00 crore for 2025-26.

Vigilance, the Central Bureau of Investigation and integrity

Group III of DoPT’s allocation is two entries wide and carries the whole integrity function. Entry 20 gives it the Central Vigilance Commission and all policy matters on vigilance and discipline among public servants. Entry 20A, inserted on 7 June 2004, gives it the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 and the Central Bureau of Investigation, described in the entry as the Delhi Special Police Establishment including its legal, technical, policy and administration divisions, together with the Food Offences Wing and the Economic Offences Wing. The Central Bureau of Investigation is an attached office of the department and carries the single largest provision in the ministry’s demand, Rs. 1,104.98 crore for 2026-27.

The department issues the vigilance clearance instructions that gate an empanelment, a deputation or a promotion, and it prescribes the proforma for the annual immovable property return required by Rule 18 of the CCS (Conduct) Rules, 1964, publishing the returns filed by Indian Administrative Service officers along with a list of those who have not filed. The ground for requiring the return in its present form was introduced by Office Memorandum No. 11012/11/2007-Estt.(A).

DoPT is the nodal department for the administrative matters of the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal, both statutory bodies that exercise their oversight functions independently. The Lokpal carries a provision of Rs. 32.00 crore for 2026-27 in the ministry’s demand. Being the department that funds a body is not the same as controlling its decisions, and in both cases the relationship is administrative.

Right to Information

DoPT is the nodal department for the Right to Information Act, 2005 and for administrative matters relating to the Central Information Commission, and this role rests on the department’s own work allocation rather than on an entry in the Second Schedule. The 45 entries allotted to DoPT do not mention the Act, which post-dates most of them; the department’s internal allocation of work assigns all policy matters relating to the Act and to the Commission to its Administration wing. DoPT frames the guidelines under the Act and runs the online portal through which applications and first appeals to central public authorities are filed. The Central Information Commission and the Public Enterprises Selection Board share a provision of Rs. 39.14 crore for 2026-27.

Bodies attached to and coordinated by the department

Two relationships are commonly confused, and the distinction decides whether DoPT can direct a body or only fund and coordinate it.

Total provision for the ministry’s attached and subordinate offices is Rs. 1,988.54 crore for 2026-27, of which the Central Bureau of Investigation alone accounts for more than half. Source: Notes on Demands for Grants 2026-2027, Demand No. 74.

Employee relations, the joint consultative machinery and the Tribunal

Entry 39 gives DoPT both channels through which a central government employee can press a grievance, which is why the department is on the other side of the table in each. Clause (b) gives it the joint consultative machinery, a three-tier structure of the National Council, departmental councils and regional or office councils, through which service matters affecting the generality of employees or a specific group of them are negotiated with recognised service associations. Clause (a) gives it recognition of those associations, and clause (d) staff welfare, including departmental canteens, benevolent funds and the Grih Kalyan Kendra.

Clause (e) gives it all matters relating to the Central Administrative Tribunal and the state administrative tribunals. The Tribunal was set up in 1985 to take service disputes out of the ordinary courts, and it now hears cases that would previously have gone up to and including the High Court. An individual dispute over seniority, a penalty, a promotion or a pay fixation goes there; a general demand affecting a class of employees goes to the joint consultative machinery. The Central Administrative Tribunal carries a provision of Rs. 166.42 crore for 2026-27.

The online systems

Four DoPT systems now carry work that used to move on paper, and an employee encounters at least one of them each year. The Smart Performance Appraisal Report Recording Online Window, SPARROW, records the annual performance appraisal report; the appraisal calendar is built around its auto-forward dates, so a reporting officer who misses a due date finds the file has moved on without the report. The electronic Human Resource Management System was launched on 25 December 2017, and e-HRMS 2.0 was launched on 25 December 2022 alongside a revamped Probity Portal, extending the platform to transfers, deputation, the appraisal, the property return, vigilance status, the service book, leave, tour and reimbursements. The Probity Portal holds integrity and empanelment data on officers. The Right to Information online portal is the channel for filing applications and first appeals under the Act, and iGOT Karmayogi is the learning platform under Mission Karmayogi.

Bearing on a central government career

DoPT owns the rules that shape a government career other than the pay slip, and the practical consequence is knowing where to send a question. A query about a pay level, an allowance rate or a Pay Commission recommendation goes to the Department of Expenditure, because entry 23(a) removed all of it from DoPT. A query about pension, gratuity or commutation goes to the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare, because entry 23(a) excludes retirement benefits and March 1985 gave them to a separate department. Everything in between, from the recruitment rules for a post to the conduct rules, the leave rules, seniority, the appraisal, deputation, the property return and the disciplinary process, is DoPT’s, under 45 entries that have carried the department’s jurisdiction since 1961.

Related Articles

• Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare
• Department of Expenditure
• Central government employees in India
• Central Pay Commission
• 7th Central Pay Commission
• 8th Central Pay Commission
• Central government pension
• Pay matrix
• Pay fixation
• Fundamental Rule 22
• Fundamental Rules
• CCS (Conduct) Rules
• CCS (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules
• CCS (Leave) Rules
• CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021
• Charge sheet
• Appeal, review and revision under the CCS (CCA) Rules
• Departmental promotion committee
• Modified Assured Career Progression
• Seniority
• Probation in central government service
• Confirmation in service
• Deputation in central government
• Central Staffing Scheme
• Empanelment
• Cadre review
• All India Services
• Indian Administrative Service
• Central Secretariat Service
• Union Public Service Commission
• Staff Selection Commission
• Appointments Committee of the Cabinet
• Central Administrative Tribunal
• Central Vigilance Commission
• Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act
• Vigilance clearance
• Immovable property return
• Annual performance appraisal report
• Joint consultative machinery
• Reservation roster in promotion
• Induction training
• Mission Karmayogi
• Leave travel concession
• Retirement age of central government employees
• Premature retirement
• Resignation from government service
• Dearness allowance
• House rent allowance
• Transport allowance
• Central government jobs
• Income tax for government employees
• Take-home salary of central government employees
• Minimum pay
• 7th CPC salary calculator

External references

• Department of Personnel and Training
• Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions
• Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961, Cabinet Secretariat
• Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances
• Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare
• Union Public Service Commission
• Staff Selection Commission
• Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance

References

1. Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961, made by the President under Article 77(3) of the Constitution, order dated 14 January 1961, Second Schedule, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Personnel and Training, entries 1 to 45, including entry 20A inserted vide amendment series no. 274 dated 7 June 2004 and entry 7 omitted vide amendment series no. 278 dated 15 December 2004.
2. Department of Personnel and Training, induction material, Annexure I, “Setting up the Department”, on the creation of the department in August 1970 and the subsequent changes of nomenclature and allocation.
3. Notes on Demands for Grants, 2026-2027, Demand No. 74, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.
4. Administrative Reforms Commission, report on the machinery of the Government of India and its procedure of work, 1969.
5. Cabinet approval of the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (Mission Karmayogi), Press Information Bureau release dated 2 September 2020.
6. DoPT Office Memorandum No. 39020/01/2013-Estt.(B) dated 9 October 2015, discontinuing interviews for junior posts up to Group B non-gazetted.
7. Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964, Rule 18, on the annual immovable property return.
8. Right to Information Act, 2005, for which the Department of Personnel and Training is the nodal department.