Direct recruitment

Direct recruitment is the method of filling a central government civil post by selecting a candidate through open competition, conducted by the Union Public Service Commission, the Staff Selection Commission, a Railway Recruitment Board or the department itself, instead of moving a serving officer up from a feeder grade. It is one of the six methods of recruitment listed in paragraph 3.11.1 of Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. AB.14017/48/2010-Estt.(RR) dated 31 December 2010, and whether a post admits it, and for what share of its vacancies, is fixed post by post in Column 10 of the recruitment rules.

The method decides most of what follows for the person appointed. A direct recruit enters at the first cell of the pay level under Rule 8 of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016, serves a probation of two years in the standard case, takes seniority by the order of merit in the selection, and, having joined on or after 1 January 2004, is covered by the National Pension System, with an option since 1 April 2025 to enrol in the Unified Pension Scheme within 30 days of joining.

The age limit and qualifications come from Columns 6 and 7 of the recruitment rules. The reservation shares come from the Department of Personnel and Training, whose consolidated Office Memorandum No. 36011/1/2022-Estt(Res-I) dated 11 August 2026 sets 15% for Scheduled Castes, 7.5% for Scheduled Tribes and 27% for Other Backward Classes in open competition, with 10% for the Economically Weaker Sections under a separate 2019 order. The shares are different in direct recruitment otherwise than by open competition, and different again in promotion.

Source of the power to recruit directly

No Act of Parliament governs direct recruitment to central civil posts. The power rests on the proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution, under which the President makes rules regulating recruitment and conditions of service, and each set of recruitment rules made under that proviso names the methods by which its post is filled. Article 16(1) supplies the constraint: equality of opportunity in matters of appointment to any office under the State.

The Department of Personnel and Training does not recruit, but it writes the template every ministry follows. Its guidelines of 31 December 2010 set out a 13-column schedule, and three columns carry direct recruitment: Column 6 (age limit for direct recruits), Column 7 (educational and other qualifications for direct recruits) and Column 10 (method of recruitment and the percentage of vacancies by each method). Column 5 reads “Not Applicable” for a post filled by direct recruitment, because the selection or non-selection distinction applies only to promotion.

Paragraph 3.11.1 of the guidelines lists the six methods: promotion, direct recruitment, deputation, absorption, re-employment and short-term contract. Of these, direct recruitment is the only one that brings in a person with no prior claim on any government post. The others draw from a feeder grade, from another government, or from retired government servants.

A compassionate appointment is a separate scheme with its own eligibility, not an open competition. The seniority instructions place a compassionate appointee at the bottom of all candidates recruited by direct recruitment and promotion in that year, under paragraph 4.8 of the consolidated seniority instructions of 11 November 2010.

Who recruits for which posts

The recruiting agency follows from the group of the post, and the group follows from the pay level under DoPT notification S.O. 3964(E) of 9 August 2018: Levels 10 to 18 are Group A, Levels 6 to 9 Group B, and Levels 1 to 5 Group C.

The UPSC’s role in the higher groups is constitutional. Article 320(3)(a) requires the Commission to be consulted on all matters relating to methods of recruitment to civil services and civil posts, and the Commission runs the examinations that fill the entry grades of the organised Group A services, the largest being the Civil Services Examination. Where there is no examination, the Commission recruits by selection, usually by interview after a shortlisting, on a requisition from the ministry.

Group C posts fall outside the UPSC because of item 10 of Schedule I to the 1958 Regulations, which exempts all Group C and Group D services and posts from consultation save where the recruitment rules for a post expressly provide otherwise. The Staff Selection Commission exists to fill the space that exemption leaves, through the SSC Combined Graduate Level, the Combined Higher Secondary Level, the Multi Tasking Staff, the Junior Engineer, the Stenographer and the Constable (GD) examinations. Where the recruitment rules so provide, a department recruits its own Group C staff.

Regulation 4 of the 1958 Regulations also exempts a temporary or officiating appointment likely to last not more than a year where an immediate appointment is necessary in the public interest. It is not a route to regular direct recruitment: the appointment must be reported to the Commission, and if it is estimated to exceed one year, the Commission has to be consulted immediately.

The direct recruitment quota

Column 10 of the recruitment rules states what share of the vacancies each method fills, and that share is the direct recruitment quota. A post can be filled 100% by direct recruitment, as in the entry grade of most services; 100% by promotion, as in many supervisory grades; or by a mix, such as 50% promotion and 50% direct recruitment, or 75:25 in either direction.

Paragraph 3.11.1 of the 2010 guidelines names four considerations for the split: the nature of the duties, the availability of qualified people in the cadre, the need for promotion incentives, and the need for direct intake of fresh knowledge. Paragraph 3.3 treats the number of posts in Column 2 as the base against which the promotion and direct recruitment quotas are worked out, and requires the ministry to review the rules whenever the number changes substantially.

The quota matters beyond recruitment. Where a grade is filled from both sources, the direct recruits and the promotees are recruited separately and then interleaved for seniority by rotation of quota. A cadre review that changes the number of posts in a grade changes the quota in absolute terms, and an amendment that changes the percentages restarts the seniority roster from the date the amended rules are notified, under paragraph 2.4.4 of the consolidated seniority instructions of 11 November 2010.

A limited departmental competitive examination is a hybrid that sits inside the promotion share. It is an examination confined to serving employees of a feeder grade, and a post filled by it is counted as filled by promotion, not by direct recruitment, which is why the promotion article treats the reservation in it as promotion reservation.

Age limits

The age limit that binds a candidate is the one in Column 6 of the recruitment rules for the post, written as “Not exceeding … years” or “Between … and … years”. Paragraph 3.7.4.1 of the 2010 guidelines gives ministries the criteria for fixing it, tied to the pay of the post:

Source: paragraph 3.7.4.1 of DoPT Office Memorandum No. AB.14017/48/2010-Estt.(RR) dated 31 December 2010. The level column is the standard grade pay to level correspondence of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016, added by salary-calculator.in; the guidelines speak only in grade pay.

The Central Civil Services and Civil Posts (Upper Age-limit for Direct Recruitment) Rules, 1998, G.S.R. 758(E) dated 21 December 1998, raised by two years the upper age limit for direct open competitive examinations that stood when those Rules commenced. A limit framed afterwards carries no automatic addition. The 1998 Rules do not apply to the Assam Rifles, the Border Security Force, the Central Industrial Security Force, the Central Reserve Police Force and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police.

The date on which age is counted is fixed by paragraph 3.7.3 of the guidelines: the date advertised by the UPSC or the Staff Selection Commission, and in other recruitment the closing date for applications from candidates in India, not the later closing date allowed for the North Eastern states, Ladakh and other remote areas.

Age relaxation

Relaxation is added on top of the Column 6 limit, and the categories stack only where an order says so. The standard figures are these:

The absence of any relaxation for the Economically Weaker Sections is written in terms. The 2026 consolidated order states: “The conditions prescribed for General category candidates in matters of Age and Number of attempts, would also apply to EWS candidates.” An EWS candidate for the Civil Services Examination faces the same upper age and the same number of attempts as an unreserved candidate.

The departmental relaxation is not automatic either. It exists only where Column 6 of the recruitment rules provides for it, and paragraph 3.7.2 of the 2010 guidelines is addressed to the ministries that draft the rules, so a candidate cannot claim it where Column 6 omits it.

Qualifications

Column 7 of the recruitment rules sets the essential and desirable qualifications for direct recruits. Paragraph 3.8.1 of the 2010 guidelines directs ministries to specify qualifications exhaustively and avoid the phrase “or equivalent”, and to state experience in quantified terms tied to the duties. Paragraph 3.8.2 discourages prescribing a class or division in a degree and forbids raising the minimum qualification merely because better-qualified candidates are available.

Where typing is an essential qualification for a Group C post, paragraph 3.8.4 sets the test on computer at 35 words per minute in English or 30 in Hindi over ten minutes. Column 8 then answers whether the direct recruit’s age and qualifications also bind a promotee: under paragraph 3.9 the age limit ordinarily does not, and the qualification is generally not insisted on for promotion to non-technical posts.

Reservation in direct recruitment

Reservation in direct recruitment is vertical for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and the Economically Weaker Sections, and horizontal for persons with benchmark disabilities and ex-servicemen. The vertical percentages depend on how the recruitment is made.

Source: paragraphs 1 and 2 of Part A of DoPT Office Memorandum No. 36011/1/2022-Estt(Res-I) dated 11 August 2026, the state table being in paragraph 2; EWS from DoPT OM No. 36039/1/2019-Estt(Res) dated 31 January 2019.

A definition decides which of the first two rows applies. The Note under paragraph 2 of Part A of the 2026 order, carrying forward OM No. 36034/2/2013-Estt(Res) dated 8 April 2013, states that “Any recruitment not made by the UPSC or not made through written competitive test held by any other authority would mean direct recruitment otherwise than by open competition.” A departmental selection by interview alone falls in the second row, and its roster runs on 16.66% and 25.84%.

In the state-wise table the shares follow the population of each state or Union territory: Delhi is 15% SC, 7.5% ST and 27% OBC, Punjab 29% SC with no ST share, and Mizoram 45% ST. The table in the 2026 order still carries the older names Uttaranchal, Orissa and Pondicherry.

The Economically Weaker Sections reservation took effect under the Constitution (One Hundred and Third Amendment) Act, 2019, and DoPT issued the operative instructions on 31 January 2019, “In continuation of” its Office Memorandum of the same number dated 19 January 2019. Paragraph 6.3 of the 31 January order sets the one rule that differs from the other categories: unfilled EWS vacancies “for that particular recruitment year shall not be carried forward to the next recruitment year as backlog”.

Reservation is operated through post-based rosters under DoPT OM No. 36012/2/96-Estt(Res) dated 2 July 1997, and the 2019 order supplied revised model rosters in its Annexures II to V with the EWS points added. Article 320(4) takes reservation out of the UPSC’s advisory role, so the Commission applies the percentages but is not consulted on them. The full treatment is in reservation in central government jobs.

Persons with benchmark disabilities

Paragraph 2.1 of DoPT Office Memorandum No. 36035/02/2017-Estt(Res) dated 15 January 2018 reserves 4% of the total number of vacancies to be filled by direct recruitment in the cadre strength in each group of posts for persons with benchmark disabilities, under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. Paragraph 2.2 splits it: 1% each for blindness and low vision, for deaf and hard of hearing, and for locomotor disability including cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy, and 1% for autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability and mental illness together with multiple disabilities. The reservation is horizontal: a selected candidate is placed in the SC, ST, OBC, EWS or unreserved category to which that candidate belongs.

Ex-servicemen

The Ex-Servicemen (Re-employment in Central Civil Services and Posts) Rules, 1979 reserve vacancies in direct recruitment, which the DoPT compendium dated 25 December 2025 records as 10% of the vacancies in posts up to the level of Assistant Commandant in the paramilitary forces, 10% of the vacancies in Group C posts, and 20% of the vacancies in the former Group D posts. This reservation is also horizontal. The compendium still uses the Group D label, although the posts were reclassified as Group C Multi Tasking Staff after the 6th Central Pay Commission. The ex-servicemen re-employment rules have their own page.

Selection and the end of interviews for junior posts

Interviews in direct recruitment to junior posts ended on 1 January 2016. DoPT Office Memorandum No. 39020/01/2013-Estt(B)-Part dated 29 December 2015 provides that from that date “there will be no recruitment with interview at the junior level posts”, and defines the junior level as all Group C posts, the former Group D posts, non-gazetted Group B posts and all equivalent posts. The order binds ministries, their attached and subordinate offices, autonomous bodies and public sector undertakings.

Skill tests, such as typing and stenography, and physical tests for uniformed posts may still be held, but “these tests will only be of qualifying nature” under the same order, so they cannot change a candidate’s merit position. And a ministry that wants to keep the interview for a particular post has to send the Department of Personnel and Training a proposal approved by its own Minister or Minister In-Charge, under paragraph 2(g) of the same order.

DoPT’s consolidated order on the subject, dated 13 April 2017, traces the decision to a Committee of Secretaries recommendation of 14 September 2015, and records a later extension, by OM No. 39020/02/2016-Estt.(B) of 13 April 2017, to all posts up to Group B non-gazetted “irrespective of mode of appointment”. That extension reaches promotion and deputation as well, not only direct recruitment.

The UPSC continues to interview for Group A and Group B gazetted posts. The Civil Services Examination ends in a personality test after the main examination, and a recruitment by selection ends in an interview after shortlisting. The merit list that the recruiting agency sends to the ministry is the order in which the recruits will rank for seniority.

From recommendation to appointment letter

The recruiting agency recommends; the ministry appoints. The appointment letter is issued by the appointing authority named in the recruitment rules and the Schedule to the CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965, after the checks that precede a first appointment.

Fundamental Rule 10 requires a medical certificate: “no person may be appointed in India to a post in Government service without a medical certificate of health”, with the detail in Supplementary Rules 3, 4 and 4-A. The candidate’s character and antecedents are verified through an attestation form, and the certificates of caste, EWS status or disability are verified against the issuing authority.

An offer of appointment states a period, normally one or two months, after which it lapses; paragraph 4.4 of the consolidated seniority instructions allows an extension on request up to three months in the ordinary case, and the offer lapses automatically six months after its date of issue. A candidate who joins within six months keeps seniority under the normal rules. Where a lapsed offer is revived in consultation with the UPSC, the candidate is placed below all those who joined in time, and if candidates of the next examination have already joined, is moved to the bottom of the next year’s batch.

Paragraph 9 of the DoPT Master Circular on probation dated 11 March 2019 makes induction training of at least two weeks mandatory for all direct recruitment to central government posts, and directs that the requirement be written into the recruitment rules or, until they are amended, into the offer of appointment.

Pay on joining

A direct recruit is placed at the first cell of the pay level of the post, under Rule 8 of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016, headed “Fixation of pay of employees appointed by direct recruitment on or after 1st day of January, 2016”. There is no arithmetic and no option.

Source: Rule 8 and the pay matrix in the Schedule to the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016, G.S.R. 721(E) dated 25 July 2016.

Fundamental Rule 22(I)(a)(1) lets a promotee choose between fixation from the date of promotion and from the date of the next increment, but it names direct recruitment among the three cases where no option is available, so the first cell is final. The first annual increment then falls on 1 July under Rule 10(2), because an appointment made between 2 July and 1 January, both days inclusive, takes the following 1 July: a recruit joining on 20 August 2026 gets the first increment on 1 July 2027.

Dearness allowance, house rent allowance and transport allowance are added to the basic pay from the date of joining. The 7th CPC salary calculator computes the in-hand figure for any level and city.

A serving government servant selected by direct recruitment

A central government employee who competes for another post and is selected is still a direct recruit in the new post, but the manner of the application decides whether any past service survives. If the application went through proper channel, or the competent authority permitted it, the resignation from the old post is a technical resignation under Ministry of Finance Office Memorandum No. 3379-E.III(B)/65 dated 17 June 1965.

Pay is protected under the proviso to Fundamental Rule 22-B(1): where the presumptive pay of the permanent post on which the servant holds a lien is greater than the first cell of the new post, the servant draws the presumptive pay, as the pay protection article sets out. Earned leave and half pay leave carry over under Rule 9(2) of the CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972. The GPF balance or the NPS account moves with the servant. A lien on the old post is retained for up to two years, so reversion is possible if the new post does not suit.

Seniority does not carry over. In the new cadre the employee is a fresh direct recruit, ranked by merit in the selection that brought the employee in.

An application sent directly, without permission, ends differently. The resignation is an ordinary one, past service is forfeited for pension under Rule 26 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021, and the person joins the new post as a fresh entrant. The one relaxation is DoPT OM No. 13/24/92-Estt(Pay-I) dated 22 January 1993, which preserves the benefit for a post applied for before joining government service, provided the application was intimated on joining, the resignation states that it is to take up that appointment, and the accepting authority is satisfied that the application would have been forwarded had the person then been in service.

Probation and confirmation

Every direct recruit serves probation, and its length is whatever Column 9 of the recruitment rules for the post says. The model under paragraph 3.10.2 of the 2010 guidelines is two years in the general case, and one year for direct recruitment to posts at Grade Pay Rs. 7,600 (Level 12) or above, or with a maximum age of 35 years or more, where no training is involved. The organised Group A services carry a standard clause of two years’ probation in the junior scale, under paragraph 3.10.1.

Probation for a direct recruit is governed by DoPT Master Circular No. 28020/3/2018-Estt.(C) dated 11 March 2019. The probationer can be discharged under the terms of appointment, and that discharge from service is not a penalty under clauses (v) and (viii)(a) of the Explanation to Rule 11 of the CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965. A probationer who completes probation satisfactorily is confirmed once, in the entry grade, under DoPT OM No. 18011/1/86-Estt.(D) dated 28 March 1988, which made confirmation a one-time event delinked from the availability of a permanent post.

Probation applies only to the new grade. A direct recruit to Level 7 who is later promoted within Group B serves no fresh probation, under the paragraph 3.10.2 model, while a promotion from Group B to Group A carries the probation prescribed for direct recruits to the higher post.

Seniority of direct recruits

Among themselves, direct recruits rank by the order of merit in which the recruiting agency selected them. Paragraph 2.1 of DoPT Office Memorandum No. 20011/1/2008-Estt.(D) dated 11 November 2010 fixes it that way, with those appointed from an earlier selection ranking above those from a later one. The date on which an individual recruit reports for duty is irrelevant within a panel.

Against promotees in the same grade, the rule changed twice in a decade. The Supreme Court tied a direct recruit’s position to the recruitment year in Union of India v. N.R. Parmar, decided on 27 November 2012; a three-judge bench overruled it in K. Meghachandra Singh v. Ningam Siro on 19 November 2019; and DoPT Office Memorandum No. 20011/2/2019-Estt.(D) dated 13 August 2021 now applies rotation of quota to the vacancies with inter se seniority running from the year of actual appointment. A direct recruit appointed in 2025 against a vacancy of 2023 ranks in the 2025 block, not the 2023 one.

The question is not closed. On 14 December 2022 the Supreme Court referred K. Meghachandra Singh to a larger bench in Hariharan v. Harsh Vardhan Singh Rao, and the 2021 order continues to govern departmental practice while the reference is pending. The seniority article carries the full treatment.

Pension scheme on joining

A direct recruit joining central civil service on or after 1 January 2004 is covered by the National Pension System, under Ministry of Finance notification F. No. 5/7/2003-ECB & PR dated 22 December 2003. The Old Pension Scheme under the CCS (Pension) Rules is not available.

Since 1 April 2025 the recruit has a choice on joining. Rule 4(2) of the Central Civil Services (Implementation of the Unified Pension Scheme under the National Pension System) Rules, 2025, notified as G.S.R. 599(E) on 2 September 2025, gives a government employee joining service on or after 1 April 2025 “the option to directly enroll for being covered under the Unified Pension Scheme immediately on joining”. The application goes to the Head of Office in Form A1 “within thirty days, from the date of joining the Central Government service”. The comparison is set out in NPS versus OPS versus UPS.

Two one-time windows allowed some later joiners into the Old Pension Scheme, and both have closed. DoPPW Office Memorandum No. 57/04/2019-P&PW(B) dated 17 February 2020 covered candidates whose results were declared on or before 31 December 2003 against vacancies arising before 1 January 2004, with the option due by 31 May 2020. DoPPW OM No. 57/05/2021-P&PW(B) dated 3 March 2023 covered posts advertised or notified on or before 22 December 2003, with the option due by 31 August 2023. A technical resignee who first joined before 1 January 2004 keeps the Old Pension Scheme in the new post, which is a separate protection.

The optimisation of direct recruitment, 2001 to 2009

For eight years direct recruitment to civilian posts was rationed. DoPT Office Memorandum No. 2/8/2001-PIC dated 16 May 2001 provided that “direct recruitment would be limited to 1/3 rd of the direct recruitment vacancies arising in the year subject to a further ceiling that this does not exceed 1% of the total sanctioned strength of the Department”. Vacancies not cleared by the screening committee were not to be filled by promotion or otherwise and stood abolished.

The screening committees were headed by the Secretary of each ministry, and by the Cabinet Secretary for Group A posts. The scheme reached the Railways, the Department of Posts, telecommunications and autonomous bodies.

The 7th Central Pay Commission recorded at paragraphs 3.34 to 3.36 of its report that the optimisation instructions were in operation from May 2001 to March 2009, and that “Based on this the government decided, in 2009, not to extend the Optimisation Scheme.”

Lateral entry

Lateral entry is recruitment from outside government into the middle and senior levels of the Central Secretariat, at Joint Secretary, Director and Deputy Secretary. It differs from ordinary direct recruitment in two ways: the appointment is on contract, or on deputation for officers of state governments and public sector bodies, not a regular appointment; and it is for a fixed term. The 2024 advertisement also excluded serving central government employees.

The scheme followed the report of a Sectoral Group of Secretaries submitted in February 2017. The first round drew 6,077 applications; the UPSC recommended nine candidates in April 2019, and eight were appointed Joint Secretaries in September 2019, according to the DoPT Annual Report 2019-20. The DoPT Annual Report 2024-25 records 45 lateral entrants in position, “6 Joint Secretaries, 29 Directors and 10 Deputy Secretaries”, and 25 appointed from the 2023 batch during 2024.

UPSC Advertisement No. 54/2024, published on 17 August 2024, sought 45 officers: 10 Joint Secretaries and 35 Directors or Deputy Secretaries, “for a period of three years (Extendable to five years depending upon performance)”, at the minimum of Levels 14, 13 and 12, with a stated condition that “Central Government employees are not eligible to apply for these posts.” The UPSC cancelled it by Cancellation Notice F.8/24/2024-R(C&P), which states that the advertisement “is cancelled as requested by the requisitioning authority”. The lateral entry page tracks the scheme.

Common misreadings

• “Direct recruitment means the UPSC.” The UPSC recruits to Group A and most Group B gazetted posts. Group C and Group B non-gazetted recruitment runs through the Staff Selection Commission, the Railway Recruitment Boards and departments, outside UPSC consultation under item 10 of Schedule I to the 1958 Regulations, and without interviews since 1 January 2016.
• “EWS candidates get age relaxation like OBC candidates.” They do not. The 2026 consolidated DoPT order applies the general category age and attempts to EWS candidates.
• “A departmental candidate can always apply over-age.” Only where Column 6 of the recruitment rules for that post provides the relaxation, and under the 2012 DoPT table only after three years’ continuous service and for a post in the same line or an allied cadre.
• “Reservation is always 15%, 7.5% and 27%.” Those are the open competition figures. Recruitment otherwise than by open competition runs on 16.66%, 7.5% and 25.84%, and local Group C recruitment on state-wise shares.
• “A government servant selected through SSC or UPSC keeps seniority.” Pay, leave and pension continuity survive a technical resignation; seniority in the new cadre starts from the new selection.

Related Articles

• Recruitment rules
• Promotion
• Deputation in central government
• Absorption
• Re-employment after retirement
• Compassionate appointment
• Lateral entry
• Limited departmental competitive examination
• Union Public Service Commission
• Staff Selection Commission
• Railway Recruitment Board
• Civil Services Examination
• SSC Combined Graduate Level
• Central government jobs
• Department of Personnel and Training
• Reservation in central government jobs
• Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act
• Ex-servicemen re-employment rules, 1979
• Article 309
• Probation in central government service
• Confirmation in service
• Discharge from service
• Induction training
• Seniority
• Cadre review
• Pay fixation
• Pay protection
• Technical resignation
• Lien
• Resignation from government service
• CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016
• Pay matrix
• Annual increment
• National Pension System
• Unified Pension Scheme
• NPS vs OPS vs UPS
• CCS (CCA) Rules

External references

• Department of Personnel and Training, Guidelines for framing and amendment of Recruitment Rules, 31 December 2010: https://documents.doptcirculars.nic.in/D2/D02est/AB.14017_48_2010-Estt.-RR.pdf
• Department of Personnel and Training: https://dopt.gov.in/
• Union Public Service Commission: https://upsc.gov.in/
• Staff Selection Commission: https://ssc.gov.in/
• Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare: https://doppw.gov.in/
• Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, Unified Pension Scheme: https://pfrda.org.in/schemes/national-pension-system/unified-pension-scheme
• The Gazette of India: https://egazette.gov.in/

References

1. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. AB.14017/48/2010-Estt.(RR) dated 31 December 2010, Guidelines for framing and amendment of Recruitment Rules: Annexure I, paragraphs 3.3, 3.7.2, 3.7.3, 3.7.4.1, 3.8.1 to 3.8.4, 3.9, 3.10.1, 3.10.2, 3.11.1 and 3.14; Central Civil Services and Civil Posts (Upper Age-limit for Direct Recruitment) Rules, 1998, G.S.R. 758(E) dated 21 December 1998.
2. Union Public Service Commission (Exemption from Consultation) Regulations, 1958, No. 18/4/51-Estt.(B) dated 1 September 1958, regulations 2 and 4 and Schedule I item 10; Constitution of India, Articles 16, 309 and 320.
3. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. 36011/1/2022-Estt(Res-I) dated 11 August 2026, consolidated instructions on reservation, Part A paragraphs 1 and 2 and Part C paragraph 3; Office Memorandum No. 36039/1/2019-Estt(Res) dated 31 January 2019 on reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections, paragraphs 6.1 and 6.3; Office Memorandum No. 36012/2/96-Estt(Res) dated 2 July 1997 on post-based rosters.
4. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. 36035/02/2017-Estt(Res) dated 15 January 2018, paragraphs 2.1 and 2.2; Office Memorandum No. 15012/2/2010-Estt.(D) dated 27 March 2012 on age relaxation; Office Memorandum No. 15012/1/88-Estt.(D) dated 20 May 1988; Ex-Servicemen (Re-employment in Central Civil Services and Posts) Rules, 1979, with the DoPT compendium dated 25 December 2025.
5. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. 39020/01/2013-Estt(B)-Part dated 29 December 2015 on discontinuation of interviews, and the consolidated order dated 13 April 2017.
6. Central Civil Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016, G.S.R. 721(E) dated 25 July 2016, Rules 8 and 10 and the Schedule; Fundamental Rules 10, 22(I)(a)(1) and 22-B(1); Ministry of Finance Office Memorandum No. 3379-E.III(B)/65 dated 17 June 1965; DoPT Office Memorandum No. 13/24/92-Estt(Pay-I) dated 22 January 1993.
7. Department of Personnel and Training, Master Circular No. 28020/3/2018-Estt.(C) dated 11 March 2019 on probation and confirmation; Office Memorandum No. 18011/1/86-Estt.(D) dated 28 March 1988.
8. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. 20011/1/2008-Estt.(D) dated 11 November 2010, paragraphs 2.1, 2.4.4, 4.4 and 4.8; Office Memorandum No. 20011/2/2019-Estt.(D) dated 13 August 2021; K. Meghachandra Singh v. Ningam Siro, (2020) 5 SCC 689, decided 19 November 2019.
9. Central Civil Services (Implementation of the Unified Pension Scheme under the National Pension System) Rules, 2025, G.S.R. 599(E) dated 2 September 2025, Rule 4; Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare Office Memoranda No. 57/04/2019-P&PW(B) dated 17 February 2020 and No. 57/05/2021-P&PW(B) dated 3 March 2023.
10. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. 2/8/2001-PIC dated 16 May 2001; Report of the 7th Central Pay Commission, November 2015, paragraphs 3.34 to 3.36; DoPT Annual Reports 2019-20 (paragraph 3.10) and 2024-25 (paragraphs 3.18 and 3.19); UPSC Advertisement No. 54/2024 and Cancellation Notice F.8/24/2024-R(C&P).