Empanelment

Empanelment is the process by which the Government of India assesses whether an officer of the All India Services or a participating organised Group A service is suitable to hold posts of Joint Secretary, Additional Secretary or Secretary level at the Centre, with the panel approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on the recommendation of the Civil Services Board or the Special Committee of Secretaries. It is the entry condition for the top three levels of the Central Staffing Scheme.

Empanelment rests on executive instructions and nothing else. The Department of Personnel and Training told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel in 2017 that “For empanelment, there are no rules.” The governing texts are paragraphs 8, 9 and 14 of the Central Staffing Scheme, DoPT Office Memorandum No. 36/77/94-EO(SM-I) dated 5 January 1996, the consolidated guidelines for Joint Secretary and for Additional Secretary and Secretary, and a run of later OMs that DoPT indexed in OM No. 12/2/2024-EO(SM-III) dated 19 January 2024.

The process does not change an officer’s pay, grade or seniority in the parent cadre. It produces a list of officers eligible to be offered a central post at Level 14 (Joint Secretary), Level 15 (Additional Secretary) or Level 17 (Secretary) of the pay matrix. An officer left off the list cannot hold that level at the Centre under the scheme, whatever the cadre has given them. For an Indian Administrative Service officer, non-empanelment at Joint Secretary closes the route to the senior secretariat for that review cycle. The non-functional upgradation of Group A services is keyed to the posting of IAS batches at the Centre, so IAS empanelment and posting dates also move Group A pay.

The sections below set out the instruments, eligibility by level, the bodies that decide, the scoring scales, multi-source feedback, the vigilance and property return bars, reviews, the equivalent categories, the separate Indian Police Service process run by the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the criticism in the Committee’s 92nd Report.

Instruments that govern empanelment

Empanelment has no statute and no recruitment rule behind it. The 92nd Report of the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, “Appraisal and Empanelment of Civil Servants under the Central Government”, presented to the Rajya Sabha on 8 August 2017 and laid in the Lok Sabha on 10 August 2017, recorded that there is “no statutory backing to the scheme and it is based on executive instructions only”.

The instruments in force are indexed in DoPT OM No. 12/2/2024-EO(SM-III) dated 19 January 2024, “Compilation of Instructions w.r.t. empanelment of officers for holding JS/AS/Secretary level posts at the Centre”, which lists seven items.

The Joint Secretary guidelines still state eligibility and scores in the 6th CPC pay band structure (Pay Band 4, Grade Pay Rs. 10,000) and use the term ACR, the name the annual confidential report carried until DoPT OM No. 21011/1/2005-Estt.(A)(Pt-II) dated 14 May 2009 renamed it the APAR. The 19 January 2024 compilation lists no later consolidation at that level, so the 2014 text is the one DoPT indexes as current.

The Ministry of Personnel described the scope in a Rajya Sabha reply of 31 July 2014: empanelment is a prerequisite for Joint Secretary, Additional Secretary and Secretary posts under the Central Staffing Scheme and is not required for Under Secretary. The Rajya Sabha reply of 16 March 2017 added that the guidelines are “broadly same” for all services.

Empanelment and promotion

Empanelment is not a promotion, and the government has said so in terms. The Rajya Sabha reply of 31 July 2014 stated: “since empanelment is not a promotion, no Departmental Promotion Committee is required to be set up”. The Surinder Nath Committee on the performance appraisal system, constituted by DoPT in December 2002, put it the same way at paragraph 7.2.2 of its report: “It is not (although sometimes misunderstood as such), a substantive promotion”.

The difference has four practical consequences.

The 1996 Scheme’s paragraph 9 wording, that inclusion in the panel “would not confer any right to such appointment”, is the line every later instrument follows. A posting happens only when a vacancy arises, the Establishment Officer places the officer on an offer, and the ACC approves the appointment. The DoPT instructions on promotion and departmental promotion committees govern movement within a cadre and do not regulate empanelment.

The consolidated Joint Secretary guidelines describe empanelment as reflecting “the suitability of an officer to occupy senior levels in the Central Government”, not the officer’s intrinsic merit. That wording explains why an officer may be promoted to the Senior Administrative Grade in the cadre and still not be empanelled for the equivalent level at the Centre.

Eligibility for Joint Secretary empanelment

Joint Secretary empanelment opens at 17 years of Group A service for the participating services and at 16 years for the IAS. The conditions come from three instruments.

Paragraph 1 of the consolidated Joint Secretary guidelines requires 17 years of Group A service and pay in Pay Band 4 (Rs. 37,400 to 67,000) with Grade Pay Rs. 10,000, pre-revised Rs. 18,400 to 22,400, in the parent cadre. That grade is the Senior Administrative Grade, now Level 14 of the 7th CPC matrix with an entry cell of Rs. 1,44,200. For an All India Services batch, the appointment of at least one officer of the batch to that scale in any State cadre makes the whole batch eligible for that year.

For the IAS, DoPT OM No. 32/29/2020-EO(MM-II) dated 18 June 2020 recorded the ACC’s direction that the qualifying service for Joint Secretary empanelment “would be 16 years”, aligned with the Super Time Scale under DoPT letter No. 20011/4/92-AIS-II dated 28 March 2000. The 7th Central Pay Commission had stated the older threshold of 17 years plus the Senior Administrative Grade at paragraph 7.3.31 of its report.

The central deputation condition for the IAS

The 2020 OM also made two years at Deputy Secretary or Director level under the Central Staffing Scheme mandatory for IAS officers of the 2007 batch onwards. The condition has been changed twice since.

The 2025 OM widened the qualifying experience in two ways: it counts Under Secretary tenure, and it accepts “equivalent” central posts outside the scheme’s Deputy Secretary and Director designations. Neither the 2023 nor the 2025 OM states whether the one-year abeyance lapsed in June 2024 or ran until it was overtaken in May 2025, so the position of the 2007 to 2009 batches in that interval is not fixed by any published order.

Records and residual service

Paragraph 2 of the Joint Secretary guidelines reads the ACRs or APARs of the 10 years up to and including the cut-off year. Where reports are missing for reasons beyond the officer’s control, at least 8 full years are needed, reaching back up to three years; otherwise consideration is deferred. An officer with reports missing for three years or more on leave other than study leave is deferred until one more report is written (gap under four years) or two more (gap of four years or more).

Three further exclusions apply under paragraph 2(e): residual service of less than four years on 1 January of the year of empanelment; insufficient reports; and failure to meet Clause 16 of the Central Staffing Scheme, which requires an officer back from a foreign service assignment of two years or more to serve two years in the cadre and earn two reports before consideration.

Eligibility for Additional Secretary and Secretary empanelment

Additional Secretary and Secretary empanelment is open only to an officer already on the panel for the level below. The other conditions differ between the IAS and the participating services.

The non-IAS criteria are in the guidelines reproduced at Annexure II of the 92nd Report; the IAS criteria are in paragraph 6 of the guidelines for IAS officers listed in the 2024 compilation. The Rajya Sabha reply of 18 July 2019 confirmed the three-year central deputation condition at Deputy Secretary and above for both levels. Under the DoPT OM of 25 March 2011, service as Private Secretary or Officer on Special Duty to a Union Minister counts towards those three years.

Paragraph 2 of the Annexure II guidelines relaxes the three-year condition for officers who opted for central deputation but were not forwarded by the cadre or were not offered an appointment, other than for vigilance reasons, for the first three batches considered at each level.

The two-year differential

OM No. 36/15/2001-EO(SM-I) dated 20 July 2001 sets a two-year differential between the IAS and the other services for Additional Secretary and Secretary empanelment. The Rajya Sabha reply of 16 March 2017 confirmed that the status quo was kept by Department of Expenditure Resolution No. 1-2/2016-IC dated 25 July 2016, which deferred the 7th CPC’s recommendation at paragraph 7.3.42 that the edge be removed. Neither the 2001 OM nor the 2017 reply states a comparable differential at Joint Secretary level; the 2020 OM’s 16 year threshold for the IAS against 17 years in the consolidated guidelines is a one-year difference in eligibility, not a stated batch gap.

Separate category for short residual service

Paragraph 7 of the IAS guidelines places an officer who is otherwise suitable but short of residual service in a separate category. Such an officer may be given the pay of Secretary as Principal Adviser reporting to the Secretary of the department, or the pay of Additional Secretary as Senior Adviser.

Bodies that decide empanelment

Four bodies handle a central panel, and which of them sits depends on the level. The table follows the 92nd Report’s paragraph 14 description of the system as it stood in 2017.

The Establishment Officer is an Additional Secretary-level officer of DoPT who is Secretary to the ACC and Member-Secretary of the Civil Services Board. The office issues each approved panel as an Information Note on the DoPT portal, which on 4 October 2026 held 1,120 Joint Secretary records, 96 Additional Secretary records and 67 Secretary records.

The dates of the present structure are disputed in the record. The Cabinet Secretary told the Committee that the Experts Panel began in February 2005; DoPT described “the present system” as having started in 2009. The 1996 Scheme itself names only the Civil Services Board and a Screening Committee of Secretaries. The Surinder Nath Committee recorded at paragraph 7.2.3 that, around 2003, Joint Secretary reports were evaluated by four Secretaries before going to the Board, and at paragraph 7.2.5 that Additional Secretary and Secretary panels were settled by a four-member committee of the Cabinet Secretary, the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary and the Secretary (Personnel).

Scoring and benchmarks

The two sets of guidelines use different scales, and only the senior one states a numerical benchmark.

APAR numerical grades under the All India Services (Performance Appraisal Report) Rules, 2007 are rounded to the Joint Secretary values, per DoPT letter No. 11059/23/2008-AIS.III dated 4 June 2009. Rule 2(c) of those rules defines empanelment as assessing suitability for Joint Secretary and above, and rule 2(b) defines the benchmark as the minimum weighted mean score above which an officer is fit for promotion or empanelment.

Batch strength in the Joint Secretary guidelines is actual strength less the officers retiring within four years. The score feeds the Civil Services Board, which under paragraph 1(e) also weighs experience profile, general reputation, merit, competence, leadership and flair for policy-making. A worked illustration on the Joint Secretary scale: an officer with six Outstanding and four Very Good reports in the ten-year window scores (6 × 9 + 4 × 7) ÷ 10 = 8.2 on the scale of 9, taking a simple mean of the ten yearly values. The Joint Secretary guidelines set no pass mark for that figure.

Relaxation for under-represented groups

Paragraph 2(b) of the Joint Secretary guidelines allows relaxation for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe officers, women officers, State cadres and North-East cadres whose cumulative representation over four batches falls below 66⅔% of the all-India empanelment percentage. The relaxation is capped at about 15% of the panel.

Multi-source feedback

Multi-source feedback, also called the 360-degree appraisal, is a structured set of interviews the Experts Panel conducts about each officer, used alongside the APAR for Joint Secretary and above. The 92nd Report records at paragraph 2 that it has been in use “since 2015”, and DoPT’s written submission at paragraph 4 dates the revised guidelines to April 2016. The text of those guidelines is reproduced in Annexure II of the 92nd Report.

The report also lists six parameters the assessment weighs: integrity, behavioural competencies, functional skills, domain expertise, delivery and potential. The government confirmed the method in a Rajya Sabha reply of 6 February 2020, stating that 360-degree appraisal with multi-source feedback “has been introduced in the process of empanelment” alongside service record, vigilance status and suitability.

DoPT told the Committee that “specific reasons for non empanelment are not communicated to the officers concerned”.

Vigilance clearance and property returns

An officer without vigilance clearance is not empanelled, and the guidelines treat the refusal as a used chance. Paragraph 2(a) of the Joint Secretary guidelines states that a vigilance denied officer exhausts the first chance, and that each year’s default in filing the immovable property return is treated as one year of vigilance denial.

Four DoPT instruments connect the property return to empanelment:

• OM No. 11/7/2011-EO(PR) dated 4 April 2011: an officer who does not submit the return in time is denied vigilance clearance and not considered for promotion and empanelment.
• DoPT OM No. 11012/11/2007-Estt.(A) dated 27 September 2011, which recorded that officers who have not filed returns by the prescribed time will not be considered for empanelment for senior posts.
• The vigilance clearance guidelines of 14 December 2007, which listed empanelment as one of the occasions for clearance.
• OM No. 104/33/2024-AVD-IA dated 9 October 2024, which denies clearance to an officer who has not filed the previous year’s return by 31 January and extends the bar to deputation, sensitive postings, confirmation and voluntary retirement.

A penalty works differently. A minor penalty under the CCS (CCA) Rules or the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules bars empanelment and deputation for three years after its currency, under paragraphs 3(l) and 8(l) of DoPT OM No. 104/33/2024-AVD-IA dated 9 October 2024, while the same penalty does not bar promotion in the cadre. For a censure, which has no duration, the instructions leave unsettled whether that bar runs at all and from when (see vigilance clearance). Suspension and a pending charge sheet are each grounds on which the vigilance clearance guidelines withhold clearance, so an officer under suspension is not considered.

Reviews and representations

A non-empanelled officer gets at most two further looks at the same level. Paragraph 2(d) of the Joint Secretary guidelines conducts the review batch-wise, takes it up after two more ACRs are added, and bars any officer’s case from being reviewed more than twice. The Surinder Nath Committee recorded the same cycle at paragraph 7.2.4 of its report: a first review after two years and a second after two more.

At Additional Secretary and Secretary level the review is annual, again at most twice. Paragraph 1(xii) of the Annexure II guidelines allows the Special Committee of Secretaries to reconsider a case six months after empanelment where the ACR record has changed materially.

Representations take two routes:

1. Before consideration, under paragraph 1(c) of the Joint Secretary guidelines, an officer may represent on appraisal concerns; DoPT examines it, and any not accepted go to the Experts Panel. The Establishment Officer’s views are not sought.
2. After the panel issues, under paragraph 2(c), the Civil Services Board decides a representation within three months. DoPT OM No. 12/3/2008-EO(SM-III) dated 6 January 2011 requires the representation of a non-empanelled officer, and DoPT’s examination of it, to be placed before the Experts Panel at the first, second or special review.

DoPT empanelment orders mark each name by stage, for example “initial”, “first review”, “second review” or “initial leftover”. The MHA order No. I-28015/01/2024-IPS.IV dated 30 April 2026, empanelling 14 IPS officers of the 1998 to 2004 batches for Joint Secretary or equivalent, used the last three.

Equivalent panels

Empanelment orders place officers either on the full panel or on an equivalent-only panel. The DoPT Information Notes of 28 February 2026 show the split.

Joint Secretary orders are headed “for holding the posts of Joint Secretary or equivalent at the Centre” without the split; the DoPT Information Note of 4 February 2026 under F. No. 17/1/2026-EO(SM-III)(Pt-I) empanelled 24 IAS officers of the 2010 batch on initial consideration in that form.

None of the instruments indexed in the 19 January 2024 compilation defines what an equivalent-only panel permits. The 92nd Report recorded at paragraph 22 that Secretary-equivalent and Additional Secretary-equivalent posts are created “to accommodate those who are not appointed as Secretary/AS”, and recommended that the practice stop.

IPS empanelment by the Ministry of Home Affairs

IPS officers are empanelled twice over: by DoPT for Joint Secretary and above in the secretariat, and by the Ministry of Home Affairs for police posts at the Centre under the IPS Tenure Policy, MHA OM No. I-21023/29/2007-IPS.III dated 30 March 2010, in its compilation updated to 26 December 2023. The MHA process fills Inspector General, Additional Director General and Director General posts in the Central Armed Police Forces, the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Intelligence Bureau and other central police organisations.

All three bodies send their recommendations to the ACC. As recorded in the 2023 compilation, MHA Notification No. I.21016/12/2020.IPS-III dated 23 February 2022 substituted paragraphs 4.1 and 4.2 of the Tenure Policy: paragraph 4.1 now reads that empanelment is at the levels of IG and above and that “There is no empanelment of officers upto the level of DIG.” The 2010 text had empanelled at DIG and above, with DIG panels approved by the Home Minister.

MHA letter No. I-28012/03/2025-IPS.IV dated 28 January 2026 to all Chief Secretaries added a central experience condition: two years at SP or DIG or equivalent level are mandatory for IG empanelment at the Centre from the 2011 batch. It mirrors the DoPT condition imposed on IAS Joint Secretary empanelment from the 2010 batch by the OM of 7 May 2025. Recent MHA orders include No. I-28012/02/2025-IPS.IV dated 11 May 2025, empanelling 65 officers as IG or equivalent, and No. I-28012/04/2025-IPS.IV dated 17 February 2026, empanelling 13 on review.

The Rajya Sabha reply of 16 March 2017 put the IPS deputation reserve at 180 posts, including 40 at Additional Secretary level and 11 apex posts, and stated that there are “no deputation posts in Government of India exclusively for IAS officers”.

Director General of Police in a State

Selection of a State’s Director General of Police is a different process with the same word. Under the Supreme Court’s directions in Prakash Singh v. Union of India, (2006) 8 SCC 1, decided on 22 September 2006, the State selects its Director General of Police from the three senior-most officers empanelled by the Union Public Service Commission, for a minimum tenure of two years. That panel is prepared by the Commission for a State post and has no connection with central empanelment by the MHA or DoPT.

Indian Forest Service and Group A services

Indian Forest Service and Group A officers are empanelled for Joint Secretary and above through the same DoPT machinery as the IAS. DoPT Information Note No. 5/24/2012-EO(SM-III) dated 2 June 2014 empanelled 29 IFoS officers of the 1988 batch for Joint Secretary or equivalent at initial consideration, and the DoPT Information Notes of 9 December 2025 list IFoS officers among the Additional Secretary and Secretary panels.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests, now the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, provided for its own selection for central forestry posts in Resolution No. A.12011/1/94-IFS-I dated 14 December 2000: a Central Forestry Establishment Board for Central Deputation Reserve posts below the pre-revised Rs. 18,400 to 22,400 scale, and a Special Selection Committee of five Secretaries for posts at and above it. The resolution uses the words “selection” and “recommendations”, not empanelment.

For the 34 Group A services in the Central Staffing Scheme, Joint Secretary eligibility depends on the officer reaching the Senior Administrative Grade in the cadre. A delayed cadre review therefore delays empanelment: the 7th CPC recorded at paragraph 7.3.15 that a Central Group A officer can be considered as Joint Secretary only after reaching that grade. For the Central Secretariat Service, an ACC order of 23 January 2015 empanelled three officers for Joint Secretary or equivalent, and an empanelled Director may be appointed Joint Secretary in-situ against a ceiling of 40 posts.

The 92nd Report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee

The 92nd Report is the Parliamentary Standing Committee’s review of the whole empanelment system. The Committee, which presented its report on 8 August 2017, reached five findings.

1. The process is “opaque, non-transparent and subjective” (paragraph 19.2).
2. The guidelines “should be notified” and the process made transparent and rule based (paragraph 10.1).
3. No single service should hold a majority on the Civil Services Board, the Experts Panel or the Special Committee of Secretaries (paragraph 18.0).
4. Equivalent posts created to accommodate officers not appointed as Secretary or Additional Secretary should stop (paragraph 22).
5. The scheme has no statutory backing.

Annexure IV of the report counted 480 IAS officers empanelled at Joint Secretary, Additional Secretary and Secretary level across 2012 to 2017.

The Surinder Nath Committee had proposed reforms in its report at paragraph 10.4.4: review up to twice more, a cap of 50% of a fresh batch at Joint Secretary, and a role for the UPSC with interviews. The 2014 and 2017 guidelines adopted the two-review limit and a batch percentage; they did not adopt the UPSC role or interviews.

What empanelment does not cover

Three routes to a senior central post sit outside empanelment.

Lateral entry. Joint Secretary, Director and Deputy Secretary posts filled by open recruitment through the UPSC are outside the Central Staffing Scheme under paragraph 3 of the 1996 Scheme and paragraph 3(a) of the DoPT deputation consolidation of 28 March 2024. The Minister of State for Personnel told the Lok Sabha on 18 March 2026 that 63 such appointments had been made since 2018: 8 in 2019, all at Joint Secretary level, 30 in 2021 and 25 in 2023. Lateral appointees sign a contract agreement and are evaluated annually, per the Rajya Sabha reply of 6 February 2020. See lateral entry.

Board-level posts in public sector enterprises. The DoPT compendium on board-level appointments in central public sector enterprises, D.O. No. 28/43(EO)/2013-ACC dated 29 August 2017, fills those posts through the Public Enterprises Selection Board. The word “empanel” appears in it once, in the list of ACC functions.

Promotion within the cadre. Promotion to the Senior Administrative Grade, the Higher Administrative Grade and the Apex scale in a cadre runs through the cadre’s own committee and the State government or the cadre controlling authority. An officer may hold Level 15 in the cadre without an Additional Secretary panel, and draws that pay in the cadre; the panel governs only appointment at the Centre.

A central deputation that does follow empanelment is governed by the scheme’s own tenure, cooling off and debarment terms and by the general deputation rules only where the scheme is silent. Pay on appointment is the pay of the post, with protection of the cadre pay as personal pay under rule 12 of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016, as amended by Department of Expenditure notification No. 1-2/2016-IC dated 15 June 2017.

Related Articles

• Central Staffing Scheme
• Civil Services Board
• Appointments Committee of the Cabinet
• Cabinet Secretary
• Cabinet Secretariat
• Department of Personnel and Training
• All India Services
• Indian Administrative Service
• Indian Police Service
• Indian Forest Service
• Indian Foreign Service
• Organised Group A services
• Central Secretariat Service
• Indian Revenue Service
• Annual Performance Appraisal Report
• Departmental promotion committee
• Promotion
• Seniority
• Vigilance clearance
• Immovable property return
• Central Vigilance Commission
• Sealed cover procedure
• Minor penalty
• Suspension
• CCS (CCA) Rules
• All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules
• All India Services Conduct Rules
• Deputation in the central government
• Foreign service
• Cadre review
• Non-functional upgradation
• Higher Administrative Grade
• Pay matrix
• Pay fixation on promotion
• Cabinet Secretary pay
• Lateral entry
• Union Public Service Commission
• Central Armed Police Forces
• Central Bureau of Investigation
• Intelligence Bureau
• Ministry of Home Affairs
• Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
• Probity Portal
• 7th Central Pay Commission
• Confirmation in service
• Study leave
• Central Administrative Tribunal

External references

• Department of Personnel and Training, Establishment Officer’s circulars on empanelment, including OM No. 12/2/2024-EO(SM-III) dated 19 January 2024: doptcirculars.nic.in
• Department of Personnel and Training, Consolidated Empanelment Guidelines for Joint Secretary and equivalent posts at the Centre: documents.doptcirculars.nic.in
• Department of Personnel and Training, guidelines for evaluating suitability of IAS officers for Secretary and Additional Secretary panels: documents.doptcirculars.nic.in
• Department of Personnel and Training, OM No. 12/03/2008-EO(SM-III)(Vol.II) dated 7 May 2025, central deputation condition for IAS Joint Secretary empanelment: documents.doptcirculars.nic.in
• Department of Personnel and Training, OM No. 36/77/94-EO(SM-I) dated 5 January 1996, the Central Staffing Scheme: documents.doptcirculars.nic.in
• Ministry of Home Affairs, IPS Tenure Policy, OM No. I-21023/29/2007-IPS.III dated 30 March 2010, updated to 26 December 2023: mha.gov.in
• Press Information Bureau, Rajya Sabha written reply of 31 July 2014 on empanelment: pib.gov.in
• Press Information Bureau, Rajya Sabha written reply of 6 February 2020 on 360-degree appraisal: pib.gov.in

References

1. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. 36/77/94-EO(SM-I) dated 5 January 1996, Central Staffing Scheme, paragraphs 3, 8, 9, 14 and Clause 16.
2. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. 12/2/2024-EO(SM-III) dated 19 January 2024, compilation of instructions on empanelment for Joint Secretary, Additional Secretary and Secretary posts; Consolidated Empanelment Guidelines for Joint Secretary, OM No. 12/3/2008-EO(SM-III)(Part-II) dated 24 July 2014, paragraphs 1, 2, 1(a) to 1(f) and 2(a) to 2(d); guidelines for IAS officers for Secretary and Additional Secretary panels, paragraphs 3 to 9.
3. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memoranda No. 36/15/2001-EO(SM-I) dated 20 July 2001, No. 12/3/2008-EO(SM-III) dated 6 January 2011, No. 31/10/2010-EO(MM-I) dated 25 March 2011, No. 32/29/2020-EO(MM-II) dated 18 June 2020, No. 12/03/2008-EO(SM-III)(Vol. II) dated 15 June 2023 and No. 12/03/2008-EO(SM-III)(Vol.II) dated 7 May 2025.
4. Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, 92nd Report, “Appraisal and Empanelment of Civil Servants under the Central Government”, presented to the Rajya Sabha on 8 August 2017, paragraphs 2, 4, 10.1, 14, 18.0, 19.2 and 22, and Annexures II and IV.
5. Ministry of Home Affairs, IPS Tenure Policy, OM No. I-21023/29/2007-IPS.III dated 30 March 2010, paragraphs 3 and 4.1 to 4.6, as amended by Notification No. I.21016/12/2020.IPS-III dated 23 February 2022; MHA letter No. I-28012/03/2025-IPS.IV dated 28 January 2026; MHA orders No. I-28012/02/2025-IPS.IV dated 11 May 2025, No. I-28012/04/2025-IPS.IV dated 17 February 2026, No. I-28017/04/2025-IPS.IV dated 12 March 2026 and No. I-28015/01/2024-IPS.IV dated 30 April 2026.
6. Department of Personnel and Training, Information Notes No. 35/01/2026-EO(SM-I) and No. 35/02/2026-EO(SM-I) dated 28 February 2026, F. No. 17/1/2026-EO(SM-III)(Pt-I) dated 4 February 2026, and No. 5/24/2012-EO(SM-III) dated 2 June 2014.
7. Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, written replies in the Rajya Sabha dated 31 July 2014, 16 March 2017, 18 July 2019, 6 February 2020 and 12 February 2026, and in the Lok Sabha dated 18 March 2026.
8. Report of the Group on the performance appraisal system chaired by Lt Gen (Retd) Surinder Nath, Department of Personnel and Training, 2003, paragraphs 7.2.2 to 7.2.5 and 10.4.4.
9. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. 104/33/2024-AVD-IA dated 9 October 2024 and Office Memorandum No. 11/7/2011-EO(PR) dated 4 April 2011, on vigilance clearance and the immovable property return.
10. Ministry of Environment and Forests, Resolution No. A.12011/1/94-IFS-I dated 14 December 2000; Report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission (November 2015), paragraphs 7.3.15, 7.3.31 and 7.3.42.