Leave Not Due for Central Government Employees

Leave not due is half pay leave advanced under Rule 31 of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972, capped at 360 days a career and recovered if the servant does not return.

Updated 21 September 2026

Leave not due is half pay leave granted in advance, under Rule 31 of the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules 1972, to a government servant who has no half pay leave at credit, capped at 360 days during the entire service on medical certificate, debited under Rule 31(1)(c) against the half pay leave earned subsequently, and recovered under Rule 31(2) if the servant does not return to duty and earn it back.

The provision is an overdraft on the leave account. An employee who has exhausted earned leave and half pay leave, and still needs paid leave for illness, can be advanced half pay leave before it has been earned, on the footing that continued service will earn it back. It is the same half pay leave as the ordinary kind, drawn at the same rate under Rule 40(3), but taken against a balance that does not yet exist rather than one already built up.

Because it is an advance, Rule 31 hedges it with conditions that ordinary leaves do not carry. Rule 31(1)(a) requires the sanctioning authority to be satisfied of a reasonable prospect of return to duty. Rule 31(1)(b) caps the grant at the half pay leave the servant is likely to earn thereafter, so the advance cannot outrun the accrual meant to repay it. Rule 31(2) recovers the leave salary where the servant leaves service instead of returning, and it recovers the whole of it, not the difference, which is the point on which leave not due is harsher than the commuted leave sitting beside it in Rule 30.

The wider leave code is set out in the CCS (Leave) Rules article.

What leave not due is

Rule 31 defines leave not due as half pay leave granted to a government servant in advance, where no half pay leave is at credit, to be debited against the half pay leave the servant earns subsequently. The mechanism is the whole of the provision, and every condition in the rule follows from it.

An employee accrues half pay leave under Rule 29(1) at 20 days a year, credited in two instalments of ten days each on 1 January and 1 July, in the form substituted by DoPT Notification No. 11020/01/2017-Estt.(L) dated 11 December 2018. Ordinarily an employee can take only what is at credit. Leave not due breaks that link. It lets the servant draw half pay leave before the credit exists, and Rule 31(1)(c) then repays it out of the credit that accrues later, so the half pay leave account runs a temporary negative balance which future service clears.

That makes it an advance and not a fresh grant of leave. It carries the half pay rate because it is half pay leave. It is limited by future accrual because it is repaid from future accrual. The reasonable-prospect condition, the 360-day ceiling and the recovery on failure to return all trace back to the same fact: the leave has not been earned when it is taken, and it is given on the expectation that it will be.

Leave not due is also not a right. Rule 7(1) states that leave cannot be claimed as of right, and Rule 7(2) allows leave of any kind to be refused or revoked where the exigencies of public service so require. An employee who satisfies every condition in Rule 31 has established that the leave may be granted, not that it must be.

Who can be granted leave not due

Rule 31 draws a line between permanent and temporary employ, and it grants leave not due on medical certificate in both cases.

Rule 31(1) permits it, save in the case of leave preparatory to retirement, to a government servant in permanent employ or quasi-permanent employ, other than a military officer, limited to a maximum of 360 days during the entire service on medical certificate. Three conditions attach. Clause (a) requires the authority competent to grant leave to be satisfied that there is reasonable prospect of the government servant returning to duty on its expiry. Clause (b) limits the leave not due to the half pay leave the servant is likely to earn thereafter. Clause (c) debits it against the half pay leave the servant may earn subsequently.

Private affairs is not a ground under Rule 31. The contrast with the leave it advances is direct: Rule 29(4) admits half pay leave on medical certificate or on private affairs without distinction, while Rule 31(1) writes the medical certificate into the grant itself. Two other rules displace that requirement in defined circumstances, and they are set out below under the maternity and child adoption carve-outs.

The reasonable-prospect condition in clause (a) is the operative filter. Leave not due is repaid by future service, so it is granted only where the servant is expected to come back and render that service. An employee who is not expected to return does not meet the condition, because there would be no future accrual against which to repay the advance.

That condition sits alongside Rule 20, which deals with a government servant unlikely to be fit to return to duty. Rule 20(1)(a) provides that where a Medical Authority has reported no reasonable prospect that the servant will ever be fit to return to duty, leave shall not necessarily be refused. Rule 20(1)(b) then permits leave to be granted, if due, on stated conditions, and Rule 20(2) applies Section 20 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 suo motu to such a case. The words if due matter here: Rule 20 protects the grant of leave that stands at credit, and it does not itself unlock leave not due, which by definition is not due. Rule 7 was amended by the same DoPT Notification No. 18017/1/2014-Estt.(L) dated 3 April 2018 to provide that leave applied for under Rule 20 shall not be refused or revoked without reference to the Medical Authority, whose advice is binding.

Rule 31(1-A) treats the temporary government servant more narrowly. It was inserted by GSR No. 1422, F. No. 11012/1/77-E.IV(A) dated 21 November 1979, and its internal cross-reference was recast by DoPT Notification No. 11012/1/85-Estt.(L) dated 6 June 1988. Leave not due may be granted to such of the temporary government servants as are suffering from tuberculosis, leprosy, cancer or mental illness, for a period not exceeding 360 days during the entire service. The clauses (a) to (c) of sub-rule (1) apply in full, so a temporary servant faces the same reasonable-prospect test, the same future-accrual cap and the same debit. Three further conditions are added: that the servant has put in a minimum of one year’s service, that the post from which the servant proceeds on leave is likely to last till the return to duty, and that the request is supported by a medical certificate as envisaged in clauses (c) and (d) of sub-rule (2) of Rule 32.

That last cross-reference is worth following, because it is not an ordinary certificate. Clause (c) of Rule 32(2) stands deleted. Clause (d), as substituted by MoF Notification No. P-11012/1/77-E-IV(A) dated 21 November 1979, describes treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis or pleurisy of tubercular origin in a recognised sanatorium, tuberculosis of any other part of the body certified by a qualified tuberculosis specialist or a Civil Surgeon or Staff Surgeon, leprosy in a recognised leprosy institution or by a Civil Surgeon, Staff Surgeon or a specialist in a recognised leprosy hospital, and cancer or mental illness in an institution recognised for the treatment of that disease. The temporary servant’s certificate is therefore a specialist or institutional certificate tied to the named illness, not a certificate from any registered practitioner.

The restriction on temporary servants reflects the weaker security of temporary service. Government advances leave against future accrual only for the gravest illnesses, and only where the servant has some service behind them and a post to return to.

The 360-day ceiling and the future-accrual limit

Two separate caps run at once, and confusing them is the commonest error on this provision.

The first is the career ceiling. Rule 31(1) limits leave not due to a maximum of 360 days during the entire service, on medical certificate, and Rule 31(1-A) repeats the same figure for temporary government servants. It is a whole-career limit rather than an annual allowance, so 360 days is the total an employee can ever draw as leave not due across a working life. Days spent at 30 are not restored at 50.

The second is the future-accrual limit in Rule 31(1)(b), which applies at each grant and limits the leave not due to the half pay leave the servant is likely to earn thereafter. This ties the size of the advance to remaining service. An employee in mid-career with two decades of accrual ahead can be advanced a large block within the ceiling. An employee four years from superannuation will accrue roughly 80 days of half pay leave in what remains, so a grant beyond that figure could not be repaid from accrual and clause (b) bars it.

The two work together. The 360-day ceiling is the outer limit across a career, and the future-accrual limit keeps any individual grant inside what that particular employee can realistically earn back. An employee can be refused under clause (b) with the career ceiling entirely unused.

A third and outer limit sits outside Rule 31. Rule 12(1), in the form substituted by DoPT Notification No. 13026/2/2010-Estt.(L) dated 29 March 2012, provides that no government servant shall be granted leave of any kind for a continuous period exceeding five years. Rule 12(2) deems a servant absent for a continuous period exceeding five years, with or without leave, to have resigned, after a reasonable opportunity to explain, and a proviso inserted by DoPT Notification No. 18017/1/2014-Estt.(L) dated 3 April 2018 disapplies the deeming provision where leave is applied for on medical certificate in connection with a disability.

The leave salary

Leave not due is paid at half the pay drawn before the leave began. Rule 40(3) entitles a government servant on half pay leave or leave not due to leave salary equal to half the amount specified in sub-rule (1), and Rule 40(1), in the form notified by DoPT Notification No. 14028/9/80-Estt.(L) dated 1 October 1981, fixes that amount as the pay drawn immediately before proceeding on leave. Dearness allowance is drawn on the leave salary at the rate in force. Leave not due and ordinary half pay leave sit in the same sub-rule and draw the identical figure.

It is not full pay. Rule 40(4) gives full pay to a servant on commuted leave and Rule 40(1) gives it on earned leave, but leave not due advances half pay leave, so it carries the rate of the leave it advances. An employee who needs full pay for a spell of illness, and holds a half pay leave balance, commutes it under Rule 30 at a cost of two days of balance for each day of full-pay leave. An employee with no balance has nothing to commute, and leave not due is the fallback: half pay in hand now, repaid by service later, rather than full pay drawn against a balance that does not exist.

Rule 40(5) marks the floor below leave not due. A government servant on extraordinary leave is not entitled to any leave salary at all.

Recovery under Rule 31(2) and the provisos

Rule 31(2) provides the counterpart to an advance, and it does so in two clauses that produce different amounts.

Rule 31(2)(a) covers the servant who never comes back. Where a government servant who has been granted leave not due resigns from service, or at their request is permitted to retire voluntarily, without returning to duty, the leave not due shall be cancelled, the resignation or retirement takes effect from the date on which such leave had commenced, and the leave salary shall be recovered. Three things happen together: the leave is undone, the exit is backdated to the first day of the leave, and the whole of the leave salary paid for it comes back. Backdating the resignation is not incidental. It removes the leave period from service altogether, which is why the recovery is of the entire leave salary rather than a part.

Rule 31(2)(b) covers the servant who does come back but leaves before earning the advance. Where a government servant who having availed of leave not due returns to duty but resigns or retires from service before earning such leave, that servant is liable to refund the leave salary to the extent the leave has not been earned subsequently. The recovery here is proportionate. An employee who took 120 days of leave not due, returned, served three years and thereby earned 60 days of half pay leave against the advance, refunds the leave salary for the 60 days still unearned and not for the whole 120.

Two provisos switch off both clauses. The first provides that no leave salary shall be recovered under clause (a) or clause (b) if the retirement is by reason of ill-health incapacitating the government servant for further service, the invalid pension case, or in the event of death. The second, added by MHA Notification No. 6(9)-E.IV(A)/76 dated 31 December 1980, provides that no leave salary shall be recovered under either clause if the government servant is compulsorily retired prematurely under Rule 48(1)(b) of the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules 1972, now Rule 42 of the CCS (Pension) Rules 2021, or is retired under Fundamental Rule 56(j) or Fundamental Rule 56(l).

The principle running through the provisos is choice. Recovery bites where the servant elects to go, by resignation or by voluntary retirement under FR 56(k) or Rule 43 of the CCS (Pension) Rules 2021. It does not bite where the exit is not theirs: medical incapacity, death, or premature retirement ordered by the government under FR 56(j), FR 56(l) or Rule 42. An employee who genuinely cannot return, and an employee whom the government retires, are not made to repay the advance.

One consequence follows for a penalty. The second proviso names FR 56(j), FR 56(l) and the pension rule on premature retirement, and it does not name the penalty of compulsory retirement imposed under the CCS (CCA) Rules 1965 after a disciplinary inquiry. The two are different orders despite the shared phrase, as set out in the premature retirement article, and only the non-penal route is written into the proviso.

Not available as leave preparatory to retirement

Leave not due cannot be taken as leave preparatory to retirement, and two rules say so independently.

Rule 31(1) opens with the words save in the case of leave preparatory to retirement, which excepts the case before any condition is reached. Rule 38(1) arrives at the same place from the other side. It permits leave preparatory to retirement to the extent of earned leave due, not exceeding 300 days, together with half pay leave due, subject to the leave extending up to and including the date of retirement, in the form substituted by DoPT Notification No. 13026/1/2002-Estt.(L) dated 15 and 16 January 2004. The operative word is due. Leave not due is not leave due, so it falls outside what Rule 38(1) permits to be taken in that form. The Note to Rule 38 excludes extraordinary leave from leave preparatory to retirement on the same footing.

The reason is the repayment mechanism rather than any drafting choice. Leave not due is an advance repaid by future service, and a servant whose leave runs to the date of retirement has no future service in which to earn it back, so Rule 31(1)(a) and Rule 31(1)(b) could never be satisfied even without the opening exception. An advance that can never be repaid is a payment, and the rule declines to make one.

The practical effect is that an employee approaching superannuation who needs leave, and holds no balance, is on extraordinary leave under Rule 32 without leave salary, not on leave not due. Leave not due is a mid-service provision for an employee with service ahead of them, not a retirement benefit.

The maternity and child adoption carve-outs

Two rules grant leave not due without a medical certificate, and both are commonly missed because they sit outside Rule 31.

Rule 43(4)(b) opens with the words notwithstanding the requirement of production of medical certificate contained in sub-rule (1) of Rule 30 or sub-rule (1) of Rule 31. It then allows leave of the kind due and admissible, including commuted leave for a period not exceeding 60 days and leave not due, up to a maximum of two years, to be granted if applied for in continuation of maternity leave granted under Rule 43(1). The 60-day limit qualifies the commuted leave and not the leave not due; the two-year figure is the ceiling on the combined block of leave taken in continuation. Rule 31’s own 360-day career ceiling and the clause (b) future-accrual cap continue to apply to the leave not due element.

Rule 43-B(3)(b) does the equivalent for child adoption leave. A female government servant on valid adoption of a child may be granted, if applied for, leave of the kind due and admissible, including leave not due and commuted leave not exceeding 60 days without production of medical certificate, for a period up to one year reduced by the age of the adopted child on the date of valid adoption, without taking the child adoption leave itself into account. A proviso bars the facility where she is already having two surviving children at the time of adoption. Rule 43-B(4) keeps the child adoption leave itself off the leave account, so only the leave not due element carries a debit.

These two carve-outs are the answer to the otherwise correct proposition that leave not due is a medical-certificate leave. It is, under Rule 31(1) and Rule 31(1-A). It is not, where Rule 43(4)(b) or Rule 43-B(3)(b) supplies the ground instead.

Converting extraordinary leave into leave not due

An employee already on unpaid extraordinary leave can have it converted into leave not due afterwards, and recover the half pay for the period.

The Note to Rule 10 states that extraordinary leave granted on medical certificate or otherwise may be commuted retrospectively into leave not due subject to the provisions of Rule 31. Rule 10(1) permits the authority which granted the leave to commute it retrospectively into leave of a different kind which was due and admissible at the time the leave was granted, and adds that the government servant cannot claim such commutation as a matter of right. The proviso, inserted by DoPT Notification No. 14015/2/97-Estt.(L) dated 31 December 1997, requires the request to reach that authority, or any other authority designated in that behalf, within 30 days of the servant joining duty on the expiry of the relevant spell of leave. Rule 10(2) then adjusts the leave salary on the basis of the leave finally granted, so any amount paid in excess is recovered and any arrears due are paid.

The route matters in practice because the sequence often runs the wrong way round in real cases. An employee falls ill, the half pay leave balance runs out, the office sanctions extraordinary leave because that needs no balance and no reasonable-prospect finding, and the employee draws no leave salary at all. On returning to duty, and inside the 30-day window, the employee can ask for that spell to be commuted into leave not due, and Rule 10(2) then pays the half pay leave salary for the converted period as arrears. Subject to Rule 31 means the conditions still bind: the 360-day ceiling, the clause (b) cap and, being applied retrospectively to a servant who has by then returned, a reasonable-prospect finding that the return itself evidences.

The 30-day proviso is strict and it runs from joining duty, not from the sanction of the extraordinary leave. An employee who lets it lapse keeps the unpaid extraordinary leave.

Leave not due and commuted leave compared

Leave not due and commuted leave both draw on the half pay leave account and they run in opposite directions.

Rule 30(1) grants commuted leave not exceeding half the amount of half pay leave due, on medical certificate, to a government servant other than a military officer, subject to the authority being satisfied under clause (a) that there is a reasonable prospect of return to duty, with clause (d) debiting twice the amount of leave against the half pay leave due. Rule 30(1-A) allows up to 180 days of half pay leave to be commuted during the entire service without a medical certificate where the leave is used for an approved course of study certified to be in the public interest. Rule 31 takes the half pay leave the servant does not yet have and gives it at the half pay rate, to be repaid from future accrual.

Commuted leave spends an existing balance faster to raise the pay. Leave not due spends a balance that does not yet exist to bridge a gap. One cannot be built on the other: an employee with no half pay leave at credit cannot take commuted leave, because Rule 30(1) measures the grant against the half pay leave due and there is none, so the fallback is leave not due at half pay.

The recovery consequences are where the two genuinely part company, and they are frequently written up as though identical. Rule 30(2) provides that where a servant granted commuted leave resigns or is permitted at their request to retire voluntarily without returning to duty, the commuted leave shall be treated as half pay leave and the difference between the leave salary for commuted leave and half pay leave shall be recovered. The leave survives as half pay leave and only the top-up comes back. Rule 31(2)(a) cancels the leave outright, backdates the resignation to the date the leave commenced, and recovers the whole leave salary. Leave not due is the harsher provision, which follows from the fact that commuted leave was drawn against a balance the servant had actually earned while leave not due was drawn against nothing.

The table sets the three half pay account leaves side by side.

Leave	Rule	Drawn from	Leave salary	Recovery where the servant does not return
Half pay leave	29	Credited balance, 20 days a year	Half pay, Rule 40(3)	None
Commuted leave	30	Credited balance, 2 days debited for 1	Full pay, Rule 40(4)	Treated as half pay leave, only the difference recovered, Rule 30(2)
Leave not due	31	Future accrual, advance up to 360 days	Half pay, Rule 40(3)	Leave cancelled, exit backdated, whole leave salary recovered, Rule 31(2)(a)

Both Rule 30(2) and Rule 31(2) carry provisos waiving recovery on ill-health retirement and death. Only Rule 31(2) carries the further proviso covering FR 56(j), FR 56(l) and premature retirement under the pension rules.

How the advance is repaid

Leave not due is repaid automatically out of future accrual, without any separate recovery action while the servant remains in service.

Rule 31(1)(c) debits the leave against the half pay leave the government servant may earn subsequently. When the employee returns to duty and resumes earning half pay leave under Rule 29(1) at ten days on 1 January and ten days on 1 July, that accrual first goes to clear the leave not due already drawn. The half pay leave account carries the negative balance the advance created, and each half-yearly credit brings it back towards zero before any half pay leave stands positively at credit again.

This is why the clause (b) cap matters at the point of grant. The sanctioning authority does not advance more leave not due than the servant can realistically earn back, precisely because earning it back is how the advance is cleared. An employee whose remaining service will accrue only a modest amount of half pay leave is held to a modest grant, so the account can be brought back to zero within the service left. The design is self-liquidating: drawn against future accrual, cleared by future accrual.

A worked illustration

Take an employee with no half pay leave at credit who needs 120 days of leave for a long illness from which recovery and return are expected.

With no balance, the employee cannot take half pay leave in the ordinary way and cannot commute anything to full pay, because Rule 30(1) measures commuted leave against the half pay leave due. Leave not due bridges the gap. The 120 days are advanced at the half pay rate under Rule 40(3), and the half pay leave account is shown at minus 120 days.

On return to duty, half pay leave accrues at 20 days a year under Rule 29(1) and first clears the advance, so it takes six years of accrual, 120 divided by 20, before the account is back to zero and the employee again has half pay leave positively at credit. Across those six years the employee has drawn 120 days of half pay that was not earned when taken, and has repaid it by staying in service.

Change the ending and the recovery rule picks which clause applies. If the employee had resigned during the leave without returning at all, Rule 31(2)(a) would cancel the 120 days, backdate the resignation to the first day of the leave, and recover the whole leave salary for 120 days. If the employee returned, served three years, earned 60 days of half pay leave against the advance and then resigned, Rule 31(2)(b) would require a refund of the leave salary for the 60 days still unearned. If the employee was instead invalidated out on a medical board’s finding of incapacity for further service, or died in service, or was retired under FR 56(j), the provisos would waive recovery under either clause entirely.

Where leave not due sits in the long-illness sequence

Leave not due is one of the last paid steps before an absence becomes unpaid, and the order in which the leaves are taken follows from what each one requires.

The paid leaves come first. Earned leave is drawn at full pay under Rule 40(1). Half pay leave follows at half pay under Rule 40(3), and commuted leave under Rule 30 can raise a spell of it to full pay on medical certificate at the price of two days of balance for one. When the half pay leave balance itself is exhausted, and the Rule 31 conditions are met, leave not due advances further half pay leave against future accrual. When that is spent, or the reasonable-prospect and future-accrual conditions cannot be met, the employee passes to extraordinary leave under Rule 32, which carries no leave salary at all under Rule 40(5) but keeps the absence authorised.

The sequence is not strictly one-way. Rule 11 permits any kind of leave to be granted in combination with or in continuation of any other kind, except as the rules otherwise provide, and the Note to Rule 10 allows extraordinary leave already taken to be commuted retrospectively into leave not due within the 30-day window. An employee who reached extraordinary leave because no balance was due can therefore recover the half pay for that period on returning to duty.

Beyond the leave rules lies the pension side. An employee who cannot resume duty when all leave is exhausted may be retired on an invalid pension, and that same medical retirement is the first proviso to Rule 31(2) waiving recovery. Rule 12(1) sets the outer boundary at five years of continuous leave of any kind.

Applying for leave not due

Leave not due is applied for like any other leave, but the application has to speak to the conditions the rule imposes, because the sanctioning authority has to record satisfaction on each of them.

The application goes to the authority competent to grant leave, defined by Rule 3(1)(c) as the authority specified in column (3) of the First Schedule. Serial number 1 of that Schedule groups earned leave, half pay leave, commuted leave, leave not due, extraordinary leave, maternity leave, hospital leave, seamen’s sick leave, paternity leave, child adoption leave, paternity leave for child adoption and child care leave under a single head, and names the Ministry or Department of the Central Government, the Administrator, the Comptroller and Auditor-General, the Head of Department, any other authority which is the appointing authority, and any subordinate authority to which those may delegate the power. There is no separate or higher sanctioning authority for leave not due than for ordinary half pay leave.

The application is supported by a medical certificate under Rule 19, because Rule 31(1) makes the grant one on medical certificate, unless it is made in continuation of maternity leave under Rule 43(4)(b) or of child adoption leave under Rule 43-B(3)(b). For a servant in permanent or quasi-permanent employ the authority must be satisfied of a reasonable prospect of return under clause (a). For a temporary servant under Rule 31(1-A) the application must additionally establish one of the four named illnesses, a minimum of one year’s service, and a post likely to last till the return to duty, with the specialist certificate contemplated by Rule 32(2)(d).

The authority then sanctions the leave within both caps, the 360-day career ceiling and the clause (b) limit of the half pay leave likely to be earned thereafter, and the leave is recorded in the leave account maintained under Rule 15 as a debit against future half pay leave. An employee should apply on the understanding that the leave is an advance: granted on the footing of a return to duty, repaid out of half pay leave earned afterwards, and recovered under Rule 31(2) if that return does not happen.

Common errors

A few misreadings recur, and each turns on a specific provision.

Treating it as full pay. Rule 40(3) puts leave not due in the same sub-rule as half pay leave, at half the pay drawn before the leave.
Reading 360 days as an annual allowance. Rule 31(1) sets it as a maximum during the entire service.
Overlooking the second cap. Rule 31(1)(b) limits every grant to the half pay leave likely to be earned thereafter, and can bar a grant while the career ceiling is untouched.
Assuming any employee qualifies. Rule 31(1) covers permanent or quasi-permanent employ; Rule 31(1-A) reaches temporary servants only for tuberculosis, leprosy, cancer or mental illness, with one year’s service and a continuing post.
Treating the medical certificate as absolute. Rule 43(4)(b) and Rule 43-B(3)(b) grant leave not due without one in continuation of maternity leave and child adoption leave.
Believing it can be taken before retirement. Rule 31(1) excepts leave preparatory to retirement, and Rule 38(1) confines that leave to earned leave and half pay leave due.
Expecting to commute it to full pay. Rule 30(1) measures commuted leave against the half pay leave due, and leave not due is not leave due.
Assuming recovery matches commuted leave. Rule 30(2) recovers only the difference in leave salary; Rule 31(2)(a) cancels the leave and recovers the whole of it.
Missing the partial refund limb. Rule 31(2)(b) applies where the servant returns to duty and then resigns, and recovers only the leave salary for the part not earned subsequently.
Forgetting the conversion route. The Note to Rule 10 allows extraordinary leave to be commuted retrospectively into leave not due, within 30 days of joining duty.

Applicability

Rule 31 applies to central government civilian employees governed by the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972, with the permanent and temporary distinction set out above and military officers excluded by the words of Rule 31(1).

Rule 2 names the categories the rules do not reach. They do not apply to railway servants, persons in casual, daily-rated or part-time employment, persons paid from contingencies, workmen employed in industrial establishments, persons employed in work-charged establishments, members of the All India Services, persons locally recruited for service in Indian establishments in foreign countries, persons employed on contract except where the contract provides otherwise, persons for whom special provision is made under the Constitution or any other law in force, persons governed for leave by the Fundamental Rules or the Civil Service Regulations, and persons serving under a central government department on deputation from a State Government or any other source for a limited duration.

Members of the All India Services take their leave under the All India Services (Leave) Rules 1955, which carry their own version of leave not due on broadly similar lines. Railway servants are governed by the railway leave rules. An employee of an autonomous body should check whether the body has adopted the CCS (Leave) Rules by resolution, because the rules do not extend to such a body of their own force, a point set out further in the central government employees article. For the large majority of central government civilian employees it is leave not due under Rule 31 as set out here.

In force today

Leave not due is half pay leave granted in advance under Rule 31 of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 to a servant with no half pay leave at credit, paid at half the pay drawn before the leave under Rule 40(3), capped at 360 days during the entire service on medical certificate and, at each grant, at the half pay leave likely to be earned thereafter under Rule 31(1)(b). Rule 31(1) covers permanent and quasi-permanent employ; Rule 31(1-A) reaches temporary servants only for tuberculosis, leprosy, cancer or mental illness with one year’s service. It is debited under Rule 31(1)(c) against half pay leave earned subsequently, and cannot be taken as leave preparatory to retirement. Rule 31(2)(a) cancels the leave and recovers the whole leave salary where the servant resigns or retires voluntarily without returning; Rule 31(2)(b) recovers only the unearned part where the servant returns and then leaves. Both are waived on ill-health retirement, death, premature retirement under Rule 42 of the CCS (Pension) Rules 2021, FR 56(j) and FR 56(l).

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is leave not due?

Leave not due is half pay leave granted in advance under Rule 31 of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 to a government servant who has no half pay leave at credit. Rule 31(1)(c) debits it against the half pay leave the servant earns subsequently, so the half pay leave account carries a negative balance until future accrual clears it. It is paid at the half pay leave rate under Rule 40(3), it is capped at 360 days during the entire service, and it is granted on medical certificate subject to the leave sanctioning authority being satisfied under Rule 31(1)(a) that there is a reasonable prospect of the servant returning to duty on its expiry.

How many days of leave not due can be taken?

Rule 31(1) sets a ceiling of 360 days during the entire service, on medical certificate. Rule 31(1-A) applies the same 360-day ceiling to temporary government servants. The ceiling is a whole-career figure and not an annual entitlement, so days used early in a career are gone for good. A second and separate cap operates at every grant: Rule 31(1)(b) limits leave not due to the half pay leave the servant is likely to earn thereafter, so an employee close to superannuation, who will accrue little further half pay leave, is held to a correspondingly smaller grant even though the 360-day ceiling is untouched.

Is leave not due paid?

Yes, at the half pay leave rate. Rule 40(3) of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 entitles a government servant on half pay leave or leave not due to leave salary equal to half the amount specified in Rule 40(1), and Rule 40(1) fixes that amount as the pay drawn immediately before proceeding on leave. Dearness allowance follows the leave salary at the rate in force. Leave not due is not paid at full pay: it advances half pay leave, so it carries the rate of the leave it advances, and an employee wanting full pay for a spell of illness needs commuted leave under Rule 30 and a half pay leave balance to convert.

Who can be granted leave not due?

Rule 31(1) covers a government servant in permanent or quasi-permanent employ, other than a military officer, on medical certificate, subject to the three conditions in clauses (a) to (c): a reasonable prospect of return to duty, a limit set by the half pay leave likely to be earned thereafter, and a debit against half pay leave earned subsequently. Rule 31(1-A), inserted by GSR No. 1422, F. No. 11012/1/77-E.IV(A) dated 21 November 1979, extends it to temporary government servants suffering from tuberculosis, leprosy, cancer or mental illness, subject to the same clauses (a) to (c) and to three further conditions: a minimum of one year’s service, a post likely to last till the return to duty, and a medical certificate of the kind Rule 32(2) requires.

What happens if an employee does not return to duty after leave not due?

Rule 31(2)(a) applies where the servant resigns or is permitted at their request to retire voluntarily without returning to duty. The leave not due is cancelled, the resignation or retirement takes effect from the date the leave commenced, and the whole leave salary is recovered. Rule 31(2)(b) covers the different case of a servant who does return to duty but resigns or retires before earning the leave, and it requires a refund only to the extent the leave has not been earned subsequently. Two provisos disapply both clauses: no leave salary is recovered where retirement is by reason of ill-health incapacitating the servant for further service or in the event of death, and none is recovered on premature retirement under Rule 48(1)(b) of the CCS (Pension) Rules 1972, now Rule 42 of the CCS (Pension) Rules 2021, or under Fundamental Rule 56(j) or Fundamental Rule 56(l).

Can leave not due be taken before retirement?

No. Rule 31(1) opens with the words save in the case of leave preparatory to retirement, which excepts it outright. Rule 38(1) reaches the same result from the other direction, because it limits leave preparatory to retirement to earned leave due, not exceeding 300 days, together with half pay leave due, and leave not due is by definition not due. The reason is structural rather than technical: leave not due is an advance repaid out of future service, and a servant whose leave runs up to the date of retirement has no future service in which to earn it back.

Does leave not due always need a medical certificate?

Under Rule 31(1) and Rule 31(1-A), yes. Two rules displace that requirement. Rule 43(4)(b) begins notwithstanding the requirement of production of medical certificate contained in sub-rule (1) of Rule 30 or sub-rule (1) of Rule 31, and allows leave of the kind due and admissible, including leave not due, up to a maximum of two years in continuation of maternity leave. Rule 43-B(3)(b) does the same for a female government servant on valid adoption of a child, allowing leave not due without production of medical certificate for a period up to one year reduced by the age of the adopted child, and it is barred where she already has two surviving children at the time of adoption.

How is leave not due different from commuted leave?

Both draw on the half pay leave account and they run in opposite directions. Commuted leave under Rule 30(1) converts half pay leave the servant already has into full pay, not exceeding half the amount of half pay leave due, debiting two days of balance for each day taken. Leave not due under Rule 31 advances half pay leave the servant does not yet have, at half pay, repaid from later accrual. The recovery consequences differ sharply and are often confused. Rule 30(2) treats the commuted leave as half pay leave and recovers only the difference in leave salary. Rule 31(2)(a) cancels the leave entirely, backdates the resignation to the date the leave began, and recovers the whole leave salary.

Can extraordinary leave be converted into leave not due?

Yes, retrospectively. The Note to Rule 10 states that extraordinary leave granted on medical certificate or otherwise may be commuted retrospectively into leave not due subject to the provisions of Rule 31. The proviso to Rule 10(1), inserted by DoPT Notification No. 14015/2/97-Estt.(L) dated 31 December 1997, requires the request to reach the competent authority within 30 days of the servant joining duty on the expiry of the spell of leave. Rule 10(2) then adjusts the leave salary, so an employee who was on unpaid extraordinary leave receives the half pay arrears for the converted period. Rule 10(1) also states that commutation cannot be claimed as a matter of right.

Is leave not due debited to the leave account?

Yes, against future accrual. Rule 31(1)(c) debits leave not due against the half pay leave the government servant may earn subsequently. Half pay leave is credited under Rule 29(1) in two instalments of ten days each on 1 January and 1 July, so 20 days a year of later accrual is absorbed in clearing the advance before any positive balance builds again. The account effectively runs a negative balance for the intervening years, which is why Rule 31(1)(b) ties the size of any grant to the half pay leave the servant is likely to earn thereafter and why the career ceiling stands at 360 days.

External references

References

Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, Rule 31(1): leave not due to a government servant in permanent or quasi-permanent employ, other than a military officer, limited to 360 days during the entire service on medical certificate, with the three conditions in clauses (a) to (c).
Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, Rule 31(1-A), inserted by GSR No. 1422, F. No. 11012/1/77-E.IV(A) dated 21 November 1979, with the cross-reference recast by DoPT Notification No. 11012/1/85-Estt.(L) dated 6 June 1988: leave not due for temporary government servants suffering from tuberculosis, leprosy, cancer or mental illness.
Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, Rule 31(2)(a) and Rule 31(2)(b), and the provisos, the second added by MHA Notification No. 6(9)-E.IV(A)/76 dated 31 December 1980: recovery of leave salary and its waiver on ill-health retirement, death, Rule 48(1)(b) of the CCS (Pension) Rules 1972, Fundamental Rule 56(j) and Fundamental Rule 56(l).
Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, Rule 40(1) as notified by DoPT Notification No. 14028/9/80-Estt.(L) dated 1 October 1981, and Rule 40(3), (4) and (5): leave salary on earned leave, half pay leave and leave not due, commuted leave, and extraordinary leave.
Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, Rule 29(1) as substituted by DoPT Notification No. 11020/01/2017-Estt.(L) dated 11 December 2018, and Rule 29(4): credit of half pay leave and the grounds on which it is granted.
Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, Rule 30(1), Rule 30(1-A) and Rule 30(2), as amended by MoF Notification No. 16(5)-E.IV(A)/74 dated 11 April 1975: commuted leave and the recovery of the difference in leave salary.
Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, Rule 10 and its Note, with the proviso inserted by DoPT Notification No. 14015/2/97-Estt.(L) dated 31 December 1997: retrospective commutation of extraordinary leave into leave not due within 30 days of joining duty.
Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, Rule 43(4)(b) and Rule 43-B(3)(b): leave not due in continuation of maternity leave and of child adoption leave, without production of a medical certificate.
Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, Rule 38(1) as substituted by DoPT Notification No. 13026/1/2002-Estt.(L) dated 15 and 16 January 2004: leave preparatory to retirement confined to earned leave due, not exceeding 300 days, together with half pay leave due.
Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, Rule 2, Rule 7, Rule 12 as substituted by DoPT Notification No. 13026/2/2010-Estt.(L) dated 29 March 2012, Rule 20 as substituted by DoPT Notification No. 18017/1/2014-Estt.(L) dated 3 April 2018, and the First Schedule.