Leave Preparatory to Retirement

Leave preparatory to retirement (LPR) is leave that a central government servant takes in the period immediately before retirement and that runs up to and includes the date of retirement, under Rule 38 of the CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972. Rule 38(1) allows it “to the extent of earned leave due, not exceeding 300 days together with half pay leave due”. The servant does not come back to duty: the last day of the leave is the last day of service.

The provision matters because it is the one form of leave that runs into the retirement date itself, so it decides how much of a final leave balance is spent as time off and how much is paid out. The alternative is the cash equivalent under Rule 39(2), which leave encashment covers in full and which pays earned leave and half pay leave together up to 300 days. Every day spent as LPR leaves the leave account and is not encashed, so the two are drawn from the same balance and the choice between them is arithmetic.

This article sets out what Rule 38 permits and excludes, the date condition, the sanctioning authority on foreign service and State deputation, leave salary and house rent allowance during the leave, the effect on pension, a worked comparison against encashment, and the pension, provident fund and accommodation steps that the start of LPR triggers.

Rule 38 and what it permits

Rule 38(1) of the CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972 reads in full: “A Government servant may be permitted by the authority competent to grant leave to take leave preparatory to retirement to the extent of earned leave due, not exceeding 300 days together with half pay leave due, subject to the condition that such leave extends up to and includes the date of retirement.” The figure of 300 days applies from 1 July 1997 under DoPT OM No. 14028/7/97-Estt.(Leave) dated 7 October 1997, and DoPT Notification No. 13026/1/2002-Estt.(L) dated 15 and 16 January 2004 substituted it for 240 days in the rule text.

Three limits follow from the text. The earned leave component is capped at 300 days, which is also the accumulation ceiling in Rule 26. The half pay leave component carries no separate cap: the rule allows the half pay leave “due”, so the whole balance is available. And the grant is discretionary, because the servant “may be permitted”; Rule 7(1) separately provides that leave “cannot be claimed as of right”, and Rule 7(2) lets the competent authority refuse or revoke leave of any kind when the exigencies of public service so require.

A second limit sits outside Rule 38. Rule 26(2)(i) fixes the maximum earned leave that may be granted at a time at 180 days for a servant employed in India, and Rule 26(2) opens “Subject to the provisions of Rules 7 and 39 and sub-rules (1) and (3)”, with no reference to Rule 38. Whether a single grant of LPR may carry more than 180 days of earned leave is not settled by the text of either rule, so the worked example below keeps the earned leave component at 180 days. The half pay leave component has no at-a-time limit. Half pay leave accrues at 20 days a year under Rule 29(1), in two instalments of 10 days on 1 January and 1 July, and Rule 29 sets no accumulation ceiling on it, so a servant who has used little of it over 30 years can carry several hundred days into the final year.

Kinds of leave that can and cannot be LPR

Only two kinds of leave qualify, and two others are excluded by express words.

Extraordinary leave carries no leave salary under Rule 40(5), and leave not due is half pay leave advanced against half pay leave that Rule 31(1)(c) debits from future earnings, which a retiring servant will not earn. Commuted leave under Rule 30 is not named in Rule 38(1) either. The leave not due and extraordinary leave articles treat each exclusion from the side of the excluded leave.

The condition that the leave ends on the retirement date

Rule 38(1) grants LPR only if the leave “extends up to and includes the date of retirement”. Rule 3(1)(e) of the CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972 defines the date of retirement as the afternoon of the last day of the month in which the servant attains the age prescribed for retirement under the terms of service, which for most central civil servants is 60 under Fundamental Rule 56 (see retirement age for central government employees and superannuation).

The condition works in both directions. LPR cannot stop short of the retirement date, because then it would be ordinary leave followed by a return to duty. And it cannot run past it, because Rule 39(1)(a) states that no leave shall be granted beyond the date of retirement. LPR also does not move the date: a servant who begins 181 days of leave on 1 January 2027 and attains 60 in June 2027 still retires on the afternoon of 30 June 2027.

Rule 70(1) of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 relies on this fixed endpoint. It requires a gazette notification or office order announcing each retirement, but its proviso says that where a notification or order granting leave preparatory to retirement has been issued, no further notification that the servant “has actually retired on the expiry of such leave” is needed unless the leave is curtailed and the retirement is ante-dated or postponed.

Who sanctions it, on foreign service and on State deputation

The ordinary sanctioning authority is the “authority competent to grant leave”, which Rule 3(1)(c) ties to Column (3) of the First Schedule to the CCS (Leave) Rules. For an ordinary posting that is the same authority that sanctions any other earned or half pay leave, and Rule 16(1) bars any grant until a report on admissibility has been obtained from the authority maintaining the leave account, which Rule 15 makes the Audit Officer for gazetted servants and the head of office for non-gazetted servants, and also for gazetted servants whose pay is drawn and disbursed by the head of office.

Two cases are handled separately, and both protect the lending department’s say over its own servant.

Foreign service with a public body. Rule 38(2)(a), against which the consolidated text records DoPT Notification No. 14028/9/80-Estt.(L) dated 1 October 1981, covers a servant on foreign service in or under “any Local Authority or a Corporation or Company wholly or substantially owned or controlled by the Government or a Body controlled or financed by the Government”. For that servant the decision to grant or refuse LPR “shall be taken by foreign employer with the concurrence of the lending authority under Central Government”. Rule 38(2)(b) lets the same servant encash earned leave at credit on the date of retirement under Rule 39(2). Note 1(ii) to the First Schedule confines the foreign employer’s own leave power to earned leave not exceeding 120 days, and repeats the requirement of prior concurrence for an LPR decision.

Foreign service with any other local body. Rule 38(3) covers foreign service in or under a local body other than the one mentioned in Rule 38(2)(a), and makes LPR admissible “only when he quits duty under the foreign employer”, and its proviso bars cash payment under Rule 39 while the servant continues in service under that employer.

Deputation to a State Government. Note 2 to the First Schedule makes the State Government, or an authority it specifies, the sanctioning authority, but requires the lending Central authority’s prior concurrence before LPR is granted or refused. If the Central authority does not agree to a refusal, the leave “shall be granted”, and a State that needs the officer during the period may re-employ them concurrently with the leave. The Note says the leave salary in that case is regulated by “sub-rule (6) of Rule 40”, a sub-rule that the DoPT consolidation of the Leave Rules prints as “Deleted”, so the cross-reference no longer points at operative text.

Leave salary and allowances during LPR

LPR is paid exactly as the same kind of leave would be paid at any other point in service. Rule 40(1) of the CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972 pays earned leave at “the pay drawn immediately before proceeding on earned leave”, and Rule 40(3) pays half pay leave at half that amount. Rule 40 does not deal with dearness allowance. The table and the worked example below compute it on the leave salary, which is the basis Rule 39(2)(b)(ii) uses for the half pay leave cash equivalent, half pay leave salary plus the dearness allowance admissible on it; that treatment of the monthly leave salary is a computation assumption of this article.

Table: salary-calculator.in computation. Rs. 1,20,900 is a cell of Level 10 of the pay matrix; dearness allowance at 60% is the rate effective 1 January 2026 under Department of Expenditure OM No. 1/1(i)/2026-E.II(B) dated 22 April 2026, held constant for the illustration. The current rate is 60%.

House rent allowance. Paragraph 6.1.1 of the Department of Expenditure HRA compendium, OM No. 2/4/2022-E.II(B) dated 30 December 2022, states: “HRA will be admissible during Leave Preparatory to Retirement(LPR) subject to submission of certificate that the employee concerned and/ or his family continues to reside at the same place/ same station.” The same paragraph limits HRA during leave of other kinds to the first 180 days and excludes terminal leave altogether. Paragraph 6.1.2 covers the case where leave on medical certificate exceeding 180 days ends in retirement on invalidation, “the entire leave thus becoming leave preparatory to retirement”: HRA already drawn need not be recovered.

Allowances tied to the post. Supplementary Rule 6, which defines the leave during which compensatory allowances such as the cycle allowance may continue, limits that leave to the first four months and excludes leave preparatory to retirement from the definition.

Income tax. Leave salary during LPR is salary charged under Section 15(1) of the Income-tax Act, 2025, on the earlier of its falling due and its payment, like pay. The full exemption for the cash equivalent of earned leave at retirement, serial number 13 of the Table in Section 19(1) of the Income-tax Act, 2025, applies to the encashment paid at the end, not to the leave salary drawn during the leave.

Effect on pension and emoluments

LPR does not lower the pension, under three provisions of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021.

Rule 21 counts all leave during service for which leave salary is payable as qualifying service, so earned leave and half pay leave taken as LPR count in full. Rule 31(2) provides that where a servant was absent on leave for which leave salary is payable immediately before retirement, “the emoluments which he would have drawn had he not been absent from duty” are the emoluments for pension. A servant who spends the final six months on half pay leave has pension computed on full pay, not on the halved leave salary.

Rule 31(5) adds that an increment earned while on leave and not withheld forms part of emoluments though not actually drawn, and Rule 32(2) and (4) apply the same two rules to average emoluments over the last ten months. An annual increment that falls during LPR and is not withheld reaches the pension in this way. The separate notional increment on superannuation for servants retiring on 30 June or 31 December is governed by its own DoPT orders.

LPR against encashment: a worked comparison

The cash equivalent under Rule 39(2)(a) of the CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972 pays earned leave and half pay leave at credit on the date of retirement, together “subject to a maximum of 300 days”. Earned leave is valued at pay plus dearness allowance divided by 30; half pay leave at half pay leave salary plus dearness allowance divided by 30; and Rule 39(2)(c) bars commuting half pay leave to make up a shortfall in earned leave. Any balance above 300 days lapses.

Take a Level 10 officer on Rs. 1,20,900 who retires on superannuation on 30 June 2027. On 31 December 2026 the account holds 285 days of earned leave and 240 days of half pay leave, so the advance credits of 1 January 2027 under Rules 26(1)(a)(i) and 29(1) bring it to 300 and 250. (At 286 to 300 days the proviso to Rule 26(1)(b) would instead hold the 15-day credit separately against leave taken in that half-year.) The period from 2 January to 30 June 2027 is 180 days, the Rule 26(2)(i) maximum for earned leave at a time. Pay and dearness allowance are held at the figures in the table above.

Table: salary-calculator.in computation from Rules 38, 39(2) and 40 of the CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972, on the figures stated. HRA, which paragraph 6.1.1 of the 30 December 2022 compendium continues during LPR on a certificate, is the same in all three options and is left out.

Option B spends half pay leave that option A would have lost. The encashment is untouched, and the period off costs the difference between full pay and half pay leave salary, Rs. 96,720 a month, with January prorated by days. Option C draws full leave salary for the period, so the cost moves into the encashment: 180 days of earned leave leave the account, and the cash equivalent refills the 300 days from half pay leave at half the rate.

The two costs come out almost equal, Rs. 5,77,200 and Rs. 5,80,320, because in both cases about 180 days are effectively paid at half rate. The equality holds only while the half pay leave balance is large enough to refill the encashment. With 50 days of half pay leave at credit instead of 250, option C would encash 120 days of earned leave and 50 days of half pay leave, Rs. 7,73,760 plus Rs. 1,61,200, so Rs. 9,34,960, and its cost against option A would rise to Rs. 9,99,440. Option B would not be available in that case beyond 50 days.

The general result, as a salary-calculator.in construction from Rule 39(2): half pay leave above the amount needed to fill the 300-day encashment ceiling is the one balance that LPR spends without reducing the retirement lump sum. The servant still receives only half pay for the period, so LPR on half pay leave buys time off, not money.

Recall and return to duty

A servant on LPR cannot simply come back. Rule 24(2) of the CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972 provides that a government servant on leave preparatory to retirement “shall be precluded from returning to duty, save with the consent of the authority competent to appoint him to the post from which he proceeded on leave preparatory to retirement”. This is stricter than the general rule in Rule 24(1), where the authority that granted the leave can permit an early return.

The government can also ask for the servant back. Rule 13(3)(a) deals with a servant on LPR who is required, before the date of retirement, for employment in any post under the Central Government in or outside India and is agreeable to return: the unexpired portion of the leave is cancelled from the date of rejoining. Rule 13(3)(b) allows the cancelled leave to be encashed in the manner of Rule 39(2), so the days are not lost.

In the case of LPR, the Note to Rule 16(2) requires an undertaking from the servant for recovery of any leave salary paid in excess, and Rule 40(9)(a) adjusts the leave salary where leave availed exceeds the credit due on retirement.

Employment during LPR

Rule 13 of the CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972 controls work during leave, and LPR has its own clause. Rule 13(1) requires previous sanction for any service or employment elsewhere while on leave, “including leave preparatory to retirement”, including private professional practice as an accountant, consultant, or legal or medical practitioner: the President’s sanction for employment outside India and the appointing authority’s for employment in India.

Rule 13(2)(c) then sets the limits. A servant on LPR “shall not be permitted to take up private employment”, but may be permitted to take up employment with a public sector undertaking or a body referred to in Rule 38(2)(a), and leave salary continues as admissible under Rule 40.

Two provisos in the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 carry a permitted engagement past retirement. The proviso to Rule 9(1) spares a former Group A servant who was permitted a particular form of commercial employment during LPR from obtaining fresh permission to continue in it after retirement, which otherwise applies for one year (see post-retirement commercial employment). The proviso to Rule 10(1) does the same for employment under a government outside India permitted during LPR. Re-employment after the retirement date is a separate subject, covered by re-employment after retirement.

Pension papers, provident fund and accommodation

The start of LPR is a trigger date in three other rule sets, so taking it early moves those deadlines earlier.

Pension and gratuity papers. Rule 56 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 requires every Head of Office to undertake preparatory work for the pension case “one year before the date on which a Government servant is due to retire on superannuation, or on the date on which he proceeds on leave preparatory to retirement, whichever is earlier”. Rule 69(1) uses the same trigger for assessing dues other than accommodation dues. For an employee under the National Pension System, Rule 34 of the CCS (Payment of Gratuity under National Pension System) Rules, 2021 applies the same trigger to the gratuity papers in Form 6. The pension sanction process timeline sets out the stages that follow.

General Provident Fund. Rule 32 of the General Provident Fund (Central Services) Rules, 1960 makes the amount standing to a subscriber’s credit payable upon application to the Accounts Officer when the subscriber “has proceeded on leave preparatory to retirement”, so the General Provident Fund final payment can be drawn without waiting for the retirement date.

Government accommodation. Serial (viii) of rule 40(1) of the Central Government General Pool Residential Accommodation Rules, 2017 allows an allottee on LPR to retain the house for the “full period of leave on full average pay subject to a maximum period of one hundred and eighty days in the case of leave preparatory to retirement”, on normal licence fee, “inclusive of the period permissible in the case of retirement”. The words “on full average pay” leave LPR on half pay leave, as in option B above, to the ordinary retirement retention period in serial (ii). The Directorate of Estates and government accommodation articles set out the retention periods for other events.

Servants outside Rule 38

Rule 2 of the CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972 excludes several groups, and each takes its terminal leave from its own instrument. Railway servants are excluded by Rule 2(a) and are governed by the Railway Services (Liberalised Leave) Rules, 1949 in the Indian Railway Establishment Code. Members of the All India Services are excluded by Rule 2(f) and take leave under the All India Services leave rules. Casual, daily-rated and part-time staff, persons paid from contingencies, workmen in industrial establishments and work-charged staff are excluded by Rule 2(b) to (e).

Within the CCS (Leave) Rules, Rule 38 does not depend on the pension scheme. An employee under the old pension scheme, the National Pension System or the Unified Pension Scheme earns earned leave under Rule 26 and half pay leave under Rule 29 on the same terms and takes LPR on the same terms.

Amendments to Rule 38

The 300-day figure took effect before the rule text changed. DoPT OM No. 14028/7/97-Estt.(Leave) dated 7 October 1997, issued on the 5th Central Pay Commission recommendations, raised the earned leave accumulation ceiling in Rules 26 and 28 from 240 days to 300 and the encashment ceiling to 300 days in listed cases, including “in the case of leave preparatory to retirement”, citing sub-rule (1) of Rule 38. It stated: “The above orders shall take effect from 1 st July, 1997”, and that formal amendments to the Rules were being issued separately. The DoPT consolidated text of the Leave Rules then records three notifications against Rule 38.

The parallel text amendment for the accumulation ceiling in Rule 26 is DoPT Notification No. 13026/1/99-Estt.(L) dated 18 April 2002. Both notifications substituted text for an entitlement that the 1997 OM had already given from 1 July 1997.

Related Articles

• CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972
• Earned leave
• Half pay leave
• Leave not due
• Extraordinary leave
• Commuted leave
• Casual leave
• Leave encashment
• Leave salary
• Leave travel concession
• Study leave
• Superannuation
• Retirement age for central government employees
• Voluntary retirement
• Compulsory retirement
• Invalid pension
• CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021
• Central government pension
• Qualifying service
• Emoluments
• Annual increment
• Notional increment on superannuation
• Pension sanction process timeline
• Head of office
• Gratuity under the NPS Rules, 2021
• General Provident Fund
• House rent allowance
• Dearness allowance
• Cycle allowance
• Directorate of Estates
• Government accommodation
• Foreign service
• Deputation in the central government
• Post-retirement commercial employment
• Re-employment after retirement
• Pay matrix
• National Pension System
• Unified Pension Scheme
• Old pension scheme
• Income-tax Act, 2025
• Indian Railway Establishment Code
• All India Services leave rules
• Department of Personnel and Training
• Department of Expenditure

External references

• Department of Personnel and Training, consolidated CCS (Leave) Rules 1972
• Department of Personnel and Training, acts and rules
• Department of Expenditure, compendium of instructions on house rent allowance
• Department of Expenditure
• Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare
• Pensioners’ Portal
• Gazette of India

References

1. Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, Rules 2, 3(1)(c) and (e), 7, 13, 16(2), 24, 26, 29, 31(1), 38, 39(1) and (2), and 40, with the First Schedule, Notes 1 and 2 (DoPT consolidated text).
2. DoPT OM No. 14028/7/97-Estt.(Leave) dated 7 October 1997 (accumulation and encashment ceilings, including Rule 38(1), raised to 300 days from 1 July 1997); DoPT Notification No. 13026/1/2002-Estt.(L) dated 15 and 16 January 2004 (Rule 38(1) text: 240 days substituted with 300).
3. DoPT Notification No. 14028/9/80-Estt.(L) dated 1 October 1981 (Rule 38(2)(a)); DoPT Notification No. 14028/6/82-Estt.(L) dated 31 May 1985 (Rule 38(2)(c) deleted).
4. DoPT Notification No. 13026/1/99-Estt.(L) dated 18 April 2002 (Rule 26 accumulation ceiling raised to 300 days).
5. Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 2021, Rules 9(1), 10(1), 21, 31, 32, 56, 69(1) and 70(1).
6. Central Civil Services (Payment of Gratuity under National Pension System) Rules, 2021, Rule 34.
7. Department of Expenditure OM No. 2/4/2022-E.II(B) dated 30 December 2022, compendium of instructions on house rent allowance, paragraphs 6.1.1 and 6.1.2.
8. Central Government General Pool Residential Accommodation Rules, 2017, rule 40(1), serial (viii).
9. General Provident Fund (Central Services) Rules, 1960, Rule 32.
10. Department of Expenditure OM No. 1/1(i)/2026-E.II(B) dated 22 April 2026 (dearness allowance at 60% from 1 January 2026).