No demand certificate

A No Demand Certificate, almost always shortened to the NDC, is the certificate confirming that a retiring central government employee has no outstanding dues in respect of government accommodation: no arrears of the licence fee and no damages for the quarter. For government General Pool residential accommodation it is issued by the Directorate of Estates, the office under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs that allots the accommodation and charges the licence fee. The NDC is the document that lets the accommodation dues be closed off at retirement, and its production is what releases the portion of the retirement gratuity held back against those dues.

The NDC exists to solve a timing problem. A retiring employee may still be living in government accommodation on the day they retire, so the final licence fee, and any damages, cannot be known until they vacate. The pension rules deal with this by withholding a small part of the gratuity, 10% of the retirement gratuity, pending the No Demand Certificate, and releasing the rest at retirement. When the employee vacates and the Directorate of Estates certifies that nothing is outstanding, the NDC is issued and the withheld 10% is released, less any actual dues it has to meet. The certificate is, in effect, the accommodation side of the retirement settlement.

It is worth being precise about scope from the outset. The No Demand Certificate proper is the accommodation certificate from the Directorate of Estates. Other government dues, an unrecovered advance, an overpayment, or income tax, are assessed separately by the Head of Office under the pension rules and adjusted against the gratuity directly; they are not the subject of a Directorate of Estates certificate. When a retiree or an office speaks of “the NDC,” they mean the accommodation certificate.

This article sets out what the NDC certifies and who issues it, the 10% of the gratuity withheld pending it and the rules behind that, the process and timeline for obtaining it, the retention of government accommodation after retirement and its effect on the certificate, the online process, why a delayed NDC holds up the withheld gratuity and can lead to a provisional pension, and the separate treatment of dues other than accommodation. Every load-bearing figure is tied to the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 and the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare and Directorate of Estates instructions.

What the NDC certifies and who issues it

The No Demand Certificate certifies a negative: that the government has no demand outstanding against the retiring employee in respect of the government accommodation they occupied. Concretely, it confirms that the licence fee has been paid up to date and that there are no damages or other charges outstanding for the quarter. It is issued, for General Pool residential accommodation, by the Directorate of Estates, because that is the authority that allotted the accommodation, fixed the licence fee, and can say whether anything remains due on it.

The certificate matters because government accommodation is one of the heads of “government dues” that the pension rules allow to be recovered from the retirement gratuity. Under Rule 67 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021, the dues recoverable from the gratuity are a closed list, and dues in respect of government accommodation, the licence fee and any damages, are the first branch of it. Rule 68 provides that those accommodation dues are handled through the Directorate of Estates and the No Demand Certificate. So the NDC is not an optional formality; it is the mechanism the rules specify for settling the accommodation branch of the government dues before the gratuity is finally paid.

The 10% of the gratuity withheld pending the NDC

Because the accommodation dues cannot be finalised while the employee still occupies the quarter, the rules withhold a portion of the gratuity pending the certificate. 10% of the retirement gratuity is withheld at retirement against possible accommodation dues, and the remaining 90% is paid in the ordinary way. The 10% is a cushion, not a charge: it is released on production of the No Demand Certificate, reduced only by any licence fee or damages actually found outstanding. Where the Directorate can quantify the dues in advance, the exact amount is adjusted; the 10% withholding is the fallback where the final dues are not yet known.

This is the same withholding described in detail under withholding and recovery from gratuity and noted under the last pay certificate: the gratuity is not held up wholesale because of the accommodation, only a defined 10% is held back, and it is released as soon as the NDC confirms the position. The figure is a plain 10% of the retirement gratuity; there is no separate rupee cap on it in the rules. An employee who was not in government accommodation, or who vacated and cleared the dues before retirement, has nothing withheld on this account.

The process and the timeline

The rules and the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare instructions set a timeline designed to get the NDC ready around retirement. The Head of Office obtains the details of the accommodation from the employee at least a year before the date of superannuation and forwards them to the Directorate of Estates. The Directorate is to reply, within about two months in a superannuation case, stating the licence fee recoverable for the period up to the last eight months of service; the Head of Office recovers the licence fee for the remaining months from pay and allowances, and the balance, if any, from the gratuity. An advance No Demand Certificate is issued some months before superannuation on the strength of this, so that the bulk of the position is settled before retirement.

The final No Demand Certificate follows the vacation of the accommodation. It is to be issued within 14 days of the application for it made after the accommodation is actually vacated, under the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare Office Memorandum dated 20 October 2023 and the timelines reiterated in 2024. The trigger is the application after actual vacation, not merely the vacation date, so a retiree should apply for the certificate promptly on vacating. If the Directorate of Estates fails to issue the certificate within the 14 days, and the withheld gratuity is thereby held up, interest at the General Provident Fund rate is payable on the excess gratuity withheld, payable by the Directorate through the accounts office. This is the same principle as the interest on a delayed pension: a delay on the administration’s side carries interest.

Retention of accommodation after retirement

The reason a No Demand Certificate is often delayed is that the retiree has not yet vacated the accommodation, and the rules do allow a retiring occupant to retain government accommodation for a limited period after retirement. Retention is on payment of the licence fee: normal licence fee for a permitted period, after which the charge escalates and then becomes penal, and beyond the permissible period the occupation is unauthorised and the occupant is liable to eviction under the public premises law. The concessional retention on retirement is governed by the Central Government General Pool Residential Accommodation Rules, 2017, and the Directorate of Estates orders under them, which set the permissible period and the escalating licence fee for the successive blocks of retention.

The interaction with the NDC is direct: the certificate can be issued only once the accommodation is vacated and the retention dues cleared, so the longer the retiree retains the accommodation, the later the No Demand Certificate, and the later the release of the withheld 10% of the gratuity. A retiree who vacates promptly on retirement, or within the permissible period on the normal licence fee, obtains the certificate quickly and the withheld gratuity is released; one who retains the accommodation, especially into the penal period, holds up their own withheld gratuity. The exact permissible period and the escalating rates are set by the current Directorate of Estates rules and should be checked against them, because they have been revised over time.

The online process

The Directorate of Estates administers allotment, retention, and the No Demand Certificate through its online system, historically known as e-Awas and now part of the eSampada portal of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. A retiring allottee applies for the No Demand Certificate through the portal, the licence fee position is maintained online, and the certificate is issued through the system. The move to an online process is intended to speed up the certificate and to make the licence fee position transparent, so that the accommodation dues can be settled and the withheld gratuity released without the delays that a paper process could involve. The portal handles the application after vacation that starts the 14-day clock for the certificate.

Why a delayed NDC can lead to a provisional pension

A delayed No Demand Certificate holds up the withheld 10% of the gratuity and the settlement of the accommodation dues; it does not, by itself, freeze the whole pension. The pension is a separate benefit, paid monthly, and the accommodation position does not stop it. What a delayed NDC can do, together with any other loose end in the settlement, is delay the final authorisation of the pension case, and where the final Pension Payment Order cannot be issued in time, a provisional pension is sanctioned under Rule 62 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 meanwhile, which is the interim pension also known as an anticipatory pension. The pension sanction process and its timeline is built to avoid this, but an unvacated quarter and a pending NDC are among the commonest reasons a settlement runs late.

The precise effect is therefore worth stating carefully: the NDC governs the withheld gratuity slice and the accommodation dues, and its delay is felt there and, at one remove, in the timing of the final settlement. The 90% of the gratuity already released, the monthly pension or the provisional pension, and the other retirement benefits are not held to ransom by the accommodation. When the NDC is produced, the withheld 10% is released, with GPF-rate interest if the Directorate breached the 14-day limit, and the accommodation branch of the settlement is closed.

Dues other than accommodation

The No Demand Certificate is specific to accommodation, and it is important not to read it as covering every government due. Dues other than accommodation, an outstanding house building or other advance, an overpayment of pay, allowances or leave salary, or income tax deductible at source, are assessed by the Head of Office under Rule 69 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 and adjusted against the gratuity directly. There is no Directorate of Estates certificate for these; they are an internal assessment by the office that drew the employee’s pay, settled as part of the pension papers.

So the settlement of government dues at retirement runs on two tracks: the accommodation dues, closed by the No Demand Certificate from the Directorate of Estates against the 10% withheld gratuity; and the other dues, assessed and adjusted by the Head of Office under Rule 69. Both are confined to the closed list of government dues in Rule 67, so nothing outside that list can be recovered from the gratuity, but only the accommodation branch turns on a No Demand Certificate. Keeping the two apart avoids the common confusion that a single certificate clears all dues.

Across the schemes and the 8th Central Pay Commission

The No Demand Certificate concerns government accommodation and the retirement gratuity, which apply across the pension schemes: an employee on the Old Pension Scheme, the National Pension System, or the Unified Pension Scheme who occupied government accommodation clears it through the same certificate, because the accommodation dues and the gratuity are the same in each case. The certificate is a settlement-stage document about accommodation, not about the pension mechanism, so the scheme does not change it.

The 8th Central Pay Commission, constituted in November 2025, will revise pay, the gratuity, and the licence fee for government accommodation, so the rupee amounts an NDC settles will change once the revised figures are notified. The structure, a 10% withholding pending the certificate, the certificate from the Directorate of Estates, and the 14-day timeline, is set by the pension rules and the accommodation rules and is not a pay commission matter. Any revised figure attributed to the 8th Central Pay Commission is a projection until the Commission reports and revised rules are notified.

Related Articles

• Withholding and recovery from gratuity
• Last Pay Certificate
• Directorate of Estates
• Government accommodation
• Gratuity for central government employees
• Death gratuity
• Provisional pension
• Anticipatory pension
• Pension sanction process and timeline
• PPO and life certificate
• Central government pension
• CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021
• Interest on delayed pension
• General Provident Fund
• Head of Office
• Pay and Accounts Office
• Pension arrears
• House rent allowance
• Superannuation
• Qualifying service
• Old Pension Scheme
• National Pension System
• Unified Pension Scheme
• Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare
• 8th Central Pay Commission

External references

• Directorate of Estates
• eSampada portal (Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs)
• Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare
• Central Pension Accounting Office

References

1. Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 2021, Rule 67 (the closed list of government dues, with dues in respect of government accommodation as the first branch), Rule 68 (recovery and adjustment of accommodation dues through the Directorate of Estates and the No Demand Certificate, and the withholding of 10% of the retirement gratuity pending the certificate), and Rule 69 (other dues assessed by the Head of Office).
2. Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare Office Memorandum No. 28/91/2022-P&PW(B), dated 20 October 2023, on the procedure for the adjustment and recovery of government dues from the retirement gratuity, the No Demand Certificate to be issued within 14 days of the application made after the accommodation is vacated, and interest at the General Provident Fund rate where the Directorate of Estates delays.
3. Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare Office Memorandum on the timelines for the completion of the pension and gratuity activities (2024), reiterating the No Demand Certificate timeline and the obtaining of accommodation details about a year before superannuation.
4. Central Government General Pool Residential Accommodation Rules, 2017, and the Directorate of Estates orders on the retention of General Pool residential accommodation after retirement, the permissible period, and the escalating and penal licence fee.
5. Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 2021, Rule 62 (provisional pension where the final pension cannot be sanctioned by the date of retirement) and Rule 65 (interest on a pension or gratuity delayed for administrative reasons).
6. Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, Resolution F. No. 01-01/2025-E.III(A), dated 3 November 2025, constituting the 8th Central Pay Commission.