Paternity Leave for Central Government Employees

Paternity leave is 15 days at full pay for a male central government employee with fewer than two surviving children, under Rule 43-A, CCS (Leave) Rules 1972.

Updated 10 September 2026

Paternity leave is 15 days of leave at full pay for a male central government employee, including an apprentice, with fewer than two surviving children, granted under Rule 43-A of the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules 1972 during the confinement of his wife for childbirth, and not debited against the leave account. The rule was inserted by Department of Personnel and Training Notification No. 13026/1/99-Estt.(L) dated 18 April 2002.

The window is the part employees get wrong. Rule 43-A(1) allows the leave up to 15 days before, or up to six months from, the date of delivery of the child, and Rule 43-A(5) treats it as lapsed if it is not availed of inside that period. There is no carry-forward, no encashment and no restoration. A father who waits past the six-month mark has nothing left to apply for.

Three sub-rules make paternity leave unusually generous for its length. Rule 43-A(2) pays leave salary equal to the pay drawn immediately before proceeding on leave, so the fortnight carries full salary. Rule 43-A(4) keeps the leave off the leave account, so earned leave and half pay leave balances continue to accrue and the encashment ceiling at retirement is protected. Rule 43-A(3) allows combination with leave of any other kind, so the 15 days can be added to a longer spell.

Two later sub-rules widened the class of fathers who qualify without touching the 15 days. Rule 43-AA, inserted on 1 December 2009 and amended on 15 May 2023, covers the father who accepts a child below one year in pre-adoption foster care or validly adopts one. Rule 43-A(6), inserted on 18 June 2024, covers the commissioning father of a child born through surrogacy. The wider leave code is in the CCS (Leave) Rules article, and the mother’s side of the parental leaves is in maternity leave.

Rule 43-A and what it grants

Rule 43-A of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 grants a male government servant, including an apprentice, with fewer than two surviving children, 15 days of paternity leave, sanctioned by an authority competent to grant leave, during the confinement of his wife for childbirth. It sits in Chapter V of the rules, among the special kinds of leave, alongside maternity leave under Rule 43, child adoption leave under Rule 43-B and child care leave under Rule 43-C.

It is a lettered rule, which means it was inserted after the 1972 notification rather than being part of the original set. Department of Personnel and Training Notification No. 13026/1/99-Estt.(L) dated 18 April 2002 put it in. The file number carries a 1999 series because the file was opened in that year, which is why the entitlement is sometimes dated to 1999; the rule itself took effect on the 2002 notification.

Paternity leave is an occasion leave, not a quota. Earned leave accrues at 30 days a year and is banked; half pay leave accrues at 20 days a year and is drawn on for illness. Paternity leave accrues at nothing, arises on a single event, and disappears six months later. That is why the rule attaches a window and a lapse provision, and why neither length of service nor pay level changes the figure.

The 15 days and the fewer-than-two-children condition

Two conditions decide eligibility under Rule 43-A(1), and both are absolute. The employee must be a male government servant, and he must have fewer than two surviving children at the time. An employee who already has two or more surviving children is outside the rule, whatever the circumstances of the birth, and the sanctioning authority has no discretion to relax it.

The quantum is flat. Fifteen days is the figure for the first child and for the second, and it does not vary with the length of service, the pay level, the department, or whether the employee is permanent, temporary or on probation. The only variable is whether the fewer-than-two-children condition is met.

The condition is the small-family norm that runs across the whole parental-leave code. Rule 43(1) applies it to maternity leave, Rule 43-B(1) to child adoption leave, and Rule 43-AA(1) to the adopting father’s leave. A department that reads the condition one way for a mother and another way for a father is misreading identical statutory wording.

The timing window and the lapse rule

Rule 43-A(1) defines the window as the confinement of the wife for childbirth, which the rule itself glosses as up to 15 days before, or up to six months from, the date of delivery of the child. The leave can therefore start before the birth, so the father is present for it, or at any point in the following half-year.

Rule 43-A(5) is the hard edge. If paternity leave is not availed of within the period specified in sub-rule (1), such leave shall be treated as lapsed. Nothing in the rule allows the lapse to be condoned, the leave to be carried into a later confinement, or the unused days to be converted into earned leave or cash under leave encashment. The entitlement is spent or it is gone.

The practical consequence is a planning one. A father who intends to take the leave when the mother’s maternity leave of 180 days ends has miscounted: maternity leave under Rule 43(1) runs 180 days from its commencement, which is roughly six months, so paternity leave will already have lapsed by then. The two leaves overlap by design rather than running in sequence.

Single spell or split across the window

Rule 43-A of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 does not say whether the 15 days must be taken in one spell, so for a central government civilian employee the point is left to the sanctioning authority working inside the Rule 43-A(1) window. The rule text carries no bar on splitting and no express permission either.

The Railways settled the same question the other way, and in terms. Rule 551(A)(7) of the Indian Railway Establishment Code, Volume I, as substituted by Railway Board order RBE No. 52/2025 (No. E(P&A)I-2024/CPC/LE-2) dated 9 June 2025, provides that paternity leave can be granted only in a single spell. Rule 18(B) of the All India Services (Leave) Rules 1955 carries no such restriction.

The contrast matters because it shows the restriction is a drafting choice, not an implication of the leave’s nature. Where the government wanted a single-spell rule it wrote one. A central government civilian employee applying for the leave in two parts is not asking for something the CCS rule forbids, but is asking for something the CCS rule does not expressly permit either, and the answer comes from the office rather than from the rule book.

Whether paternity leave can be refused

Rule 7(1) of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 states the general position: leave cannot be claimed as of right. Rule 7(2) allows an authority competent to grant leave to refuse or revoke leave of any kind where the exigencies of public service so require, subject only to a proviso on leave applied for under Rule 20 on medical grounds.

The Note to Rule 43-A cuts across that for this leave alone. It reads that the paternity leave shall not normally be refused under any circumstances. Rule 43 on maternity leave carries no equivalent Note, and neither does Rule 43-C on child care leave, so the instruction is specific to the father’s fortnight.

The two provisions are not in conflict, and the practical effect is one of onus. Leave remains a grant rather than a right, so a refusal is not void; but the Note gives an applicant a specific provision to cite, and puts the office in the position of having to say why this case is not the normal one. The identical Note appears at Rule 43-AA (NOTE 1) for the adopting father and at Rule 18(B) of the All India Services (Leave) Rules 1955.

Leave salary, the leave account and combination

Rule 43-A(2) fixes leave salary at the pay drawn immediately before proceeding on leave, which is the same basis Rule 40(1) sets for earned leave. Dearness allowance is payable on that leave salary in the ordinary way, so the pay slip for the month is unchanged in substance.

Rule 43-A(4) provides that paternity leave shall not be debited against the leave account. The money consequence is worth stating plainly: earned leave keeps accruing across the 15 days, which protects the 300-day ceiling a government servant can eventually encash at retirement, and the half pay leave reserve is untouched. Rule 43-AA(4) repeats the protection for the adopting father, and Rule 43(5) does the same for maternity leave.

Rule 43-A(3) allows paternity leave to be combined with leave of any other kind. Commuted leave, leave not due, extraordinary leave and earned leave all qualify, so a father can build a continuous absence longer than the fortnight.

Casual leave is the one exception, and not because Rule 43-A says so. Casual leave sits outside the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 altogether under Office Memorandum No. 46/8/67-Estt.(A) dated 22 July 1967: it is not a recognised form of leave, is not debited to the leave account, and cannot be combined with any leave granted under the rules. The same reasoning bars casual leave from being prefixed or suffixed to maternity leave and child adoption leave.

Holidays prefixed and suffixed to the leave

Holidays falling inside a spell of paternity leave are counted, because the 15 days run as a continuous block from the date the leave begins. A Sunday or a gazetted holiday in the middle of the fortnight is one of the 15.

Holidays falling immediately before or immediately after the spell are not counted. Rule 22(1)(i) of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 deems a government servant permitted to leave his station at the close of the day before, or to return on the day following, a holiday or a series of holidays adjoining his leave, except where permission for prefixing or suffixing holidays to leave has been specifically withheld for administrative reasons. The rule attaches three conditions, on the handling of securities or moneys, on early departure entailing an early transfer from another station, and on delayed return delaying a further transfer.

The saving is real for a father timing the leave. A spell beginning on the Monday after a restricted or gazetted holiday weekend, and ending on the Friday before another, adds four days of absence without spending any of the 15. This is ordinary leave mechanics rather than anything special to Rule 43-A, but it is the single largest lever an applicant has over a fixed quantum.

Paternity leave for child adoption under Rule 43-AA

Rule 43-AA grants an adopting father 15 days of paternity leave, the same figure as Rule 43-A, on a different trigger. A male government servant, including an apprentice, with fewer than two surviving children, on accepting a child in pre-adoption foster care or on valid adoption of a child below the age of one year, may be granted the leave within six months from the date of accepting the child in foster care or of the valid adoption, as the case may be.

The rule was inserted by Department of Personnel and Training Notification No. 11012/1/2009-Estt.(L) dated 1 December 2009, the same notification that raised child adoption leave to 180 days. The decision behind it is older by a few months: paragraph 3 of Office Memorandum No. 13018/1/2009-Estt.(L) dated 22 July 2009 settled that an adopting father with fewer than two surviving children could be sanctioned 15 days.

The foster-care limb is recent and is often misdated. As inserted in 2009, Rule 43-AA(1) ran on valid adoption alone, and the six months ran from the date of valid adoption. The Central Civil Services (Leave) (Amendment) Rules 2023, notified as G.S.R. 374(E) dated 15 May 2023 under F. No. A-24011/6/2023-Estt.(Leave) and published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i), dated 18 May 2023, substituted the opening words so that the leave now runs from a pre-adoption foster placement. The same notification made the matching substitution in Rule 43-B(1) for the adopting mother.

The 2023 amendment carries a recovery condition. The proviso to Rule 43-AA(1) provides that where the pre-adoption foster care is not followed by valid adoption of the child, the paternity leave already availed shall be debited from any other kind of leave available to the credit of the government servant. A leave given on the expectation of adoption is therefore recovered from the ordinary leave account if the adoption does not follow, which is the only route by which paternity leave ever touches the leave balance.

NOTE 2 to Rule 43-AA, inserted by Department of Personnel and Training Notification No. 13026/5/2011-Estt.(L) dated 4 April 2012, widens what counts as a child. It includes a child taken as a ward by the government servant under the Guardians and Wards Act 1890 or the personal law applicable to him, provided the ward lives with him, is treated as a member of the family, and has been conferred by special will the same status as a natural born child. The identical Note sits under Rule 43-B for child adoption leave. Adoption procedure itself runs through the Central Adoption Resource Authority.

Paternity leave on surrogacy under Rule 43-A(6)

Rule 43-A(6) grants a commissioning father who is a male government servant with fewer than two surviving children 15 days of paternity leave within six months from the date of delivery of the child, in the case of a child begotten through surrogacy. Note 3 to the rule defines the commissioning father as the intending father of the child born through surrogacy.

The sub-rule was inserted by the Central Civil Services (Leave) (Amendment) Rules 2024, notified as G.S.R. 331(E) dated 18 June 2024 under F. No. A-24011/21/2023-ESTT-Leave and published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i), No. 308, of the same date. The notification was signed by Manoj Kumar Dwivedi, Additional Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training, and took effect on the date of its publication in the Official Gazette.

The same notification inserted Rule 43(6), giving 180 days of maternity leave to the surrogate mother and to the commissioning mother where either or both are government servants, and Rule 43-C(8), extending child care leave to the commissioning mother. Its gazette note records that the principal rules were published on 8 April 1972 by S.O. 940 dated 15 March 1972 and had last been amended by G.S.R. 374(E) dated 15 May 2023, which places the two recent amendments in sequence.

Surrogacy did not lengthen the leave. Across the three routes to fatherhood the rules now recognise, birth under Rule 43-A(1), adoption or foster placement under Rule 43-AA(1), and surrogacy under Rule 43-A(6), the entitlement is the same 15 days on the same six-month window.

Counting surviving children

The fewer-than-two-surviving-children test in Rule 43-A(1) looks at the family as it stands when the leave is applied for, not at the number of confinements the employee has had. A father of no children or one surviving child qualifies. A father of two or more does not.

Twins are the case that surprises. Where a first confinement produces two children, the employee has two surviving children immediately after it, so paternity leave is admissible for that confinement, because the condition is tested before it, and not for any later birth. The same arithmetic applies to a first child followed by twins.

A child who has died is not a surviving child, so an employee whose first child has died and whose second is born later remains within the rule. Where a father is unsure, the position should be settled by the leave-sanctioning authority against the service book before the leave is applied for, because the entitlement stands or falls on the count and a wrongly sanctioned spell becomes a recovery.

Effect on pay, service and tax

Paternity leave costs the employee nothing in pay, service or leave balance, which is unusual across the leave code. The 15 days are paid at full leave salary under Rule 43-A(2), so there is no reduced rate of the kind half pay leave carries under Rule 40(3).

For service, the period is authorised leave on full pay, so it counts for continuity, does not shift the annual increment date, and does not reduce qualifying service for pension or retirement gratuity. Because Rule 43-A(4) keeps the leave off the leave account, the earned leave available for encashment at retirement is unaffected, which is the point at which a debited fortnight would have cost real money.

For income tax there is nothing to compute. Leave salary during paternity leave is the employee’s ordinary pay for the fortnight, taxed as salary in the normal way, and it does not attract any separate exemption because none is needed. The figure feeds take-home salary exactly as an ordinary month does.

Apprentices and probationers

Rule 43-A(1) is the only express extension of leave to an apprentice anywhere in the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972, which makes it worth stating plainly. Rule 33(3) confines an apprentice to leave on medical certificate at leave salary equivalent to half pay for not more than one month in any year of apprenticeship, plus extraordinary leave under Rule 32. That is the whole entitlement, and it is why the words “including an apprentice” appear in Rule 43-A(1) and again in Rule 43-AA(1).

A person on probation is in a different position and needs no special extension. Rule 33(2) entitles a person appointed to a post on probation to leave under the rules as a temporary or permanent government servant according as the appointment is against a temporary or a permanent post, so paternity leave is available during probation on the ordinary terms.

The contrast with child care leave is worth noting for a father who qualifies for both. Paragraph 13 of the Master Circular dated 11 March 2019 directs that child care leave should not ordinarily be granted during probation except in extreme situations. Paternity leave carries no such instruction, and the Note to Rule 43-A points the other way.

Applying for paternity leave

An application for paternity leave goes to the leave-sanctioning authority in the ordinary way, stating the expected or actual date of delivery and the number of surviving children, and supported by the birth record of the child. For the Rule 43-AA version the supporting document is the foster-care placement order or the adoption deed; for the Rule 43-A(6) version it is the surrogacy documentation establishing the applicant as the intending father.

Three points decide whether the application succeeds. The count of surviving children must be below two on the service record. The dates applied for must fall inside the Rule 43-A(1) window, which is the most common defect. And the application should be made early enough that a refusal on the exigencies of service under Rule 7(2) still leaves time to reapply inside the window.

Where the office resists, the Note to Rule 43-A is the provision to cite, and it should be cited by name rather than paraphrased. A refusal is not barred, but the Note requires the case to be shown to be other than normal.

Paternity leave among the parental leaves

The parental leaves of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 are four provisions with different quanta, triggers and beneficiaries, and most confusion about paternity leave comes from reading it against the wrong neighbour. The table below is a salary-calculator.in compilation, built by reading Rules 43, 43-A, 43-AA, 43-B and 43-C of the consolidated CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 updated as on 24 September 2024.

Leave	Rule	Days	Who	Trigger
Maternity leave	43(1)	180	Female servant, fewer than two surviving children	Commencement of maternity leave
Maternity leave, miscarriage	43(3)	45	Female servant, any number of children	Miscarriage or abortion
Maternity leave, surrogacy	43(6)	180	Surrogate mother and commissioning mother	Delivery of the child
Paternity leave	43-A(1)	15	Male servant including an apprentice, fewer than two surviving children	Confinement of the wife for childbirth
Paternity leave, surrogacy	43-A(6)	15	Commissioning father, fewer than two surviving children	Delivery of the child
Paternity leave for child adoption	43-AA(1)	15	Male servant including an apprentice, fewer than two surviving children	Foster placement or valid adoption, child below one year
Child adoption leave	43-B(1)	180	Female servant, fewer than two surviving children	Foster placement or valid adoption, child below one year
Child care leave	43-C(1)	Up to 730 across the career	Female servant, and a single male servant	Rearing or attending to the needs of children

The line that most often confuses is the one between paternity leave and child care leave. Paternity leave is the 15-day occasion leave any qualifying father draws, married or single. Child care leave under Rule 43-C runs to 730 days across a whole career and, among men, is open only to a single male government servant, meaning an unmarried, widowed or divorced father. A married father draws the fortnight and nothing more; a single father can draw both.

The second confusion is between Rule 43-AA and Rule 43-B. Both are adoption leaves and both were amended by G.S.R. 374(E) dated 15 May 2023, but the adopting father gets 15 days and the adopting mother 180. The child adoption leave article carries the mother’s side in full.

Paternity leave outside the CCS rules

Rule 43-A binds central government civilian employees governed by the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972. Three other leave codes carry their own paternity leave provision at the same quantum, and citing the wrong one is a common error in departmental correspondence.

Rule 18(B) of the All India Services (Leave) Rules 1955 grants a male member of the Service, including a probationer, with fewer than two surviving children, 15 days of paternity leave on the same window, with the same leave salary, the same bar on debiting the leave account, the same lapse provision and the same Note that the leave shall not normally be refused. Members of the All India Services draw the leave under that rule, not under Rule 43-A. Department of Personnel and Training letter No. 11019/27/2008-AIS-III dated 20 August 2009 applied the adopting father’s leave to the All India Services on the same basis.

Railway servants are governed by Chapter V of the Indian Railway Establishment Code, Volume I, 1985 edition, not by any set of rules called the Railway Servants (Leave) Rules. Rule 551(A), as substituted by Railway Board order RBE No. 52/2025 (No. E(P&A)I-2024/CPC/LE-2) dated 9 June 2025 through Advance Correction Slip No. 149, grants a male railway servant including an apprentice 15 days on the CCS window, adds the commissioning father at Rule 551(A)(6) on the authority of G.S.R. 331(E), and restricts the leave to a single spell at Rule 551(A)(7). Railway employees therefore have one point of difference from a central government civilian employee, and it is the spell rule.

Staff of autonomous bodies are covered by whichever leave rules their governing body has adopted. Many adopt the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 by reference, which carries Rule 43-A across unchanged, but the adoption is a decision of the body and not an automatic consequence of the pay structure. The entitlement should be confirmed against the body’s own rules rather than assumed from the central position.

Amendment history of Rule 43-A and Rule 43-AA

The quantum has never moved. Every amendment to the father’s leave since 2002 has widened who qualifies or what counts as a child, and none has changed the 15 days. The sequence below is read from the notification citations printed against each sub-rule in the consolidated CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 updated as on 24 September 2024.

Date	Instrument	Effect
18 April 2002	DoPT Notification No. 13026/1/99-Estt.(L)	Inserted Rule 43-A, paternity leave, 15 days
22 July 2009	DoPT Office Memorandum No. 13018/1/2009-Estt.(L), paragraph 3	Decided 15 days for an adopting father
1 December 2009	DoPT Notification No. 11012/1/2009-Estt.(L)	Inserted Rule 43-AA, paternity leave for child adoption
4 April 2012	DoPT Notification No. 13026/5/2011-Estt.(L)	Inserted NOTE 2 to Rule 43-AA, ward under the Guardians and Wards Act 1890
15 May 2023	CCS (Leave) (Amendment) Rules 2023, G.S.R. 374(E)	Brought pre-adoption foster care within Rule 43-AA(1), with the debit-back proviso
18 June 2024	CCS (Leave) (Amendment) Rules 2024, G.S.R. 331(E)	Inserted Rule 43-A(6) and Note 3, commissioning father on surrogacy
9 June 2025	Railway Board order RBE No. 52/2025	Carried the 2024 changes into Rule 551(A) of the Railway code, with a single-spell restriction

Proposals to lengthen the leave have been made in public debate, and none has been notified. The operative position for a father applying today is the 15 days of Rule 43-A(1), and any longer figure should be treated as a proposal until a notification amending the sub-rule is published in the Gazette.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How many days of paternity leave does a central government employee get?

15 days. Rule 43-A(1) of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 allows a male government servant, including an apprentice, with fewer than two surviving children, 15 days of paternity leave granted by an authority competent to grant leave. Rule 43-A(2) pays leave salary equal to the pay drawn immediately before proceeding on leave, and Rule 43-A(4) keeps the leave off the leave account, so earned leave and half pay leave balances are untouched.

When can paternity leave be taken, and what happens if it is missed?

Rule 43-A(1) fixes the window as the confinement of the wife for childbirth, meaning up to 15 days before, or up to six months from, the date of delivery of the child. Rule 43-A(5) treats paternity leave not availed of within that period as lapsed. There is no provision to carry it forward, to encash it, or to have it restored, so a father who reaches the six-month mark without applying loses the entitlement outright.

Can paternity leave be split into more than one spell?

Rule 43-A of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 says nothing either way, so the question is settled by the sanctioning authority against the six-month window in Rule 43-A(1). The Railways took the opposite course expressly: Rule 551(A)(7) of the Indian Railway Establishment Code, Volume I, substituted by Railway Board order RBE No. 52/2025 dated 9 June 2025, provides that paternity leave can be granted only in a single spell. A railway servant therefore has one spell; a central government civilian employee has no equivalent bar in the rule text.

Can paternity leave be refused?

Rule 7(1) of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 states that leave cannot be claimed as of right, and Rule 7(2) allows any kind of leave to be refused or revoked where the exigencies of public service so require. The Note to Rule 43-A cuts across that general position for this leave alone: paternity leave shall not normally be refused under any circumstances. Maternity leave under Rule 43 carries no such Note, so the instruction is specific to the father’s leave and is the provision an applicant cites where an office resists.

Is paternity leave debited from the leave account?

No. Rule 43-A(4) provides that paternity leave shall not be debited against the leave account. Earned leave keeps accruing across the 15 days, which protects the 300-day ceiling available for encashment at retirement, and the half pay leave reserve is untouched. Rule 43-AA(4) repeats the same protection for the adopting father’s leave.

Can paternity leave be combined with casual leave?

No. Rule 43-A(3) allows paternity leave to be combined with leave of any other kind, and earned leave, half pay leave, commuted leave and extraordinary leave all qualify. Casual leave does not, because casual leave is not a recognised form of leave under the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 at all: it sits outside the rules under Office Memorandum No. 46/8/67-Estt.(A) dated 22 July 1967, is not debited to the leave account, and cannot be combined with any leave granted under the rules.

Do Sundays and gazetted holidays count against the 15 days?

Holidays falling inside a spell of paternity leave count, because the 15 days run as a block. Holidays falling immediately before or immediately after the spell do not: Rule 22(1)(i) of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 deems a government servant permitted to prefix or suffix a holiday or a series of holidays to leave, unless permission is specifically withheld for administrative reasons. A father who starts paternity leave on the Monday after a long weekend therefore keeps the full 15 days.

Can an adopting father get paternity leave?

Yes, 15 days under Rule 43-AA, inserted by DoPT Notification No. 11012/1/2009-Estt.(L) dated 1 December 2009. A male government servant, including an apprentice, with fewer than two surviving children may be granted the leave within six months from the date of accepting a child below the age of one year in pre-adoption foster care, or from the date of valid adoption. The foster-care limb was added by the CCS (Leave) (Amendment) Rules 2023, notified as G.S.R. 374(E) dated 15 May 2023, which also attached a proviso: where the foster care is not followed by a valid adoption, the leave already availed is debited from any other kind of leave to the servant’s credit.

Is there paternity leave for a child born through surrogacy?

Yes. Rule 43-A(6) grants a commissioning father who is a male government servant with fewer than two surviving children 15 days of paternity leave within six months from the date of delivery of the child. The sub-rule was inserted by the CCS (Leave) (Amendment) Rules 2024, notified as G.S.R. 331(E) dated 18 June 2024 under F. No. A-24011/21/2023-ESTT-Leave, and Note 3 to the rule defines the commissioning father as the intending father of the child born through surrogacy.

Does an apprentice or a probationer get paternity leave?

Yes. Rule 33(3) of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 confines an apprentice to leave on medical certificate at half pay for not more than one month in any year of apprenticeship, plus extraordinary leave under Rule 32, and Rule 43-A(1) is the single express exception, extending the 15 days to a male government servant including an apprentice. A person appointed on probation draws leave under Rule 33(2) as a temporary or permanent government servant according to the post, so paternity leave is available during probation. Rule 18(B)(1) of the All India Services (Leave) Rules 1955 spells out the probationer expressly.

Does paternity leave affect the increment, the pension or income tax?

No. The 15 days are authorised leave on full pay, so they count for the continuity of service, do not shift the increment date under the annual increment rules, and do not reduce qualifying service for pension. Leave salary under Rule 43-A(2) is the pay drawn immediately before the leave and is taxed as salary in the ordinary way, with no separate exemption and none needed, because the employee is paid the same pay for the fortnight.

How is the fewer-than-two-surviving-children condition counted?

It is counted on the family as it stands when the leave is applied for. A father with no children or one surviving child qualifies; a father with two or more surviving children is outside Rule 43-A whatever the circumstances of the birth. A child who has died is not a surviving child. Where a first confinement produces twins, the employee has two surviving children after it, so paternity leave is admissible for that confinement and not for a later one. The same test governs maternity leave under Rule 43, child adoption leave under Rule 43-B and the adopting father’s leave under Rule 43-AA.

Has paternity leave been increased beyond 15 days?

No. The quantum has stood at 15 days since Rule 43-A was inserted by DoPT Notification No. 13026/1/99-Estt.(L) dated 18 April 2002, and the consolidated CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 updated as on 24 September 2024 still print 15 days. Every amendment since has widened who qualifies rather than how long the leave runs: Rule 43-AA in 2009 for the adopting father, the ward provision in 2012, pre-adoption foster care in 2023, and the commissioning father in 2024.

What is the difference between paternity leave and child care leave?

Paternity leave under Rule 43-A is 15 days around the birth or adoption of a child, drawn by any qualifying father, married or single. Child care leave under Rule 43-C is up to 730 days across the whole career for rearing children, and among men it is open only to a single male government servant, meaning an unmarried, widowed or divorced father. A married father therefore draws the 15 days of paternity leave and no child care leave, while a single father can draw both.

Do the All India Services and the Railways follow the same rule?

The entitlement is the same 15 days but the instrument differs. Rule 18(B) of the All India Services (Leave) Rules 1955 grants 15 days to a male member of the Service, including a probationer, with fewer than two surviving children, on the same window and with the same non-debit and lapse provisions. Rule 551(A) of the Indian Railway Establishment Code, Volume I, substituted by Railway Board order RBE No. 52/2025 dated 9 June 2025, grants 15 days to a male railway servant including an apprentice, adds the commissioning father at Rule 551(A)(6), and restricts the leave to a single spell at Rule 551(A)(7).

External references

References

Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, Rule 43-A (paternity leave), sub-rules (1) to (6) and the Note, as printed in the consolidated text updated as on 24 September 2024.
Department of Personnel and Training Notification No. 13026/1/99-Estt.(L) dated 18 April 2002, inserting Rule 43-A.
Department of Personnel and Training Notification No. 11012/1/2009-Estt.(L) dated 1 December 2009, inserting Rule 43-AA (paternity leave for child adoption), and Office Memorandum No. 13018/1/2009-Estt.(L) dated 22 July 2009, paragraph 3.
Department of Personnel and Training Notification No. 13026/5/2011-Estt.(L) dated 4 April 2012, inserting NOTE 2 to Rule 43-AA (ward under the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890).
Central Civil Services (Leave) (Amendment) Rules, 2023, notified as G.S.R. 374(E) dated 15 May 2023, F. No. A-24011/6/2023-Estt.(Leave), published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i), dated 18 May 2023.
Central Civil Services (Leave) (Amendment) Rules, 2024, notified as G.S.R. 331(E) dated 18 June 2024, F. No. A-24011/21/2023-ESTT-Leave, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i), No. 308, dated 18 June 2024.
Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, Rule 7 (right to leave), Rule 22 (combination of holidays with leave), Rule 33 (leave to a probationer and an apprentice) and Rule 40 (leave salary).
All India Services (Leave) Rules, 1955, Rule 18(B) (paternity leave), and Department of Personnel and Training letter No. 11019/27/2008-AIS-III dated 20 August 2009.
Indian Railway Establishment Code, Volume I, 1985 edition (reprint 2008), Rule 551(A), as substituted by Railway Board order RBE No. 52/2025, No. E(P&A)I-2024/CPC/LE-2 dated 9 June 2025, Advance Correction Slip No. 149.
Office Memorandum No. 46/8/67-Estt.(A) dated 22 July 1967 (casual leave is not a recognised form of leave under the CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972).