Recruitment Rules

Recruitment rules are the statutory rules made by the President under the proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution for each central government civil post or service, fixing its classification, pay level, age limit, qualifications, probation, method of recruitment, feeder grades, departmental promotion committee and the cases in which the Union Public Service Commission is consulted. They are framed under the Department of Personnel and Training guidelines in Office Memorandum No. AB.14017/48/2010-Estt.(RR) dated 31 December 2010.

For a central government servant, the recruitment rules of the current post and the next one up answer most career questions directly. Whether a post is filled by promotion, direct recruitment or deputation, in what proportion, after how many years in which feeder grade, with or without a qualification, after what probation: each is a column in a schedule notified in the Gazette of India. A Department of Personnel and Training norm that is not written into that schedule does not bind the post. The same instruction therefore produces different results in two departments.

The 2010 guidelines replaced the consolidated instructions in Office Memorandum No. AB.14017/12/87-Estt.(RR) dated 18 March 1988 and remain the base text. They were written in the grade pay and pay band vocabulary of the 6th Central Pay Commission, and the most important later change, the qualifying service norms for the 18-level pay matrix, came by Office Memorandum No. AB-14017/4/2021-Estt.(RR) dated 20 September 2022.

This article covers the constitutional basis of the rules, the posts that need them, the 13-column schedule column by column, who approves the rules and the time limits for vetting and notification, amendment and the five-year review, the power to relax, how the 2010 grade pay norms translate into pay levels, posts that have no rules, and the case law on which version of the rules governs a vacancy.

Constitutional basis in the proviso to Article 309

The proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution makes it competent for the President, or a person the President directs, to make rules regulating the recruitment and the conditions of service of persons appointed to services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union, until provision is made by or under an Act of Parliament. Parliament has passed no general Act for the central civil services, so a set of recruitment rules made under the proviso is the law for its post.

Two consequences follow for anyone reading a set of rules. An Office Memorandum of the Department of Personnel and Training is an executive instruction and cannot override a recruitment rule; it can guide how the rules are framed and fill a gap the rules leave open. And a change to the rules is itself a statutory act that has to go through the same approval, consultation and notification sequence as the original. A revised central norm consequently reaches an individual post only by amendment of that post’s rules.

Paragraph 5.3 of the 31 December 2010 guidelines records a third point. Recruitment rules are statutory, but their notifications need not be laid on the Table of both Houses of Parliament, because Article 309 does not prescribe laying. The guidelines cite the Department’s file CSL 14017/2/81-Estt.(RR) for the position.

The All India Services are outside this scheme. Their recruitment is governed by rules under the All India Services Act, 1951, not by rules under Article 309, and railway posts are covered by the Ministry of Railways’ own recruitment instruments rather than by the Department of Personnel and Training guidelines described here.

Recruitment rules and service rules

The 2010 guidelines provide two formats, and which one a post gets depends on whether it belongs to an organised service.

Paragraph 2.3 prescribes a notification with the 13-column Schedule in Annexure I for posts not covered by any organised service. Isolated posts outside a service take this format. For an organised service, paragraph 2.3 requires comprehensive service rules covering 17 heads: short title and commencement; definitions; constitution; grades, authorised strength and its review; members of the service; initial constitution; future maintenance; appointments by deputation; seniority; probation; appointment to the service; liability for service in any part of India and other conditions of service; disqualifications; power to relax; savings; interpretation; and repeal. The Central Secretariat Service and the Organised Group A Services are governed by service rules of this kind.

Service rules usually carry their own schedules for the grades within the service, so the column numbering described below applies to the 13-column format and not always to a service rules schedule.

Posts that must have recruitment rules

Paragraph 1.1 of the 2010 guidelines directs the administrative ministry to start framing recruitment rules as soon as a decision is taken to create a new post or service, or to upgrade a post or restructure a service. Paragraph 2.1.3 sets the deadline for Group A and Group B posts: draft rules are to reach the Department of Personnel and Training as early as possible and not later than one month from the date the post or service is created.

Paragraph 1.2 sets the threshold. Recruitment rules are to be framed for all posts likely to last one year or more. A post created for less than a year is filled on deputation from officers of the central government holding analogous posts, or the next-below post with the minimum regular service prescribed for promotion, who have the qualifications the duties require.

Posts in a committee or commission set up for a limited period follow a fixed order of preference under the same paragraph: deputation from within the ministry that set it up, then circulation on an all-Secretariat basis, then re-employment of retired pensioners. Where direct recruitment is used at all, the appointment is co-terminous with the life of the body and carries no claim to regular absorption.

The 13-column schedule

Annexure I to the 2010 guidelines sets out the schedule. The table below gives each column and the paragraph of the guidelines that governs how it is written.

Source: Annexure I and Part III of Department of Personnel and Training Office Memorandum No. AB.14017/48/2010-Estt.(RR) dated 31 December 2010.

Older rules have 14 columns. The schedule used to carry, as Column 6, the benefit of added years of qualifying service for pension. The footnote to paragraph 2.3 of the 2010 guidelines records its deletion after Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare Office Memorandum No. 7/7/2008-P&PW(F) dated 13 February 2009 withdrew added years for pension and gratuity. Rules notified before the change, and not since replaced, therefore run every later column one place to the right: the age limit sits in Column 7, the method of recruitment in Column 11 and the feeder grade in Column 12. A reference to “Column 12” means the departmental promotion committee in a current schedule and the feeder grade in an older one, so the column heading, not the number, identifies the entry.

Columns 1 to 5: the post and its pay

Paragraph 3.3 treats the number of posts as the basis for the method of recruitment, because the promotion and direct recruitment quotas are set against it, and requires the ministry to review the rules whenever the number changes substantially, including the effect on the next higher and lower posts.

Column 3 follows the classification in force when the rules are made. The 2010 guidelines reproduce the grade pay classification in S.O. 946(E) dated 9 April 2009. Since 9 August 2018 the classification runs on pay level under Department of Personnel and Training notification S.O. 3964(E): Levels 10 to 18 are Group A, Levels 6 to 9 are Group B and Levels 1 to 5 are Group C. The same column records whether the post is gazetted or non-gazetted and ministerial or non-ministerial.

Column 4 moved to the pay matrix without a fresh round of consultation. DoPT Office Memorandum No. AB.14017/13/2016-Estt.(RR) dated 9 August 2016 directed ministries to substitute “Level in the Pay Matrix” for the pay band and grade pay in Column 4, and in the Column 11 feeder grades and deputation field, “straightaway” and without a reference to the Department or the UPSC, by 30 September 2016. That substitution is why a post’s current rules can show a pay level while every other column still reflects a pre-2016 framing.

Column 5 records whether promotion is by selection, on merit, or by non-selection, on seniority subject to rejection of the unfit. Under paragraph 3.6 the entry is “Not Applicable” where the post is filled by direct recruitment, deputation, absorption or a composite method.

Columns 6 to 8: age and qualifications

Column 6 states the age limit as “Not exceeding … years” or “Between … and … years”. The broad criteria in paragraph 3.7.4.1 tie the upper age limit to the post’s pay:

Source: paragraph 3.7.4.1 of the guidelines dated 31 December 2010. The level column is the standard grade pay to level correspondence of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016, added by salary-calculator.in; the guidelines themselves speak only in grade pay.

Grade Pay Rs. 5,400 is the one entry that does not map to a single level, because it existed in both Pay Band-2 and Pay Band-3 and the two went to Level 9 and Level 10 respectively. These are the criteria for framing the rules. The age limit that binds a candidate is the one in Column 6 of the rules for the post. Under paragraph 3.7.4.2, the Central Civil Services and Civil Posts (Upper Age-limit for Direct Recruitment) Rules, 1998, G.S.R. 758(E) dated 21 December 1998, raised by two years the upper age limit for direct open competitive examinations that stood on the date those Rules commenced; a limit framed afterwards carries no automatic addition. The 1998 Rules do not apply to the Assam Rifles, Border Security Force, Central Industrial Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force and Indo-Tibetan Border Police.

Paragraph 3.7.2 allows the rules to relax the upper age limit for departmental candidates up to 40 years for direct recruitment to Group C posts, and by up to 5 years for government servants applying for Group A and Group B posts. Paragraph 3.7.3 fixes the crucial date for age as the date advertised by the UPSC or the Staff Selection Commission, and in other recruitment as the closing date for applications from candidates in India rather than the later date allowed for the North Eastern states, Ladakh, Lahaul and Spiti, Pangi, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep. Reservation-based age concessions come from the saving clause, described below, not from Column 6.

Column 7 sets essential and desirable qualifications for direct recruits. Paragraph 3.8.1 directs ministries to specify the qualifications exhaustively and avoid the phrase “or equivalent”, and to state experience in quantified terms tied to the duties. Paragraph 3.8.2 discourages prescribing a first or second class or division, because universities assess differently, and forbids raising the minimum merely because better-qualified candidates are available. Where typing is essential for a Group C post, paragraph 3.8.4 sets the test on computer at 35 words per minute in English or 30 in Hindi over ten minutes.

Column 8 answers whether the direct recruit’s age and qualifications also bind a promotee. Under paragraph 3.9 the age limit ordinarily does not, and qualifications are generally not insisted on for promotion to non-technical posts but should be for scientific and technical posts, at least senior Group A posts at Grade Pay Rs. 6,600 (Level 11) and above. A partial requirement is written as “Educational Qualifications: No, but must possess at least …”, for example a diploma where the direct recruit needs a degree in civil engineering.

Column 9: probation

Column 9 is where the probation period of a post comes from; there is no single central figure. Paragraph 3.10.2 gives the model periods for posts outside the organised services:

Source: paragraph 3.10.2 of the guidelines dated 31 December 2010, carrying forward DoPT OM No. 21011/2/80-Estt.(C) dated 19 May 1983. “Training” includes on-the-job and institutional training.

For organised services, paragraph 3.10.1 prescribes a standard clause of two years’ probation for direct recruits and promotees in the junior scale, extendable by the controlling authority, with any extension decided ordinarily within eight weeks of the expiry of the earlier period and communicated in writing with reasons. How probation is extended, ended and followed by confirmation is governed by the Department of Personnel and Training Master Circular No. 28020/3/2018-Estt.(C) dated 11 March 2019.

Columns 10 and 11: method of recruitment and feeder grades

Paragraph 3.11.1 lists six methods of recruitment: promotion, direct recruitment, deputation, absorption, re-employment and short-term contract. The split between them is to reflect the nature of the duties, the availability of qualified people in the cadre, the need for promotion incentives, and the need for direct intake of fresh knowledge. Paragraph 3.11.2 adds a structural test for promotion: where the higher post is filled by selection, the feeder grade should normally be three to five times the sanctioned strength of the higher grade, counted on sanctioned posts and not on vacancies at any one time. That test is why a cadre review that changes either grade’s strength changes promotion prospects.

The guidelines separate methods that are often confused:

• Absorption and deputation are not synonymous. Under paragraph 3.11.6, an absorbed officer is permanently placed in the post and may come only from the central or a state government, while an officer on “deputation (including short-term contract)” comes for a limited period and reverts to the parent cadre.
• Short-term contract is a form of deputation, used under paragraph 3.11.5 to draw officers from universities, recognised research institutions and public undertakings for teaching, research, scientific and technical posts.
• The composite method of “deputation (including short-term contract) / promotion” in paragraph 3.11.7 applies where promotion is by selection and the feeder grade has only one post. The departmental officer is considered with outsiders; if selected, the post counts as filled by promotion, and if not, the outsider holds it for the deputation period, after which the departmental officer is considered again.

Column 11 names the feeder grades and the qualifying service. Paragraph 3.12.1 requires the service to be written as “with ___ years’ service in the grade rendered after appointment thereto on a regular basis”, so that ad hoc service does not count. Where several feeder grades have different service requirements and no separate quotas, a note directs that the eligibility list be prepared by the date on which each officer completed the service in that officer’s own grade. The alternative, under paragraph 3.11.8, is a separate promotion percentage for each feeder grade in Column 10.

Where deputation is a method, paragraph 3.12.3 writes a tenure limit into Column 11. For posts at Grade Pay Rs. 8,700 and above (Level 13 and above) it is 5 years; for Grade Pay Rs. 6,600 up to below Rs. 8,700 (Levels 11 and 12) it is 4 years; for lower posts it is normally 3 years. The tenure counts any immediately preceding deputation in another ex-cadre post. Paragraphs 3.12.4.1 and 3.12.4.2 refine the bands by type of post: 3 years where deputation allowance is admissible and officers come from an identical or next lower grade, the fixed tenure of the post for Central Secretariat posts such as Under Secretary, Deputy Secretary and Director, and 5 years for isolated specialised posts in fields such as agriculture, irrigation, power and health planning. The current extension rules for deputation, including the ceiling where the rules prescribe none, are in the consolidated deputation Office Memorandum No. DOPT-1711629234974 dated 28 March 2024. Paragraph 3.12.4.3 fixes the eligibility date for deputation and absorption as the last date for nominations for an existing vacancy, or the date the vacancy is expected to arise for an anticipated one, and paragraph 5.4 requires every deputation vacancy circular to be published in the Employment News with at least two months for nominations, or six weeks with Joint Secretary approval in urgent cases.

Paragraph 3.12.4.5, from DoPT OM No. AB.14017/13/85-Estt.(RR) dated 1 May 1986, requires Group A and Group B posts filled only by deputation from more than one service to admit Armed Forces personnel due to retire, or to be transferred to the reserve, within one year. They are taken on deputation terms until release and may then continue on re-employment.

Columns 12 and 13: the committee and the Commission

Column 12 gives the composition of the departmental promotion committee for the post. Paragraph 3.13.1 fixes a minimum of three members including the Chairman in all cases, says the total need not be an odd number because the decision is joint, and allows an alternate member to sit only in the absence of the member named first. Where promotion to a Group A post is by selection, a Chairman or Member of the UPSC presides. Paragraph 3.13.2 requires members of Group A and Group B committees to be at least one step above the post, and for a Group C committee requires one member from a department not connected with the one making the promotion. Where the post is filled only by deputation or re-employment, the column reads “Not applicable”, because no committee selects.

Column 13 states when the UPSC is consulted. Paragraph 3.14 lists the standard cases: direct recruitment; re-employment; every absorption, because a permanent appointment is being made without open recruitment; every composite-method selection; deputation to a Group A post where the field includes state government officers, or central Group A and Group B officers together, or non-government candidates; and any relaxation or amendment of the rules. Promotion from one Group A post to another needs no consultation under the UPSC (Exemption from Consultation) Regulations, 1958, but the Commission presides over the committee instead. The consultation cases for deputation in clause (vii) are written for Group A posts. Which posts are outside consultation altogether is decided by the 1958 Regulations and the Central Civil Services and Civil Posts (Consultation with Union Public Service Commission) Rules, 1999, named in clause (ix).

Approval, delegation and time limits

Paragraph 2.1.1 of the 2010 guidelines requires every set of recruitment rules and every amendment to be approved by the Minister-in-charge unless the Minister has delegated the power by general or special order. The suggested delegation, which ministries may vary, is:

Under paragraph 2.1.2, carrying forward DoPT OMs No. CD.14017/10/85-Estt.(RR) dated 21 March 1985 and 5 June 1985, ministries frame, amend and relax Group C rules themselves. Two limits apply: any deviation from the central guidelines needs the Department’s concurrence, and the upper age limit and qualifications for direct recruitment are not to be relaxed without it.

For Group A and Group B posts the sequence and its time limits are:

1. The ministry sends draft rules in the Annexure I proforma, with supporting particulars in Annexure II, the rules of the feeder and higher posts, and the sanctioned strength of all three, to the Department of Personnel and Training within one month of the post’s creation (paragraph 2.1.3).
2. The Department ordinarily returns the draft with comments within a month (paragraph 2.4).
3. For posts within its purview, the ministry then refers the draft to the UPSC, stating whether the Department, and the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare where needed, has cleared it. The Commission ordinarily advises within four to five weeks, failing which the ministry may settle the matter by discussion with its officers (paragraph 2.5).
4. If the rules the Commission approves differ from the draft the Department cleared, the Department is informed (paragraph 5.1).
5. The rules are notified within 10 weeks of receipt of the Commission’s advice letter, a limit the guidelines direct be “strictly adhered to” (paragraph 5.2), and which DoPT Office Memorandum No. AB.14017/61/2008-Estt.(RR) dated 27 January 2016 reiterated.

Since 25 December 2016 steps 1 to 3 run on the RRFAMS portal and not in a physical file, as described under the section on finding the rules for a post.

Paragraph 2.2 requires model recruitment rules, framed for common categories of posts in consultation with the UPSC, to be followed where one exists. Paragraph 5.5 requires quarterly returns on the progress of framing rules to be sent to the Department and, for Group A and Group B posts, to the UPSC.

Clauses every notification carries

The 2010 guidelines prescribe standard clauses for the covering notification.

The saving clause in paragraph 3.1.6 provides that nothing in the rules affects reservations, relaxation of age limit and other concessions for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, ex-servicemen and other special categories under central government orders. That clause is what imports the whole of the reservation and age concession framework into rules that do not mention it.

The power to relax clause in paragraph 4.2 must appear in every set of rules, in the covering notification or, for an organised service, in the body. How it may be used is described below.

The initial constitution clause in paragraph 3.1.1 is used when a new service is formed from officers already holding the included posts on a regular basis, so that their regular service before the notification counts.

Two optional notes also shape eligibility. Under paragraph 3.1.2, from DoPT OM No. AB-14017/12/88-Estt.(RR) dated 25 March 1996, where juniors with the qualifying service are considered for promotion, seniors are considered with them if they are short of it by not more than half the qualifying service or two years, whichever is less, and have completed probation. Under paragraph 3.1.3, where an amendment raises the qualifying service, the rules may preserve the old figure for those holding feeder posts on a regular basis on the date the amendment is notified.

Amendment and the five-year review

Paragraph 3.1.5 of the 2010 guidelines requires recruitment rules to be reviewed once in five years, to bring them in line with changed circumstances including additions to or reductions in the strength of the lower and higher posts. The Department has had to repeat the instruction twice: Office Memorandum No. AB-14017/61/2008-Estt.(RR) dated 25 March 2014 reiterated it, and File No. AB-14017/14/2018-Estt.(RR) dated 8 May 2018 asked ministries to review immediately every set of recruitment rules and service rules not amended in the previous five years. A substantial change in the number of posts triggers a review of the method of recruitment on its own, under paragraph 3.3.

An amendment follows the same route as the original. Paragraph 4.1 requires the proposal to go to the Department of Personnel and Training and the UPSC in the Annexure III format, with reasons and a flagged copy of the rules being amended, and paragraph 3.14 lists any amendment among the cases requiring consultation with the Commission.

Recruitment rules are amended with prospective effect as the general rule. Paragraph 6 of the 20 September 2022 qualifying service Office Memorandum restates that the rules are statutory and that an amendment generally operates prospectively, which is why the protection clause in paragraph 3.1.3 exists.

The power to relax

Relaxation departs from a rule for particular cases without amending it. Part IV of the 2010 guidelines confines it tightly:

• Relaxation is for a class or category of persons, not an individual, unless the individual can be treated as a class or category (paragraph 4.3).
• It is to be used on rare occasions and must not become a regular feature (paragraph 4.4).
• The other methods of recruitment in the rules must be explored first, and for deputation the vacancy must have been circulated in the Employment News before relaxation is considered (paragraph 4.5).
• Proposals go to the Department of Personnel and Training in the Annexure IV format after approval by an officer of at least Joint Secretary level (paragraph 4.6).
• The UPSC is consulted on any relaxation of a post within its purview (paragraph 3.14, clause (viii)).

Ministries relax Group C rules themselves under paragraph 2.1.2, except the direct recruitment age limit and qualifications, which need the Department’s prior concurrence. Column 7 carries its own narrower relaxation notes under paragraph 3.8.3: qualifications are relaxable at the discretion of the UPSC, the Staff Selection Commission or the competent authority for candidates otherwise well qualified, and experience is relaxable for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates where enough experienced candidates from those communities are not likely to be available for the reserved vacancies.

Qualifying service norms: 2010 grade pay and 2022 pay levels

The 2010 guidelines set the central qualifying service norms in grade pay terms, carrying forward DoPT OM No. AB.14017/61/2008-Estt.(RR) dated 24 March 2009 and its update of 12 March 2010. Office Memorandum No. AB-14017/4/2021-Estt.(RR) dated 20 September 2022 restated them for the pay matrix in a 33-row Annexure I. Read side by side, 25 of the 33 rows in 2022 repeat a 2010 figure, the four rows reaching Level 11 from the Group B levels are two years longer, and four rows into Level 10 are new because the 2022 table splits Level 9 from Level 10:

Sources: paragraph 3.12.2 of the guidelines dated 31 December 2010; Annexure I to DoPT OM No. AB-14017/4/2021-Estt.(RR) dated 20 September 2022, rows 11, 12, 15, 16 and 18 to 22. Comparison by salary-calculator.in.

The difference comes from Grade Pay Rs. 5,400. The 2010 table had one row from Rs. 5,400 to Rs. 6,600 at 5 years without saying which pay band the Rs. 5,400 was in. The 2022 table separates Level 9 from Level 10, keeps 5 years for Level 10 to Level 11, sets 7 years for Level 9 to Level 11, adds rows into Level 10 from Levels 6 to 9, and lengthens the jumps into Level 11 from Levels 6, 7 and 8 by two years each. Every other row, from Level 1 to Level 2 at 3 years through Level 16 to Level 17 at 1 year, carries the 2010 figure unchanged. The full 2022 table is reproduced in the article on promotion.

Neither table binds a post on its own. Paragraph 5 of the 2022 Office Memorandum requires the norms to be written into each post’s rules by amendment, paragraph 6 allows the paragraph 3.1.3 protection clause for existing feeder-grade incumbents, and paragraph 7 asked ministries to send amendment proposals for Group A and Group B posts within six months. A post whose rules still carry the older figure is governed by the older figure until amended.

Posts without recruitment rules

A post likely to last a year or more without notified rules cannot be filled on a regular basis through the ordinary route. Clause (vi) of paragraph 3.14, drawn from DoPT OM No. AB-14017/79/2006-Estt.(RR) dated 6 September 2007 and OM No. 39021/5/83-Estt.(B) dated 9 July 1985, allows a ministry with overriding compulsions to refer a Group A or Group B post to the UPSC for determination of the method of recruitment as a one-time measure for a regular appointment. Without that reference, the practical options are deputation and ad hoc appointment. Ad hoc service is excluded from the regular service in the grade that Column 11 counts for promotion under paragraph 3.12.1.

Case law on recruitment rules

Which version of the rules governs a vacancy. For almost four decades a vacancy that arose before an amendment was taken to be governed by the unamended rules, on the authority of Y.V. Rangaiah v. J. Sreenivasa Rao, (1983) 3 SCC 284. The Supreme Court overruled that proposition in State of Himachal Pradesh v. Raj Kumar, Civil Appeal No. 9746 of 2011, decided on 20 May 2022. Paragraph 37.3 of the judgment holds that the statement in Rangaiah that “the vacancies which occurred prior to the amended rules would be governed by the old rules and not by the amended rules” does not reflect the correct law for services under Part XIV of the Constitution, and that the rights and obligations of persons serving the Union and the States “are to be sourced from the rules governing the services”. The Court recorded that later benches, among them Deepak Agarwal v. State of Uttar Pradesh, (2011) 6 SCC 725, had departed from or distinguished Rangaiah without overruling it, so that it continued to be cited as a precedent in the absence of an express declaration. Since 20 May 2022 the date a vacancy arose does not by itself carry the old rules with it; the rules that govern are those in force when the case is considered, subject to whatever the amending notification itself saves.

Executive instructions and the rules. A Constitution Bench held in Sant Ram Sharma v. State of Rajasthan, 1968 (1) SCR 111, decided on 7 August 1967, that the government cannot amend or supersede statutory rules by administrative instructions, but where the rules are silent on a point it can fill the gap by instructions not inconsistent with them. That is the legal footing of the whole body of Department of Personnel and Training Office Memoranda on promotion, seniority and departmental promotion committees: they operate in the space the recruitment rules leave open and yield wherever a post’s rules speak.

Where to find the rules for a post

Recruitment rules are published as a Gazette of India notification, with the Schedule attached, by the ministry or department that administers the post. Every amendment is a separate notification, so the operative text is the original read with all later amendments, and an office copy that has not been updated is the most common source of disputes over eligibility. The notification number and date are also cited in every UPSC and Staff Selection Commission examination notice for posts filled under the rules.

Since 25 December 2016 the proposals themselves have moved online. DoPT Office Memorandum No. AB-14017/19/2016-Estt.(RR) dated 22 December 2016 introduced the Recruitment Rules Framing, Amendment and Monitoring System (RRFAMS), a portal through which ministries submit draft rules, amendments and relaxation proposals, and directed that proposals submitted from that date not be sent to the Department in a physical file. The portal is a processing system for proposals and not a public register of notified rules.

The later instructions on framing are scattered across separate Office Memoranda. The Department compiled them against the 2010 text in Office Memorandum No. DOPT-1668752814415 dated 18 November 2022, which annexes the 31 December 2010 guidelines and lists each later instruction against the schedule column it affects, without replacing the 2010 text.

Common misreadings of recruitment rules

“The Department of Personnel and Training norm applies to every post.” It applies only after the post’s own rules are amended to carry it. The 2022 qualifying service table, the 2010 age criteria and the model probation periods are all framing guidance.

“The probation period is two years everywhere.” It is whatever Column 9 says, and the model periods in paragraph 3.10.2 range from none, on promotion within a Group, to two years, for general direct recruitment and promotion from one Group to another.

“Column 12 is the feeder grade.” It is in a schedule notified in the older 14-column format, which carried an added-years column until the 2010 guidelines deleted it. In the current 13-column format Column 12 is the departmental promotion committee.

“Ad hoc service in the feeder grade counts towards eligibility.” Paragraph 3.12.1 requires the qualifying service to be regular service in the grade after regular appointment, and ad hoc service is excluded.

“Recruitment rules are laid before Parliament like other rules.” Paragraph 5.3 of the 2010 guidelines states they need not be, because Article 309 does not require it.

Related Articles

• Article 309 of the Constitution
• Article 311 of the Constitution
• Article 320 of the Constitution
• Union Public Service Commission
• Staff Selection Commission
• Department of Personnel and Training
• Promotion in central government service
• Departmental Promotion Committee
• Sealed cover procedure
• Direct recruitment
• Deputation in central government
• Deputation allowance
• Absorption
• Ad hoc appointment
• Re-employment after retirement
• Probation in central government service
• Confirmation in service
• Seniority in central government service
• Lien
• Technical resignation
• Reservation in central government jobs
• Reservation roster in promotion
• Cadre review
• Central Secretariat Service
• Organised Group A Services
• Central Staffing Scheme
• Non-functional upgradation
• Modified Assured Career Progression
• Pay fixation on promotion
• Pay matrix
• Grade pay
• Pay band
• Gazetted and non-gazetted posts
• CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965
• Central government employees
• Central government jobs
• Central Administrative Tribunal
• All India Services
• Junior Engineer salary
• 6th Central Pay Commission
• 7th Central Pay Commission

External references

• Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. AB.14017/48/2010-Estt.(RR) dated 31 December 2010, guidelines on framing, amendment and relaxation of recruitment rules: documents.doptcirculars.nic.in
• Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. AB-14017/4/2021-Estt.(RR) dated 20 September 2022, minimum qualifying service for promotion: documents.doptcirculars.nic.in
• Department of Personnel and Training: dopt.gov.in
• Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum dated 9 August 2016 on the pay matrix level in recruitment rules: documents.doptcirculars.nic.in
• Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum dated 22 December 2016 introducing the RRFAMS portal: documents.doptcirculars.nic.in
• Union Public Service Commission: upsc.gov.in
• The Gazette of India: egazette.gov.in

References

1. Constitution of India, Article 309 and its proviso; Article 320(3).
2. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. AB.14017/48/2010-Estt.(RR) dated 31 December 2010, “Revision of guidelines for framing / amendment / relaxation of Recruitment Rules”, with the enclosed guidelines, Parts I to V and Annexure I.
3. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. AB.14017/12/87-Estt.(RR) dated 18 March 1988, consolidated instructions on framing and amendment of recruitment rules (superseded by reference 2).
4. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. AB-14017/4/2021-Estt.(RR) dated 20 September 2022, minimum qualifying service for promotion, paragraphs 3 and 5 to 7 and Annexure I.
5. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. AB.14017/61/2008-Estt.(RR) dated 24 March 2009, qualifying service norms in grade pay terms.
6. Department of Personnel and Training notification S.O. 3964(E) dated 9 August 2018, classification of central civil posts by pay level.
7. Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare, Office Memorandum No. 7/7/2008-P&PW(F) dated 13 February 2009, withdrawal of added years of qualifying service.
8. Central Civil Services and Civil Posts (Upper Age-limit for Direct Recruitment) Rules, 1998, G.S.R. 758(E) dated 21 December 1998.
9. Union Public Service Commission (Exemption from Consultation) Regulations, 1958.
10. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. AB.14017/13/2016-Estt.(RR) dated 9 August 2016, substitution of the level in the pay matrix in Columns 4 and 11.
11. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. AB-14017/19/2016-Estt.(RR) dated 22 December 2016, introduction of the RRFAMS portal from 25 December 2016.
12. Department of Personnel and Training, File No. AB-14017/14/2018-Estt.(RR) dated 8 May 2018, review of recruitment rules and service rules.
13. State of Himachal Pradesh v. Raj Kumar, Civil Appeal No. 9746 of 2011, Supreme Court of India, judgment dated 20 May 2022, paragraph 37, overruling Y.V. Rangaiah v. J. Sreenivasa Rao, (1983) 3 SCC 284.
14. Sant Ram Sharma v. State of Rajasthan, 1968 (1) SCR 111, Supreme Court of India (Constitution Bench), decided 7 August 1967.