Special Casual Leave for Central Government Employees

Special casual leave is a concession granted to a central government employee for a purpose named in a Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) instruction; paragraph 3.1 of the DoPT Brochure on Grant of Casual Leave and Special Casual Leave states that it “is not a recognized form of leave” and that the employee on it “is not treated as absent from duty”, so the days are paid in full and debited to no leave account.

The purposes and the limits come from Office Memoranda issued between 1949 and 2023, not from the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972. The current headline figures are 5 working days for vasectomy and 10 working days for tubectomy under DoPT OM No. 28016/02/2007-Estt(A) dated 4 January 2008, up to 4 days of blood or apheresis donation a year under OM No. 13020/1/2017-Estt(L) dated 28 December 2017, and up to 42 days for a living organ donor under OM No. A-24011/23/2022-Estt.(Leave) dated 25 April 2023. The 2023 organ donation OM describes Appendix III of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 as limiting special casual leave to 30 days in any one calendar year, and grants organ donors their 42 days notwithstanding that limit.

Special casual leave is separate from ordinary casual leave, the 8 days a year an employee takes for any reason. It does not reduce that quota. Two common readings are now wrong: the sterilisation periods of 6 and 14 days were cut in 2008, and participation in a sporting event of national or international importance has been treated as duty, not special casual leave, since 16 July 1985.

Status and the general 30-day ceiling

Special casual leave is an executive concession, not a kind of leave under the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972. Paragraph 3.1 of the DoPT Brochure on Grant of Casual Leave and Special Casual Leave, citing MHA OM No. 46/1/58-Estt.(A) dated 17 December 1958, states that it is not a recognised form of leave and that an employee on it is not treated as absent from duty. Earned leave and half pay leave are credited to an account and debited when taken; special casual leave is never credited and never debited.

The brochure consolidates the instructions “with which the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions are now concerned” into twelve chapters, each paragraph naming its source OM. It carries no date of its own, and its latest cited order is from 1987, so its family welfare chapter prints the superseded figures. Later OMs on blood donation (2017), organ donation (2023) and COVID-19 (2021) stand outside it.

The 2023 organ donation OM is the source for a general cap of 30 days in a calendar year. DoPT OM No. A-24011/23/2022-Estt.(Leave) dated 25 April 2023 grants organ donors 42 days “notwithstanding the provision under Appendix-III of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 regarding grant of Special Casual Leave not exceeding 30 days in any one calendar year”. The organ donation grant is the one head the OMs on this page expressly place above that ceiling.

Limits by purpose

The table below is a salary-calculator.in consolidation of the current limit for each head of special casual leave, built from the DoPT brochure and the later OMs it does not carry. Where an OM has replaced a brochure figure, the OM figure is shown.

Family welfare and sterilisation

DoPT Office Memorandum No. 28016/02/2007-Estt(A) dated 4 January 2008 sets the current periods: 5 working days for vasectomy and 10 working days for tubectomy, salpingectomy after a medical termination of pregnancy, and a repeat of either after a certified failure. Paragraph 4 of that OM provides that the orders “will take effect from the date of their issue”, so an operation on or after 4 January 2008 draws the new periods. The OM was titled “Modification in the period of Special Casual Leave to Central Government Servants for the various Family Welfare Schemes”.

The pre-2008 column is the scheme of OM No. 28016/3/78-Estt(A) dated 6 August 1979 as printed at paragraphs 4.1 to 4.3 of the brochure. Moving the tubectomy grant from 14 calendar days to 10 working days changed its reach as well as its length: under the brochure’s counting rule Sundays inside the old 14-day spell counted against it, while the new grant excludes them.

The salpingectomy grant carries a bar. The 2008 OM makes it inadmissible where, after a salpingectomy with a medical termination of pregnancy, the employee avails six weeks of maternity leave under Rule 43 of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972; the maternity leave and the special casual leave do not run together.

Paragraph 3 of the 2008 OM left three heads unchanged. Complications needing hospitalisation draw additional special casual leave for the hospital stay, on a certificate from the hospital or the authorised medical attendant (brochure 4.2). The head for a female employee whose husband undergoes vasectomy is also unchanged. And recanalisation keeps its own scheme, set out below.

A repeat operation needs “a medical certificate from the prescribed medical authority to the effect that the second operation was performed due to failure of the first operation” (brochure 4.1). Insertion or reinsertion of an intra-uterine contraceptive device draws special casual leave for the day of insertion, under OMs No. 28016/3/78-Estt(A) of 6 August 1979, 28016/1/80-Estt.(A) of 30 April 1980 and 28016/5/83-Estt.(A) of 25 January 1984; the 2008 OM does not touch it.

The leave survived the cash incentive. The Family Planning Allowance was abolished from 1 July 2017 by Department of Expenditure OM No. 12(4)/2016-E.III(A) dated 7 July 2017, which dealt with the allowance alone; the 4 January 2008 OM remains the operative order on the leave.

Recanalisation

Recanalisation, the surgical reversal of a sterilisation, draws special casual leave “upto a period of 21 days or the actual period of hospitalization as certified by the authorized medical attendant whichever is less”, plus the actual journey time (brochure 4.4). The operation must be done in a hospital, medical college or institute with facilities for recanalisation, and a private hospital must be one nominated by the State or Central Government (brochure 4.4). The employee must be unmarried, have fewer than two children, or desire recanalisation for substantial reasons, the brochure’s example being the loss of all male or all female children after the earlier sterilisation (brochure 4.5). Paragraph 4.6 allows the grant to be combined with regular leave or casual leave, but not with both.

Blood and apheresis donation

Special casual leave for blood donation is limited to the day of donation and to 4 donations a year. DoPT Office Memorandum No. 13020/1/2017-Estt(L) dated 28 December 2017 allows special casual leave for blood donation or for apheresis donation of blood components such as red cells, plasma and platelets, at a licensed blood bank on a working day and for that day only, “up to a maximum of 4 times in a year on submission of valid proof of donation”.

The cap of four applies to whole-blood and apheresis donations counted together. Read as one limit, an employee who gives whole blood twice and platelets twice in a year has used the full allowance.

The 2017 OM widened MHA OM No. 46/11/56-Estt(A) dated 8 October 1956, which it describes as providing special casual leave to a government servant who donates blood on that day. As the 2017 OM records, the 1956 rule covered whole-blood donation only and did not reach apheresis.

Organ donation

A central government employee who donates an organ while living is granted up to 42 days of special casual leave under DoPT Office Memorandum No. A-24011/23/2022-Estt.(Leave) dated 25 April 2023, effective from the date of issue. The OM grants it “notwithstanding” the 30-day annual ceiling it attributes to Appendix III of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972.

The OM attaches these conditions:

• The 42 days apply whatever the type of surgery for removal of the donor’s organ, on the recommendation of a government registered medical practitioner.
• The donor must have been approved for donation under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994.
• The leave is not combined with any other leave, except in exceptional circumstances of surgical complications.
• It is normally taken in one spell from the date of admission, or from up to one week before the surgery on medical advice, and may be split on medical advice.
• The surgery is, as far as possible, in a government hospital or a hospital empanelled under the Central Government Health Scheme; where no such hospital is available in the area, a certificate from the Head of Department of the private hospital is required.

Sport, adventure and cultural events

Special casual leave for sport is capped at 30 days in a calendar year for camps, trials and expeditions, and actual participation in a national or international event is duty. Para 3(i) of DoPT Office Memorandum No. 6/1/85-Estt.(Pay-I) dated 16 July 1985 treats the days of participation in sporting events of national or international importance, the travel to and from them, and any pre-participation coaching camp the employee is required to attend, as duty, and states that the earlier special casual leave provisions for that purpose “may be treated as cancelled”. Travelling allowance for duty-treated participation is governed by DoPT OM F. No. 6/1/2019-Estt.(Pay-I) dated 8 May 2020.

The 30-day grant covers these purposes, under para 1 of the 1985 OM and later orders as listed in the DoPT information document “Incentives for participating in sports events” (Estt.(Pay-I), updated 15 September 2022):

• coaching or training camps under the Rajkumari Amrit Kaur Coaching Scheme or similar all-India schemes, and camps at the National Institute of Sports, Patiala;
• pre-selection trials and camps;
• coaching camps organised by National Sports Federations or Sports Boards recognised by the Department of Youth Affairs and Sports (para 3(i), OM of 7 November 1988);
• mountaineering and trekking expeditions, with trekking expeditions of the Youth Hostels Association of India brought in by OM No. 28016/3/89-Estt(A) of October 1989;
• adventure sports programmes of the Central Civil Services Cultural and Sports Board (OM No. 6/3/2015-Estt.(Pay-I) dated 29 February 2016);
• coaching or administration of teams in events of national or international importance, and commentary on such events (brochure 5.3 and 5.4, OM No. 28016/2/79-Estt(A) of 28 November 1979).

The 30 days is one ceiling for all of these together (brochure 5.9, citing OM No. 28016/2/84-Estt(A) of 11 April 1985). Under OM No. 28016/3/89-Estt(A) of October 1989, days beyond it are regular leave of the kind admissible. An employee who spends 20 days at a federation camp and 15 days on an expedition in 2026 draws 30 days as special casual leave and 5 days from the leave account.

Inter-ministerial and inter-departmental tournaments carry a separate grant of up to 10 days in a calendar year (para 2 of the 1985 OM). Brochure 5.7 confines it to tournaments “sponsored by Central Secretariat staff welfare and Amenities committee and other recognized sports/recreation clubs”.

Cultural events follow a different track. Brochure 5.8, citing MHA OM No. 27/3/68-Estt(B) of 28 June 1969, allowed 30 days for All India or inter-state cultural events of the Central Secretariat Sports Control Board. Para 27 of the 2022 information document, citing OM No. 6/2/2019-Estt.(Pay-I) dated 11 February 2020, now treats participation in All India Civil Services music, dance and drama competitions held by or under the Central Civil Services Cultural and Sports Board as on duty.

Employees with disabilities

An employee with a disability is entitled to two separate special casual leave grants: 4 days a year for needs arising from the disability and up to 10 days a year for disability-related events. DoPT Office Memorandum No. 25011/1/2008-Estt.(A) dated 19 November 2008, issued on the recommendation of the 6th Central Pay Commission and effective from 1 September 2008, grants 4 days of special casual leave in a calendar year for specific requirements relating to the disability of the official. With the 8 days of ordinary casual leave, that gives the employee 12 days of short absence a year without touching the leave account.

DoPT Office Memorandum No. 28016/02/2007-Estt(A) dated 14 November 2007 adds up to 10 days in a calendar year for conferences, seminars, training and workshops on disability and development. An amending OM of 20 March 2008, under the same file number, names the eligible organisers: central and state or union territory governments and their institutions, international agencies such as the United Nations and the World Bank, universities and educational institutions set up by central or state governments and recognised as centres for education on rehabilitation, and institutes recognised under Chapters X and XI of the Persons with Disabilities Act 1995. Absence beyond 10 days is “regular leave of the kind due and admissible”, and Heads of Departments sanction the grant.

Both OMs define disability by the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, which the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 has since repealed and replaced. The 4-day grant also appears in the table of disability provisions on the special allowance for child care for women with disabilities page.

Bandh, curfew and transport failure

Special casual leave for days lost to a bandh is granted by the Head of the Department, and only where the absence was entirely beyond the employee’s control. Chapter XI of the DoPT brochure, citing DP&T OM No. 27/6/71-Estt(B) dated 1 November 1971, OM No. 28016/1/79-Estt(A) dated 28 May 1979 and OM No. 3011/(S)/87-Estt(B) dated 16 February 1987, allows the grant “if the competent authority is satisfied that the absence of the individual concerned was entirely due to reasons beyond his control”, giving “failure to transport, or disturbances or picketing or imposition of curfew etc.” as examples. The test is the cause of the absence, not the label on it.

The distance condition applies to transport failure only. Where public transport failed, the employee must have had to come from a distance of more than 3 miles (5 km) to the place of duty. Where the cause was picketing, a disturbance or a curfew, the brochure allows the grant without that condition.

The chapter opens with a reservation: the government may issue specific instructions on the treatment of absence during a particular bandh, and those instructions govern that bandh. Absence during a strike that the employee joins is a different matter, dealt with under FR 17-A and covered on the dies non page.

Service associations and the Joint Consultative Machinery

Recognised staff representation work draws special casual leave on a three-tier scale under MHA OM No. 27/3/69-Estt(B) dated 8 April 1969 and Department of Personnel OM No. 8/13/72-JCA dated 4 September 1972, consolidated in Chapter VII of the DoPT brochure:

An office bearer cannot draw a second grant as a delegate. Where an association’s year is not the calendar year, its own year governs. Recognition itself is under the CCS (Recognition of Service Associations) Rules, 1993.

The Joint Consultative Machinery has its own grant under MHA OM No. 8/6/70-JCA dated 30 October 1970. At the request of the Leader of the Staff Side, the Head of the Department or Office may grant a staff side member up to 5 days a year to attend staff side consultations. A further special leave of up to 10 days a year for preparing staff side cases is confined to the Leader of the Staff Side and one designated Secretary, at Departmental Council level and above; ordinary staff side members do not get it.

Civic, voluntary and other heads

Special casual leave for civic and voluntary service, examinations and staff bodies comes from older and narrower heads, most dating from Ministry of Home Affairs orders of the 1950s and 1960s that the brochure still carries:

The departmental examination grant does not reach open examinations held by the Union Public Service Commission or the Staff Selection Commission. For the Territorial Army and the Auxiliary Air Force, absence for recruitment interviews is casual leave first, and special casual leave only to the extent casual leave is not due (brochure 10.1 and 10.2). For the Indian Naval Reserve and the Indian Naval Volunteer Reserve, special casual leave covers an interview or medical examination after which the employee cannot attend duty, and is lost if the employee withdraws candidature at the interview (brochure 10.3, MHA OMs of 4 December 1962 and 20 June 1963). The bye-election grant sits alongside the closure of offices on polling day at a general election, covered on the restricted and gazetted holidays page.

COVID-19 special casual leave

DoPT Office Memorandum No. 13020/1/2019-Estt.(L) dated 7 June 2021 gave special casual leave for COVID-19 in relaxation of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972, effective from 25 March 2020 until further orders. An employee who tested positive was first granted up to 20 days of commuted leave without a medical certificate. If commuted leave was not available, the OM granted 15 days of special casual leave followed by 5 days of earned leave or half pay leave, with extraordinary leave as the fallback, counted as qualifying service.

An employee whose dependent family member, or parents living with the employee whether dependent or not, tested positive was granted 15 days of special casual leave. An employee placed in quarantine as a contact was treated as on duty or working from home for 7 days. The 1972 Rules carry no quarantine leave for central civil servants, and the 2021 OM did not create one.

Combination and day-counting rules

Special casual leave can be joined to regular leave or to casual leave, but not to both at once. Paragraph 3.3 of the DoPT brochure states: “Special casual leave can be combined with regular leave or casual leave, but not with both.” The same bar appears from the casual leave side in MHA OM No. 46/8/67-Estt.(A) dated 22 July 1967. An employee on 10 working days of tubectomy leave can add earned leave after it, or casual leave, but cannot sandwich the special casual leave between casual leave on one side and earned leave on the other. The organ donation grant is stricter: under the 25 April 2023 OM it is not combined with any other leave except for surgical complications.

Paragraph 3.4 of the brochure, citing DP&AR OMs of 18 May 1978 and 30 April 1981, sets the counting rule: where the maximum “is in terms of days as distinct from working days”, Sundays and closed holidays falling inside a spell of special casual leave are not ignored. Where the limit is in working days, they are excluded.

Since the 2008 revision both sterilisation grants are in working days, so a vasectomy on a Thursday, counted as day one of the 5 working days, runs to the following Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday excluded, in an office on a five-day week. Limits still in plain days include the 30-day sports ceiling, the 21-day recanalisation grant, the 15-day ex-servicemen grant and the 42-day organ donation grant; a Sunday inside any of those spells is counted.

Pay, leave account and service record

An employee on special casual leave draws full pay and allowances, which follows from paragraph 3.1 of the DoPT brochure: the employee is not treated as absent from duty. No leave salary calculation applies, since no leave is taken.

The days are not debited to the earned leave or half pay leave account. Earned leave runs in calendar days, so a 10-working-day tubectomy starting on a Monday and ending on the Friday of the following week, which special casual leave covers, would have cost 12 days of earned leave; the employee keeps those 12 days for later use or for leave encashment at retirement, subject to the 300-day ceiling. The Leave Travel Concession can be availed during special casual leave, under paragraph 3.5 of the brochure.

Railways and All India Services

Railway servants are outside the DoPT brochure and take special casual leave under Railway Board instructions. The Railway Board master circular on special casual leave, hosted by the Indian Railways Institute of Financial Management, covers family welfare, sport, trade unions, cooperative societies and other occasions. Its latest cited letter dates from 1990, and it still prints six working days for vasectomy and seven days for the husband of a woman undergoing tubectomy.

Members of the All India Services take leave under the All India Services (Leave) Rules, 1955, not under the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 to which the DoPT brochure is a supplement.

Common errors

• Quoting 6 days for vasectomy and 14 days for tubectomy. Those are the 1979 figures. Since 4 January 2008 the grants are 5 and 10 working days under DoPT OM No. 28016/02/2007-Estt(A).
• Quoting 7 days for the husband of a woman undergoing tubectomy. The 2008 OM cut it to 3 working days.
• Treating national or international sports participation as special casual leave. Para 3(i) of the 16 July 1985 OM made it duty, with travel and required pre-event camps.
• Capping organ donation at 30 days. The 25 April 2023 OM grants up to 42 days, notwithstanding the 30-day Appendix III ceiling.
• Giving every JCM staff side member 10 days for case preparation. That grant is for the Leader of the Staff Side and one designated Secretary only.

Related Articles

• Casual leave
• CCS (Leave) Rules 1972
• Earned leave
• Half pay leave
• Commuted leave
• Extraordinary leave
• Leave not due
• Hospital leave
• Special disability leave
• Quarantine leave
• Maternity leave for central government employees
• Paternity leave
• Child adoption leave
• Child care leave
• Family Planning Allowance
• Special allowance for child care for women with disabilities
• Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016
• Joint Consultative Machinery
• CCS (Recognition of Service Associations) Rules, 1993
• Dies non
• Restricted and gazetted holidays
• Central government holidays
• Leave encashment
• Leave Travel Concession
• Central Government Health Scheme
• Department of Personnel and Training
• Central government employees in India
• 6th Central Pay Commission
• 7th Central Pay Commission
• All India Services
• All India Services (Leave) Rules, 1955
• Joining time

External references

• DoPT Office Memorandum No. 28016/02/2007-Estt(A) dated 4 January 2008, revised family welfare special casual leave
• DoPT Office Memorandum No. 13020/1/2017-Estt(L) dated 28 December 2017, blood and apheresis donation
• DoPT Office Memorandum dated 25 April 2023, special casual leave for organ donors
• DoPT Office Memorandum No. 6/1/85-Estt.(Pay-I) dated 16 July 1985, sportspersons
• DoPT information document, incentives for participating in sports events
• DoPT Office Memorandum No. 28016/02/2007-Estt(A) dated 14 November 2007, disability-related events
• DoPT Office Memorandum dated 7 June 2021, special casual leave for COVID-19

References

1. Department of Personnel and Training, Brochure on Grant of Casual Leave and Special Casual Leave, Chapters III to XII, each paragraph citing its source Office Memorandum.
2. DoPT Office Memorandum No. 28016/02/2007-Estt(A) dated 4 January 2008, modification in the period of special casual leave for family welfare schemes, superseding the periods in OM No. 28016/3/78-Estt(A) dated 6 August 1979.
3. DoPT Office Memorandum No. 13020/1/2017-Estt(L) dated 28 December 2017, special casual leave for blood and apheresis donation, extending MHA OM No. 46/11/56-Estt(A) dated 8 October 1956.
4. DoPT Office Memorandum No. A-24011/23/2022-Estt.(Leave) dated 25 April 2023, special casual leave of up to 42 days for organ donors, notwithstanding Appendix III of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972.
5. DoPT Office Memorandum No. 6/1/85-Estt.(Pay-I) dated 16 July 1985, special casual leave and duty treatment for sportspersons, with the DoPT information document “Incentives for participating in sports events” updated 15 September 2022.
6. DoPT Office Memorandum No. 25011/1/2008-Estt.(A) dated 19 November 2008, 4 days of special casual leave a year for employees with disabilities.
7. DoPT Office Memorandum No. 28016/02/2007-Estt(A) dated 14 November 2007, as amended on 20 March 2008, up to 10 days for disability-related conferences, seminars, training and workshops.
8. DoPT Office Memorandum No. 13020/1/2019-Estt.(L) dated 7 June 2021, treatment of absence for COVID-19, effective 25 March 2020.
9. MHA Office Memoranda No. 27/3/69-Estt(B) dated 8 April 1969 and No. 8/6/70-JCA dated 30 October 1970, special casual leave for service association and Joint Consultative Machinery work.