Study Leave for Central Government Employees

Study leave is a kind of leave under Chapter VI (Rules 50 to 63) of the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules 1972, granted to a central government employee for higher study or specialised training certified to be in the public interest, ordinarily 12 months at a time and 24 months in a career, at full pay with dearness and house rent allowance, without debit to the leave account, against a bond to serve three years on return.

The head has changed shape since 2018. DoPT Notification No. 13023/1/2017-Estt.(L) dated 1 January 2018 omitted Rules 57 to 59 and removed the study allowance from the remaining rules, implementing the 7th Central Pay Commission’s recommendation that the allowance be abolished. Study leave abroad now pays the same leave salary, dearness allowance and house rent allowance as study leave in India, and nothing on top.

Two conditions decide most cases. The employee needs five years’ regular continuous service with probation completed, and must not reach superannuation within three years of the expected return. Rule 63 then sets the price: an employee who quits within three years of return, or fails the course, refunds the leave salary, fees and expenses with interest from the date of demand.

The wider code is in the CCS (Leave) Rules article. Members of the All India Services and railway servants are outside these rules and have their own instruments, set out under applicability below.

Purposes for which study leave is granted

Rule 50(1) of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 grants study leave, in or out of India, for “a special course of study consisting of higher studies or specialized training in a professional or a technical subject having a direct and close connection with the sphere of his duty”. That is the core case, and the competent authority grants it “with due regard to the exigencies of public service”, so it is never a right.

Rule 50(2) adds three further purposes:

Clause (iii) is the widest of the three, since it does not require the study to be connected with the employee’s work, and the Department of Expenditure consultation is mandatory under the Note. Rule 50(6) adds a limit on frequency: study leave is not to be granted so often that it removes the employee from contact with regular work or causes cadre difficulties.

Conditions on the course: public interest, subject and foreign exchange

Rule 50(3) sets three conditions that every grant must meet, whatever the purpose. The authority competent to grant leave certifies that the course will be of definite advantage from the point of view of public interest (clause (i)); the study is in subjects other than academic or literary subjects (clause (ii)); and, for study outside India, the Department of Economic Affairs agrees to release the foreign exchange (clause (iii)).

The academic-or-literary bar in Rule 50(3)(ii) carries three provisos, each with its own certifying authority:

• Indian Economic Service and Indian Statistical Service officers may take a PhD on a research thesis. The Chief Economic Adviser approves the subject and institution for an Indian Economic Service officer, and the Director, Central Statistical Organisation for an Indian Statistical Service officer; the authority certifies that the study will increase the officer’s efficiency, and for a foreign university, that facilities for the subject are not available in India.
• A Medical Officer may take a postgraduate course in medical sciences on a certificate from the Director-General of Health Services that it will increase the officer’s efficiency.
• A specialist or technical person may take a postgraduate course directly related to the sphere of duty, on merits, where the Head of the Department or the Secretary certifies that it will keep the employee abreast of modern developments and substantially benefit the department. This proviso dates from DoE Notification No. 16(8)-E.IV(A)/74 dated 26 May 1975.

The foreign exchange proviso, inserted by DoE Notification No. 4(9)-E.IV(A)/76 dated 14 March 1977, requires the Department of Economic Affairs to check that the employee meets the minimum educational criteria it applies to persons going abroad for higher studies at their own expense. Rule 50(4) closes the remaining door: study leave out of India is not granted for subjects in which adequate facilities exist in India, or under any scheme administered by the Department of Economic Affairs or the Ministry of Education.

Eligibility: five years’ service and the retirement bar

Rule 50(5) of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 sets three personal conditions, all of which must be met:

1. The employee has satisfactorily completed the period of probation and rendered not less than five years’ regular continuous service, including probation (clause (i)).
2. The employee is not due to reach the age of superannuation within three years from the date on which the employee is expected to return to duty after the leave, or five years for a Central Health Service officer granted 36 months under Rule 51(2) (clause (ii)).
3. The employee executes a bond under Rule 53(4) to serve the government for three years after the leave, or five years for that Central Health Service officer (clause (iii)).

The three-year and five-year figures in clauses (ii) and (iii) were set by DoPT Notification No. 13023/20/84-Estt.(L) dated 11 December 1986 and amended for Central Health Service officers by Notification No. 13026/5/2010-Estt.(L) dated 5 August 2011. The retirement bar is measured from the expected date of return, not from the date of application. An employee whose date of superannuation is 31 March 2030 and whose course would end with a return to duty on 1 June 2027 has two years and ten months left, and is barred.

Rule 2 of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 also removes whole classes from Chapter VI: railway servants (clause (a)), casual, daily-rated and part-time staff (clause (b)), workmen in industrial establishments (clause (d)), work-charged staff (clause (e)) and members of the All India Services (clause (f)).

Maximum period: 12, 24 and 36 months

Rule 51(1) of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972, in the form substituted by DoPT Notification No. 13023/3/98-Estt.(L) Vol. II dated 26 October 2007, caps study leave for every government servant other than a Central Health Service officer at:

• ordinarily 12 months at any one time; and
• 24 months in all during the entire service, inclusive of similar leave for study or training granted under any other rules.

The 24 months is a career ceiling, not a per-course entitlement. An employee who took 10 months of study leave under an autonomous body’s rules before joining central service has 14 months left. The word “ordinarily” in clause (a) allows a single spell above 12 months on the sanctioning authority’s decision, but clause (b) carries no “ordinarily”, so exceeding 24 months needs a relaxation under Rule 65, which a Ministry may order for undue hardship only with the concurrence of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.

Rule 51(2) gives a Central Health Service officer 36 months for acquiring a postgraduate qualification, subject to a bond under Rule 53(4) to serve five years after completion of the course. The 36-month figure is tied to that purpose. A Central Health Service officer taking study leave for anything else is under the 24-month ceiling like every other employee.

Combining study leave with other leave: the 28-month limit

Rule 54(2) of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972, as amended by DoPT Notification No. 13026/2/1990-Estt.(L) dated 22 October 1990, allows study leave to be combined with other kinds of leave, but the combination with any leave other than extraordinary leave must not involve a total absence of more than 28 months generally, or 36 months for a course leading to a PhD. The Explanation counts vacation inside the limit.

Extraordinary leave is outside the count. The working is easiest on a two-year course abroad:

Rule 54(3), as it stands after DoPT Notification No. 13023/1/2017-Estt.(L) dated 1 January 2018, lets an employee granted study leave in combination with other leave start the course during the other leave. The proviso is that the period of that other leave coinciding with the course does not count as study leave. Before 2018 the same sub-rule allowed the study allowance to be drawn for that period; the amendment deleted that limb along with the allowance.

Rule 55 deals with the opposite case. When the course ends before the study leave does, the employee resumes duty on the conclusion of the course, unless the leave-sanctioning authority has given previous sanction to treat the shortfall as ordinary leave.

Leave salary during study leave

Rule 56 of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972, in the form set by DoPT Notification No. 13026/1/2002-Estt.(L) dated 15 and 16 January 2004 and amended on 1 January 2018, pays leave salary equal to the pay the employee drew on duty immediately before proceeding on the leave, plus dearness allowance and house rent allowance. Sub-rule (1) states this for study outside India and sub-rule (2) for study in India. The figure is the same in both, which is the practical effect of removing the study allowance.

Three qualifications follow in the same rule:

• Scholarship certificate. Rule 56(3) makes payment at the full rate under sub-rule (2), study in India, subject to a certificate from the employee that no scholarship, stipend or remuneration for part-time employment is being received.
• Set-off with a floor. Rule 56(4) adjusts any scholarship, stipend or part-time remuneration received during study leave against the leave salary, but never reduces the leave salary below the amount payable during half pay leave. The half pay leave figure is a floor on the set-off, not the normal rate.
• Pay revision. Rule 56(6) gives an employee on study leave on or after 1 January 1996 the benefit of revised pay from the date the revision took effect, so a pay commission revision or an annual increment falling during the leave raises the leave salary.

Worked example: the scholarship set-off

The example takes an employee at Level 10, first cell of the pay matrix under the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules 2016, drawing pay of Rs. 56,100 a month, on study leave for a course in India. Leave salary during half pay leave is half of pay under Rule 40(3) of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972, which is Rs. 28,050. The comparison runs on leave salary; dearness allowance is payable in addition under Rule 56(2).

The third row is a salary-calculator.in reading of the floor: the set-off stops at the half pay leave figure, so the employee keeps Rs. 28,050 of leave salary and the whole Rs. 40,000 scholarship. Rule 62 then bars any reimbursement of fees to the same employee, because a scholarship is being received.

The study allowance: abolished from 2018

The study allowance no longer exists under the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972. It was a per-day allowance for the period spent on a course outside India, under former Rules 57 to 59, and three instruments ended it:

The 7th Central Pay Commission gave its reason at paragraph 8.17.136: “The rate of this allowance is meagre and not revised since 1972.” The former Rule 58 rates, per day in sterling, were Australia 1.00, the Continent of Europe 1.65, New Zealand 1.20, the United Kingdom 2.00 and the United States 2.75, with the President fixing the rate for any other country. Former Rule 57 also netted a scholarship against the allowance, paid it through vacations only on proof of continued study, and capped it at 24 months.

Rule 60 still carries the heading “Admissibility of allowances in addition to Study Allowance”, a remnant of the old text. Its operative sub-rule (2), as amended in 2018, allows no allowance during study leave other than house rent allowance under sub-rule (1) and dearness allowance. Separate articles on the study allowance and the Committee on Allowances cover the history.

House rent allowance, travelling allowance and course fees

House rent allowance is the one allowance besides dearness allowance that survives study leave, and two texts govern it. Rule 60(1) of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972, amended by DoPT Notifications No. 13023/1/82-Estt.(L) of 16 April 1983 and No. 11014/3/89-Estt.(L) of 21 January 1992, pays it for the first 180 days of study leave at the rates of the station from which the employee proceeded, and beyond 180 days subject to the certificate in paragraph 8(d) of Ministry of Finance OM No. 2(37)-E.II(B)/64 dated 27 November 1965.

The Department of Expenditure’s consolidated HRA order, OM No. 2/4/2022-E.II(B) dated 30 December 2022, states at paragraph 6.1.7: “In case of Study Leave approved by Government of India, employee shall be eligible for HRA at the place of study without producing certificate mentioned in Annexure III.” The two texts name different stations, and Rule 60(1) still cites the 1965 OM, while the 2022 order was issued in supersession of all earlier HRA instructions. Paragraph 6.1.5 of the 2022 order applies the Annexure III certificate to any other leave beyond 180 days on grounds other than medical, so approved study leave is the one leave it exempts from the certificate.

Travelling allowance and fees are ordinarily the employee’s own cost:

• Travelling allowance. Rule 61 states that it shall not ordinarily be paid; the President may sanction it in exceptional circumstances. For an employee of the Indian Audit and Accounts Department on study leave in India, the Comptroller and Auditor-General has the same power.
• Course fees. Rule 62 requires the employee ordinarily to meet the cost of fees, with the same exceptional power in the President and, for study in India in the Indian Audit and Accounts Department, the Comptroller and Auditor-General. The proviso bars payment of fees in every case to an employee receiving a scholarship or stipend from any source, or permitted to retain part-time remuneration on top of leave salary.

Application, sanction and the bond

Rule 52 of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 requires the application to go through proper channel to the authority competent to grant leave, naming the course and any examination the employee proposes to take. Where full details cannot be given, or the employee changes an approved programme after leaving India, the particulars go to the Head of the Mission or the sanctioning authority, and the employee starts the course or incurs expenses before approval only at the employee’s own risk.

Rule 53 sets the sanction steps in order:

1. A report on admissibility from the Audit Officer, including any study leave already availed (sub-rule (1)).
2. Where the employee is permanently borne on one department’s cadre but serving temporarily in another, the concurrence of the parent department before grant (sub-rule (2)); this is the case of an employee on deputation.
3. For study abroad, intimation to the Head of the Mission by the sanctioning authority (sub-rule (3)).
4. The bond, executed before the study leave or its extension begins (sub-rule (4)), with a certificate of execution sent to the Audit Officer.
5. On completion, the certificates of examinations passed or courses undertaken, with dates and the remarks of the course authority, submitted to the sanctioning authority, through the Head of the Mission where the study was abroad (sub-rule (5)).

The bond form depends on the employee’s status, under Rule 53(4):

Each form binds the employee to pay a stated sum on demand, with interest from the date of demand at the rates in force on Government loans, if the employee fails to resume duty, quits without returning, fails to complete the course, or leaves within three years (five years for the Central Health Service case) of return. The forms carry a further condition that the rules themselves do not state: the bond period “shall be extended by a comparable period, equivalent to the aggregate periods of leave of any kind” taken during it.

The extension matters in practice. An employee who returns to duty on 1 August 2026 owes service to 31 July 2029. If that employee takes 60 days of earned leave during the bond period, the bond runs to 29 September 2029, and a resignation effective on 1 September 2029 still falls inside it.

Refund on resignation, retirement or failure to complete the course

Rule 63(1) of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 makes an employee refund the cost of study leave in three situations: resigning, retiring or otherwise quitting without returning to duty after study leave; doing so within three years of return to duty (five for a Central Health Service officer granted 36 months, under the 5 August 2011 amendment); or failing to complete the course and so being unable to furnish the Rule 53(5) certificates. The refund covers two heads:

• Government’s cost, clause (i). The actual amount of leave salary, cost of fees, travelling and other expenses incurred by the Government of India. The 1 January 2018 amendment removed “Study Allowance” from this list.
• Third-party cost, clause (ii). The actual cost incurred by other agencies, such as foreign governments, foundations and trusts, in connection with the course.

Interest runs at the rates in force on Government loans from the date of demand; the interest words sit in clause (ii) of the rule, and Forms 7 to 10 apply them to the whole sum bonded. The amount is payable before the resignation is accepted, permission to retire is granted, or the employee otherwise quits. For a voluntary retirement notice or a resignation inside the bond period, the refund is therefore a condition of acceptance, not a recovery afterwards.

The proviso to Rule 63(1) exempts two cases, but never an employee who failed to complete the course:

• an employee who, after return from study leave, is permitted to retire on medical grounds, the route to an invalid pension; and
• an employee who, after return, is deputed to a statutory or autonomous body under government control and permitted to resign for permanent absorption in it in the public interest.

Rule 63(2) adds a conversion. The study leave is converted into regular leave standing at the employee’s credit on the date the study leave began, adjusting any regular leave taken in continuation, and any balance that cannot be converted is treated as extraordinary leave. Clause (b) then requires the employee to refund, in addition to the Rule 63(1) amount, any excess of leave salary actually drawn over the leave salary admissible on conversion. Rule 63(3) lets the President waive or reduce the Rule 63(1) refund in the public interest or for the peculiar circumstances of a case or class of cases.

Leave account, pension and increment

Rule 54(1) of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 states that study leave shall not be debited against the leave account. Earned leave and half pay leave continue to be credited during it, so a two-year course leaves the balance available for leave encashment at retirement higher, not lower. The only reversal is the Rule 63(2) conversion, which applies when the employee quits inside the bond period.

Study leave counts as qualifying service for pension. Rule 21 of the CCS (Pension) Rules 2021 counts all leave during service for which leave salary is payable, and Rule 56 pays leave salary throughout study leave, so the period adds to qualifying service for the central government pension.

Study leave also counts for increment. FR 26(b)(ii) of the Fundamental Rules counts all leave except extraordinary leave taken otherwise than on medical certificate, so an employee on study leave on 1 January or 1 July draws the increment on its due date, and under Rule 56(6) the leave salary rises with it. Extraordinary leave added to study leave under Rule 54(2) does not count for increment unless it is on medical certificate.

Study leave compared with other leave for study

Four routes exist under the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 for an employee who wants time off to study:

Study leave is the only one of the four that pays full salary without spending the employee’s own leave, and the only one that requires the course to pass the public-interest, subject and service tests in Rule 50. An employee whose course is in a literary subject, who has used the 24-month ceiling, or who falls inside the retirement bar has the other three only. Extraordinary leave for study has no course test for a permanent employee. For an employee not in permanent or quasi-permanent employ, Rule 32(2)(e) caps it at 24 months on any one occasion for studies certified to be in the public interest, after three years’ continuous service, and Rule 32(3) requires a Form 6 bond with two sureties where that limit is relaxed.

Sabbatical leave is a different head with no place in the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972. It exists under Clause 8.3 of the UGC Regulations 2018 for university and college teachers, Section 17.5 of the CSIR rules, Chapter 21 of the ICAR Administrative Manual, and Statute 27 of the First Statutes of the Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, 2017. Clause 8.3(ii) of the UGC Regulations 2018 bars a teacher who has taken study leave from sabbatical leave until five years after returning to duty.

Common errors

Six misreadings recur, each answered by a specific rule of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972:

• That a study allowance is paid for study abroad. Rules 57 to 59 were omitted by the notification of 1 January 2018, and Rule 60(2) now permits no allowance other than HRA and DA.
• That study leave pays at the half pay rate. Rule 56 pays the full pre-leave pay. The half pay leave figure in Rule 56(4) is only a floor on the scholarship set-off.
• That the 24 months renews for each course. Rule 51(1)(b) makes it a career total including similar leave under other rules.
• That the bond is three calendar years from return. Forms 7 to 10 extend it by the aggregate of any leave taken during the bond period.
• That the refund is interest-free or interest runs from the date of drawal. Rule 63(1) charges interest at the Government loan rate from the date of demand.
• That a medical retirement excuses a failed course. The proviso to Rule 63(1) exempts medical retirement and absorption only “except in the case of employees who fail to complete the course of study”.

Applicability to other services

Chapter VI applies to central government civil servants governed by the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972. Rule 2 excludes several classes, and three groups have their own instruments.

Members of the IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service take study leave under rule 17 of the All India Services (Leave) Rules 1955 and the All India Services (Study Leave) Regulations 1960, G.S.R. 666 dated 18 June 1960. Those regulations keep the 12 and 24-month ceilings and the 28 and 36-month absence limit, but require seven years’ service, six in the North East cadres. The DoPT compilation of the 1960 Regulations still prints a study allowance in regulation 7, a separate instrument that the 1 January 2018 notification under the CCS (Leave) Rules did not amend.

Railway employees are excluded by Rule 2(a) and take leave under the railway leave rules in the Indian Railway Establishment Code. Autonomous bodies such as the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan apply the central rules only to the extent their own service rules adopt them, so the governing text is the body’s own leave regulation.

Related Articles

• CCS (Leave) Rules 1972
• Earned leave
• Half pay leave
• Commuted leave
• Extraordinary leave
• Leave not due
• Casual leave
• Special casual leave
• Vacation department leave
• Maternity leave for central government employees
• Child care leave
• Leave preparatory to retirement
• Leave encashment
• Sabbatical leave
• Study allowance
• Committee on Allowances
• House rent allowance
• Dearness allowance
• Travelling allowance
• Leave travel concession
• Central Health Service
• Indian Economic Service
• Indian Statistical Service
• Directorate General of Health Services
• Probation in central government service
• Confirmation in service
• Qualifying service
• Annual increment
• Pay matrix
• Salary by pay level
• Fundamental Rules
• CCS (Pension) Rules 2021
• Central government pension
• Invalid pension
• Superannuation
• Retirement age for central government employees
• Resignation from government service
• Technical resignation
• Voluntary retirement
• Deputation of central government employees
• Head of Office
• All India Services
• All India Services (Leave) Rules 1955
• Railway employees
• Indian Railway Establishment Code
• 7th Central Pay Commission
• Department of Personnel and Training
• Department of Expenditure
• Central government employees in India

External references

• Department of Personnel and Training
• Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance
• Report of the 7th Central Pay Commission (Department of Expenditure)
• Pensioners’ Portal, Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare
• e-Gazette of India
• Comptroller and Auditor General of India

References

1. Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, S.O. 940 dated 8 April 1972, Chapter VI, Rules 50 to 63, as consolidated by DoPT (updated to 24 September 2024), and Forms 7 to 10.
2. CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972, Rule 50(5) and Rule 63(1), as amended by DoPT Notification No. 13023/20/84-Estt.(L) dated 11 December 1986 and No. 13026/5/2010-Estt.(L) dated 5 August 2011 (three-year bar and bond; five years for Central Health Service officers on 36 months).
3. CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972, Rule 51, as substituted by DoPT Notification No. 13023/3/98-Estt.(L) Vol. II dated 26 October 2007, and Rule 54(2), as amended by Notification No. 13026/2/1990-Estt.(L) dated 22 October 1990.
4. CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972, Rule 56, as substituted by DoPT Notification No. 13026/1/2002-Estt.(L) dated 15 and 16 January 2004.
5. DoPT Notification No. 13023/1/2017-Estt.(L) dated 1 January 2018, omitting Rules 57 to 59 and amending Rules 54(3), 56, 60(2) and 63(1)(i) of the CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972.
6. Report of the 7th Central Pay Commission, 19 November 2015, paragraphs 8.17.135 and 8.17.136 (study allowance).
7. Department of Expenditure Resolution No. 11-1/2016-IC dated 6 July 2017, paragraph 6 and appendix serial 171.
8. Department of Expenditure OM No. 2/4/2022-E.II(B) dated 30 December 2022 (house rent allowance), paragraphs 6.1.1, 6.1.5 and 6.1.7.
9. CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021, Rule 21, and Fundamental Rule 26(b)(ii).
10. All India Services (Study Leave) Regulations, 1960, G.S.R. 666 dated 18 June 1960.