Vacation Department Leave for Central Government Employees
A Vacation Department servant is credited 10 days of earned leave a year, up to 30 if ordered to forgo vacation, and no half pay leave, under Rules 28 and 29.
Vacation Department leave is the earned leave scheme that Rule 28 of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 applies to a central government servant serving in a Vacation Department, a department to which regular vacations are allowed. Since 14 December 2018 such a servant is credited a base of 10 days of earned leave a year, more only when ordered to forgo part of the vacation, and no half pay leave.
The current text comes from the Central Civil Services (Leave) (Fourth Amendment) Rules, 2018, G.S.R. 1209(E), Department of Personnel and Training Notification No. 11020/01/2017-Estt.(L) dated 11 December 2018 and published in the Gazette of India on 14 December 2018, the date on which it came into force. That notification substituted clauses (a) to (c) of Rule 28(1) and the whole of Rule 29(1) to carry out paragraph 9.2.16 of the 7th Central Pay Commission report.
The base is 5 days on 1 January and 5 days on 1 July. Vacation forgone under orders adds a proportion of 20 days, with the year capped at 30. A year with no vacation availed earns the full 30 days under Rule 26. Rule 29(1) excludes a Vacation Department servant from the 20-day half pay leave credit.
The scheme reaches teachers through more than one instrument. The teachers of a Kendriya Vidyalaya come under Rule 28 because the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan’s Education Code adopts the CCS (Leave) Rules. A teacher of a central university does not, because clause 8.4 of the UGC Regulations 2018 sets a separate earned leave formula.
Definition of a Vacation Department under Rule 3(1)(m)
A Vacation Department is defined by Rule 3(1)(m) of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 as “a department or part of a department, to which regular vacations are allowed, during which Government servants serving in the department are permitted to be absent from duty”. The definition turns on the post: a school is a Vacation Department for its teachers and not for its clerks.
The vacation must be regular, a recess fixed for the department in advance. It must belong to the department or a part of it, so one wing of an office can be a Vacation Department while the rest is not. And the servant is permitted to be absent from duty during it without applying for anything, because the recess comes with the post.
The vacation sits outside the leave account. No rule in Chapter IV of the CCS (Leave) Rules debits it to earned leave or half pay leave, and Rule 28(2) describes it as something that may be taken “in combination with or in continuation of” any kind of leave, a phrase that treats it as separate from every leave head. What Rule 28 does is account for the vacation indirectly, by fixing a smaller earned leave credit for the servant who has one.
The CCS (Leave) Rules contain no schedule of Vacation Departments. The status of a post is fixed by the employing department or body. The Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, for example, lists its vacation and non-vacation posts by category in Article 66 of its Education Code.
Earned leave credit under Rule 28(1)
Rule 28(1) of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972, in the form in force since 14 December 2018, gives a Vacation Department servant other than a military officer three possible outcomes for a year, depending on how much of the vacation the servant availed.
The 10-day base under Rule 28(1)(a)
The leave account is credited with earned leave in advance in two instalments of 5 days each on 1 January and 1 July of every calendar year. The base does not depend on the vacation. A servant who takes the whole summer vacation still receives the 10 days, which is the change the 2018 substitution of clause (a) made.
The proportionate addition under Rule 28(1)(b)
In a year in which the servant avails only a portion of the vacation, Rule 28(1)(b) adds earned leave “in such proportion of twenty days, as the number of days of vacation not taken bears to the full vacation”, provided the total earned leave credited does not exceed 30 days in a calendar year. Written as a formula, the addition is 20 multiplied by the days forgone, divided by the days of full vacation.
No vacation availed under Rule 28(1)(c)
If in any year the servant does not avail any vacation, Rule 28(1)(c) gives earned leave under Rule 26 instead of under clauses (a) and (b). Rule 26(1)(a)(i) credits 15 days on 1 January and 15 days on 1 July, so the year carries 30 days, the full non-vacation credit.
The table below is a salary-calculator.in construction from the text of Rule 28 and its Note 1. It assumes a 50-day full vacation, chosen because it divides cleanly, and every forgone day is forgone under an order of a higher authority.
| Vacation forgone under orders (of 50 days) | Rule applied | Earned leave for the year |
|---|---|---|
| 0 days, full vacation availed | 28(1)(a) | 10 days |
| 5 days | 28(1)(a) and (b): 10 + 20 x 5 / 50 | 12 days |
| 10 days | 28(1)(a) and (b): 10 + 20 x 10 / 50 | 14 days |
| 15 days | 28(1)(a) and (b): 10 + 20 x 15 / 50 | 16 days |
| 16 days or more | Note 1 proviso, then 28(1)(c) and Rule 26 | 30 days |
| 50 days, no vacation availed | 28(1)(c) and Rule 26 | 30 days |
The jump between the fourth and fifth rows comes from the proviso to Note 1 to Rule 28, which treats a servant ordered to forgo more than 15 days of the vacation as having availed none of it. Wherever 20 multiplied by the days forgone is not a multiple of the full vacation, the proportion produces a fraction of a day, and Rule 27(4) rounds it to the nearest day when earned leave is credited. The same proviso means the 30-day cap in Rule 28(1)(b) does not bind in practice: forgone days above 15 send the year to Rule 26, so the addition can never exceed 20 x 15 divided by the full vacation, which is 6 days on a 50-day vacation.
When a vacation counts as availed under Note 1 to Rule 28
Note 1 to Rule 28 of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 deems a servant entitled to vacation to have availed the vacation, or a portion of it, unless the servant has been required by a general or special order of a higher authority to forgo it. The additional earned leave under Rule 28(1)(b) thus depends on the order, not on what the servant actually did with the time. A teacher who stays at home for the whole summer and a teacher who spends it on private work are in the same position: both have availed the vacation and both receive the 10-day base.
The proviso to Note 1 sets the threshold. If such an order prevented the servant from enjoying more than 15 days of the vacation, “he shall be considered to have availed himself of no portion of the vacation”. Rule 28(1)(c) then applies and the year earns 30 days under Rule 26. On a 50-day vacation, an order to work 15 days yields 10 + 20 x 15 / 50 = 16 days of earned leave, and an order to work 16 days yields 30.
The Explanation to Rule 28 construes “year” not as a calendar year but as twelve months of actual duty in a Vacation Department. Note 2 deals with a servant who proceeds on leave before completing a full year of duty: the earned leave is calculated with reference to the vacation that falls during the year beginning on the date the previous year of duty was completed, not the vacations that fell during the duty already rendered.
No half pay leave under Rule 29(1)
Rule 29(1) of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972, substituted by the same G.S.R. 1209(E) with effect from 14 December 2018, credits half pay leave in advance in two instalments of 10 days each on 1 January and 1 July to every government servant “other than a military officer and a Government servant serving in a Vacation Department”. A Vacation Department servant earns no half pay leave for service on or after that date. DoPT OM No. 11020/01/2017-Estt.(L) dated 30 August 2019, issued to clarify the 2018 notification, states that such servants have been “allowed Earned Leave in place of Half Pay Leave by amending Rule 28 and Rule 29”.
The exclusion also reaches the leave heads that draw on the half pay leave account:
- Commuted leave under Rule 30(1) may not exceed half the amount of half pay leave due, and twice the commuted period is debited against it. Without half pay leave at credit there is nothing to commute.
- Leave not due under Rule 31 is granted on medical certificate and is debited against half pay leave the servant earns afterwards, so the head assumes a future half pay leave credit that service in a Vacation Department does not produce.
The heads that do not depend on the half pay leave account apply to Vacation Department staff as they do to other servants. Extraordinary leave under Rule 32 is granted when no other leave is admissible, or on written request, with no leave salary. The special kinds of leave in Chapter V, including maternity leave under Rule 43, paternity leave under Rule 43-A, child care leave under Rule 43-C and work-related illness and injury leave under Rule 44, are not confined to non-vacation departments.
Rule 29(1) governs only the advance credit. Nothing in it cancels half pay leave already at credit, so on the text of the rule a servant who moves into a Vacation Department after years elsewhere keeps the balance earned in a post that carried one, while receiving no fresh credit.
Combining the vacation with leave under Rule 28(2)
Rule 28(2) of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 allows a vacation to be taken in combination with or in continuation of any kind of leave under the rules. The proviso limits one combination: the total duration of vacation and earned leave taken in conjunction “shall not exceed the amount of earned leave due and admissible to the Government at a time under Rule 26”. The printed text omits the word “servant” after “Government”.
The proviso has two limbs. “Due” is the earned leave at credit, and “admissible at a time under Rule 26” is the spell maximum, which Rule 26(2)(i) fixes at 180 days for a government servant employed in India, with up to 300 days under Rule 26(3) for a Class I or Class II servant whose leave is spent outside India. Read on its words, the proviso holds vacation plus earned leave to the lower of the two. A teacher with 200 days at credit and a 50-day summer vacation can add up to 130 days of earned leave, to make an absence of 180 days; a teacher with 100 days at credit can add 50. The vacation counts towards the ceiling, though it is not itself debited to the leave account.
The limit applies only to earned leave taken with the vacation. Extraordinary leave or maternity leave next to a vacation is governed by the spell limit of that head, and Rule 11 separately permits any kind of leave to be combined with any other kind. The CCS (Joining Time) Rules 1979 also allow joining time to be combined with vacation under Rule 6(2), which is how a transferred teacher can join a vacation to the joining time between two postings.
The 300-day ceiling and joining time credit under Rule 28(3)
Rule 28(3) of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 carries the earned leave at credit at the close of one half-year into the next, provided the leave carried forward plus the credit for the new half-year does not exceed 300 days. That is the same ceiling Rule 26(1)(b) sets for staff of other departments, and Rule 39 applies the same 300 days as the limit on encashment of earned leave on retirement.
The Note to Rule 28(3), inserted by DoPT Notification No. 13012/12/86-Estt.(L) dated 25 March 1989, extends to Vacation Department staff the credit of unavailed joining time under Rule 26(1)(a)(ii). A servant ordered to join a new post without taking the full joining time is credited the unused days, up to 15, as earned leave, subject to the same 300-day limit.
The ceiling is reached far more slowly on a 10-day base. A Vacation Department servant who avails the full vacation every year for 30 years accrues 300 days of earned leave from the base credit, against 10 years for a servant on the 30-day Rule 26 credit, before any earned leave is spent.
How Rule 28 changed in 2009 and 2018
Rule 28(1) has been rewritten twice since 2006, in December 2009 and in December 2018, and each version treated the full-vacation year differently. The rest of Rule 28, meaning sub-rules (2) and (3), the Explanation and Notes 1 and 2 with the 15-day proviso, reads the same in the 2006 compilation as in the consolidated text of 24 September 2024.
| Period | Earned leave in a year of full vacation | Addition for vacation forgone | Half pay leave |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before the 2009 amendment | 5 + 5 days for a teacher, principal, headmaster, librarian, laboratory assistant or waterman working in a school; none for other vacation staff | Proportion of 30 days to the vacation not taken | Rule 29(1) excluded “those covered by Rule 28” |
| 1 December 2009 notification to 13 December 2018 | None | Proportion of 30 days to the vacation not taken | 20 days a year |
| From 14 December 2018 | 5 + 5 days for every Vacation Department servant | Proportion of 20 days, total capped at 30 a calendar year | None |
The 2009 change was made by DoPT Notification No. 11012/1/2009-Estt.(L) dated 1 December 2009, published in the Gazette on 5 December 2009, which carried out the 6th Central Pay Commission recommendations on leave. It removed the 10-day earned leave credit for school staff and gave half pay leave to every government servant other than a military officer. Paragraph 9.2.13 of the 7th CPC report records the result from the staff side: vacational staff, “like teachers, principals, etc.”, asked for restoration of the 10 days of earned leave that the 6th CPC had changed to 20 days of half pay leave.
The 7th CPC agreed. Paragraph 9.2.16 recommended “10 days EL in place of 20 days Half Pay Leave” for vacational staff, and paragraph 9.2.22 added that “HPL will henceforth not be available to them”. G.S.R. 1209(E) of 11 December 2018 implemented both halves of that recommendation from 14 December 2018, along with the replacement of special disability leave and hospital leave by work-related illness and injury leave under Rule 44.
The old proviso that denied any proportionate earned leave to a servant not in permanent or quasi-permanent employ for the first year of service is absent from the current rule, and so is the 45-day proportion for servants under the exception to Rule 26(1).
Who is a Vacation Department servant: KVS, NVS and university teachers
Rule 28 binds only where the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 govern the post. Rule 2 applies the rules to government servants appointed to civil services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union, and excludes railway servants, casual and daily-rated staff, industrial workmen, work-charged staff and persons governed for leave by the Fundamental Rules, among others. A teacher in a school or college run directly by a central ministry or a Union territory administration is inside that scope. Teachers employed by a central autonomous body are reached only through the body’s own service rules.
Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan
The Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Education, and its employees are not central civil servants. Article 48 of the Education Code for Kendriya Vidyalayas, 2006 edition, provides that “Leave will be admissible to employees in accordance with the provisions of the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972”, as amended from time to time and as extended to Sangathan employees. Rule 28 reaches a KVS teacher through that adoption.
Article 66 of the Code draws the vacation line by post:
| Category | KVS posts under Article 66 |
|---|---|
| Vacation staff | All categories of teachers; Librarian; Laboratory Assistant, Attendant and Group D |
| Non-vacation staff | Principal; Office Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, Upper Division Clerk and Lower Division Clerk |
| Both | Vice-Principal: “Half the period of vacation may be treated as duty” at the discretion of the Principal and Assistant Commissioner, earning leave for it under the rules |
Article 67 adds a condition no CCS rule contains: a teacher or other vacation staff member not called for duty during the long summer or winter vacation is entitled to vacation pay only after actually working at least five months in the preceding academic year. No leave other than maternity leave counts towards those five months, and contractual and part-time teachers receive no vacation pay.
Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti
The Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti is also an autonomous body under the Ministry of Education. The leave position of an NVS teacher, including whether and how Rule 28 is adopted, is fixed by the Samiti’s own service rules.
Central university teachers under the UGC Regulations 2018
A teacher of a university established by a Central Act has a different earned leave scheme. Clause 1.2 of the University Grants Commission Regulations 2018 (No. F.1-2/2017(EC/PS), 18 July 2018) applies them to every university established or incorporated by or under a Central Act, and clause 8.4 sets the leave of permanent teachers.
| Feature | CCS (Leave) Rule 28 | UGC Regulations 2018, clause 8.4 |
|---|---|---|
| Earned leave credit | 10 days a year, plus a proportion of 20 days for vacation forgone under orders, capped at 30 | 1/30th of actual service including vacation, plus 1/3rd of any period of duty performed in the vacation |
| Accumulation | 300 days | 300 days |
| Earned leave at a time | Vacation plus earned leave up to the balance at credit, and at most 180 days for leave in India (Rules 28(2) and 26(2)(i)) | 60 days, more for higher study, training, medical certificate or leave spent outside India |
| Half pay leave | None | 20 days for each completed year of service |
The UGC formula credits the whole period of service including the vacation at 1/30th, which comes to about 12 days on a full year with a 50-day vacation, and it keeps half pay leave. A university teacher is better placed on half pay leave and close to level on earned leave. Clause 8.4 also states that when a teacher combines vacation with earned leave, the vacation is reckoned as leave in calculating the maximum, the same principle as the proviso to Rule 28(2).
Departmental leave under Rule 49 is a different head
Departmental leave under Rule 49 of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 is unrelated to the vacation scheme in Rule 28, though both deal with staff whose work stops for part of the year. Rule 49(1) allows it for two groups only: Class III staff, other than Division I staff and clerks, and Class IV staff of the Survey of India attached to survey parties with field and recess duties; and seasonal staff of the Posts and Telegraphs Department whose duties are limited to fixed periods of each year.
It is granted only to servants whose services are temporarily not required, in addition to the leave due and admissible, and Rule 49 allows it even when no leave is due. Rule 49(6) pays leave salary equal to 25% of the earned-leave leave salary under Rule 40(1), with dearness allowance as the only admissible allowance. Departmental leave does not count as duty and is not debited to the leave account.
The two heads answer different situations. Rule 28 reduces the earned leave of a servant who has a regular paid recess. Rule 49 pays a quarter-rate retainer to field and seasonal staff for the months between working seasons.
Applicability
Rule 28 of the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 applies to a central government employee other than a military officer serving in a Vacation Department, in a civil service or post under the Union to which Rule 2 extends the rules. Its current form, with the 10-day base, the proportion of 20 days, the 30-day cap and the exclusion from half pay leave under Rule 29(1), has applied since 14 December 2018 under G.S.R. 1209(E).
Bodies outside the CCS rules reach a vacation leave scheme through their own instruments. The Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan adopts the CCS (Leave) Rules under Article 48 of its Education Code. Central university teachers follow clause 8.4 of the UGC Regulations 2018. Members of the All India Services are governed by the All India Services (Leave) Rules 1955, and railway servants by the railway leave rules, which Rule 2 excludes from the CCS scheme.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is a Vacation Department?
How much earned leave does a Vacation Department servant get?
How is the additional earned leave for vacation not taken worked out?
What if a teacher takes no vacation at all?
Does staying at home for part of the vacation by choice count as vacation not taken?
What happens if a teacher is ordered to work more than 15 days of the vacation?
Do Vacation Department staff get half pay leave?
Can a Vacation Department servant take commuted leave?
Why did the 2018 amendment replace half pay leave with earned leave?
What was the position before 14 December 2018?
Can the vacation be combined with earned leave?
What is the earned leave ceiling for Vacation Department staff?
Are Kendriya Vidyalaya teachers vacation staff?
Does Rule 28 govern central university teachers?
Is Vacation Department leave the same as departmental leave under Rule 49?
Related Articles
- Earned leave
- Half pay leave
- Commuted leave
- Leave not due
- Extraordinary leave
- Casual leave
- Special casual leave
- Child care leave
- Maternity leave
- Paternity leave
- Work related illness and injury leave
- Hospital leave
- Special disability leave
- Study leave
- Sabbatical leave
- Quarantine leave
- Departmental leave
- Leave preparatory to retirement
- Leave encashment
- Joining time
- Dies non
- CCS (Leave) Rules 1972
- All India Services leave rules
- Fundamental Rules
- Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan
- Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti
- Central universities
- University Grants Commission
- KVS teacher salary
- NVS teacher salary
- 6th Central Pay Commission
- 7th Central Pay Commission
- Department of Personnel and Training
- Central government employees in India
External references
- Department of Personnel and Training, CCS (Leave) Rules 1972 consolidated text
- Gazette of India, G.S.R. 1209(E), CCS (Leave) (Fourth Amendment) Rules 2018, 14 December 2018
- DoPT OM No. 11020/01/2017-Estt.(L) dated 30 August 2019, clarifications on the 2018 amendment
- Department of Expenditure, Report of the 7th Central Pay Commission
- University Grants Commission, UGC Regulations 2018 on minimum qualifications and maintenance of standards
- Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan
References
- Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, consolidated text updated as on 24 September 2024 (DoPT): Rule 2 (extent of application), Rule 3(1)(m) (Vacation Department), Rule 26 (earned leave in other departments, including 26(1)(a)(ii) and 26(2)), Rule 27(4) (rounding), Rules 28 and 29, Rules 30 to 32, and Rule 49 (departmental leave).
- Central Civil Services (Leave) (Fourth Amendment) Rules, 2018, G.S.R. 1209(E), DoPT Notification No. 11020/01/2017-Estt.(L) dated 11 December 2018, Gazette of India Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3(i), No. 897, 14 December 2018: substituted clauses (a) to (c) of Rule 28(1) and Rule 29(1); in force on publication.
- DoPT Office Memorandum No. 11020/01/2017-Estt.(L) dated 30 August 2019, Amendment in the CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972 consequent upon the implementation of the recommendations of 7th CPC: in force from 14 December 2018; earned leave in place of half pay leave for Vacation Department staff (paragraph II).
- DoPT Notification No. 11012/1/2009-Estt.(L) dated 1 December 2009, CCS (Leave) (Amendment) Rules, 2009, implementing the 6th CPC leave recommendations.
- Report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission, November 2015, paragraphs 9.2.13, 9.2.16 and 9.2.22 (vacational staff: 10 days of earned leave in place of 20 days of half pay leave).
- DoPT Notification No. 13012/12/86-Estt.(L) dated 25 March 1989: Note to Rule 28(3) on credit of unavailed joining time.
- Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Education Code for Kendriya Vidyalayas, 2006 edition, Articles 48 (leave rules), 66 (vacation and non-vacation staff) and 67 (vacation pay).
- University Grants Commission (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and Other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Other Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) Regulations, 2018, No. F.1-2/2017(EC/PS) dated 18 July 2018, clauses 1.2 and 8.4.