Grant of and Return from Leave - CENTRAL CIVIL SERVICES (LEAVE) RULES, 1972

F.R. & S.R. – PART III - Leave Rules
CENTRAL CIVIL SERVICES (LEAVE) RULES, 1972
CHAPTER III - Grant of and Return from Leave

Rule 14. Application for leave:

Any application for leave or for extension of leave shall be made in Form 1 to the authority competent to grant leave.

Rule 15. Leave account:

Except as provided in the Note below, a leave account shall be maintained in Form 2 for each Government staff by the Audit Officer in the case of Gazetted Government staffs and by the Head of Office or an officer authorized by him in the case of non-Gazetted Government staffs.

NOTE.- In the case of Gazetted Government staffs whose pay and allowances are drawn and disbursed by the Head of Office, the leave account shall be maintained by that Head of Office.

Rule 16. Verification of title to leave:

(1) No leave shall be granted to a Government staff until a report regarding its admissibility has been obtained from the authority maintaining the leave account.

NOTE.- The order sanctioning leave shall indicate the balance of earned leave/half pay leave at the credit of the Government staff.

(2)(a) Where there is reason to believe that the obtaining of admissibility report will be unduly delayed, the authority competent to grant leave may calculate, on the basis of available information, the amount of leave admissible to the Government staff and issue provisional sanction of leave for a period not exceeding sixty days.

(b) The grant of leave under this sub-rule shall be subject to verification by the authority maintaining the leave account and a modified sanction for the period of leave may be issued, where necessary.

(c) In the case of Gazetted Government staffs , the Audit Officer may, at the request of the authority competent to grant leave, issue a provisional leave salary slip for a period not exceeding sixty days.

NOTE.- In the case of leave preparatory to retirement or where cash payment in lieu of leave at credit is granted under Rule 39, an undertaking for recovery of the leave salary, if any, paid in excess, shall be taken from the Government staff.

Rule 17. Leave not to be granted in certain circumstances:

Leave shall not be granted to a Government staff whom a competent punishing authority has decided to dismiss, remove or compulsorily retire from Government service.

Rule 18. Deleted.

Rule 19. Grant of leave on medical certificate to Gazetted and non-Gazetted Government staffs:

1[(1) An application for leave on medical certificate made by-

(i) a Gazetted Government staff, shall be accompanied by a medical certificate in Form 3 given by a Central Government Health Service (CGHS) Doctor if such a Government staff is a CGHS beneficiary or by a Government Hospital or by an Authorized Medical Attendant if he is not a CGHS beneficiary; and by an Authorized Doctor of the private hospital recognized under CGHS/Central Services (Medical Attendance) Rules, 1944, in case of hospitalization or indoor specialized treatment duly approved by Competent Authority in respect of any particular kind of disease like heart disease, cancer, etc., for the treatment of which the concerned hospital has been recognized by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare:

Provided that the Gazetted Government staff who is a Central Government Health Service beneficiary, if at the time of illness, is away from CGHS area or proceeds on duty outside the Headquarters will produce Medical Certificate (MC) or Fitness Certificate (FC) in Form 3 and Form 5, as the case may be, given by an Authorized Medical Attendant;

(ii) a non-Gazetted Government staff, shall be accompanied by a medical certificate Form 4 given by a CGHS Doctor if such a Government staff is a CGHS beneficiary or by Government Hospital or by an Authorized Medical Attendant if he is not a CGHS beneficiary; and by an Authorized Doctor of the private hospital, recognized under CGHS/Central Services (Medical Attendance) Rules, 1944, in case of hospitalization or indoor specialized treatment duly approved by the Competent Authority in respect of particular kind of disease like heart disease, cancer, etc., for the treatment of which the concerned hospital has been recognized by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare:

Provided that the non-Gazetted Government staff who is a CGHS beneficiary, if at the time of illness is away from CGHS area or proceeds on duty outside the Headquarters will produce M.C. or F.C. in Form 4 or 5, as the case may be, given by an Authorized Medical Attendant (AMA) or by Registered Medical Practitioner (RMP) if there is no AMA available within a radius of 8 kilometers (kms) from his residence or place of temporary stay outside his Headquarters and also in the circumstances when he finds it difficult to obtain MC or FC from a CGHS Doctor or an Authorized Medical Attendant;

defining as clearly as possible the nature and probable duration of illness.]

NOTE.- In the case of non-Gazetted Government staff, a certificate given by a registered Ayurvedic, Unani or Homoeopathic medical practitioner or by a registered Dentist in the case of dental ailments or by an honorary Medical Officer may also be accepted, provided such certificate is accepted for the same purpose in respect of its own employees by the Government of the State in which the Central Government staff  falls ill or to which he proceeds for treatment.

(2) A Medical Officer shall not recommend the grant of leave in any case in which there appears to be no reasonable prospect that the Government staff concerned will ever be fit to resume his duties and in such case, the opinion that the Government staff is permanently unfit for Government service shall be recorded in the medical certificate.

(3) The authority competent to grant leave may, at its discretion, secure a second medical opinion by requesting a Government Medical Officer not below the rank of a Civil Surgeon or Staff Surgeon, to have the applicant medically examined on the earliest possible date.

(4) It shall be the duty of the Government Medical Officer referred to in sub-rule (3) to express an opinion both as regards the facts of the illness and as regards the necessity for the amount of leave recommended and for that purpose may either require the applicant to appear before himself or before a Medical Officer nominated by himself.

(5) The grant of medical certificate under this rule does not in itself confer upon the Government staff concerned any right to leave; the medical certificate shall be forwarded to the authority competent to grant leave and orders of that authority awaited.

(6) The authority competent to grant leave may, in its discretion, waive the production of a medical certificate in case of an application for leave for a period not exceeding three days at a time. Such leave shall not, however, be treated as leave on medical certificate and shall be debited against leave other than leave on medical grounds.

Rule 20. Leave to a Government staff who is unlikely to be fit to return to duty:

(1)(a) When a Medical Authority has reported that there is no reasonable prospect that the Government staff will even be fit to return to duty, leave shall not necessarily be refused to such Government staff.

(b) The leave may be granted, if due, by the authority competent to grant leave on the following conditions:-

(i) if the Medical Authority is unable to say with certainty that the Government staff will never again be fit for service, leave not exceeding twelve months in all may be granted and such leave shall not be extended without further reference to a Medical Authority;

(ii) if a Government staff is declared by a Medical Authority to be completely and permanently incapacitated for further service, leave or an extension of eave may be granted to him after the report of the Medical Authority has been received, provided the amount of leave as debited to the leave account together with any period of duty beyond the date of the report of the Medical Authority does not exceed six months.

(2) A Government staff who is declared by a Medical Authority to be completely and permanently incapacitated for further service shall –

2[(a) if he is on duty, not be invalidated from service during his service period;

(b) if he is already on leave, not be invalidated from service on the expiry of that leave or extension of leave, if any, granted to him under sub-rule (1).]

Rule 21. Commencement and termination of leave:

Except as provided in Rule 22, leave ordinarily begins on the day on which the transfer of charge is effected and ends on the day preceding that on which the charge is resumed.

Rule 22. Combination of holidays with leave:

(1)(i) When the day, immediately preceding the day on which a Government staff’s leave (other than leave on medical certificate) begins or immediately following the day on which his leave expires, is a holiday or one of series of holidays, the Government staff shall be deemed to have been permitted (except in cases where for administrative reasons permission for prefixing/suffixing holidays to leave specifically withheld) to leave his station at the close of the day before, or return to it on the day following such holiday or series of holidays, provided that–

(a) his transfer or assumption of charge does not involve the handling or taking over of securities or moneys other than a permanent advance;

(b) his early departure does not entail a correspondingly early transfer from another station of a Government staff to perform his duties; and

(c) the delay in his return does not involve a corresponding delay in the transfer to another station of the Government staff who was performing his duties during his absence or in the discharge from Government service of a person temporarily appointed to it.

(ii) In the case of leave on medical certificate-

(a) When a Government staff is certified medically unwell to attend office, holiday(s), if any, immediately preceding the day he is so certified shall be allowed automatically to be prefixed to leave and the holiday(s) if any, immediately succeeding the day he is so certified (including that day) shall be treated as part of the leave; and

(b) When a Government staff is certified medically fit for joining duty, holiday(s), if any, succeeding the day he is so certified (including that day) shall automatically be allowed to be suffixed to the leave, and holiday(s), if any, preceding the day he is so certified shall be treated as part of the leave.

(2) On condition that the departing Government staff remains responsible for the moneys in this charge, the Head of Department may, in any particular case, waive the application of Clause (a) of the proviso to sub-rule (1).

(3) Unless the authority competent to grant leave in any case otherwise directs -

(a) if holidays are prefixed to leave, the leave and any consequent rearrangement of pay and allowances take effect from the day after the holidays; and

(b) if holidays are suffixed to leave, the leave is treated as having terminated and any consequent rearrangement of pay and allowances takes effect from the day on which the leave would have ended if holidays had not been suffixed.

NOTE.- A compensatory leave granted in lieu of duty performed by a Government staff on Sunday or a holiday for a full day may be treated as a holiday for the above purpose.

Rule 23. Recall to duty before expiry of leave:

(1) Deleted.

(2) Deleted.

(3) In case a Government staff is recalled to duty before the expiry of his leave, such recall to duty shall be treated as compulsory in all cases and the Government staff shall be entitled-

(a) if the leave from which he is recalled is in India, to be treated as on duty from the date on which he starts for the station to which he is ordered, and to draw -

(i) traveling allowance under rules made in this behalf for the journey; and

(ii) leave salary, until he joins his post, at the same rate at which he would have drawn it but for recall to duty;

(b) if the leave from which he is recalled is out of India, to count the time spent on the voyage to India as duty for purposes of calculating leave, and to receive-

(i) leave salary, during the voyage to India and for the period from the date of landing in India to the date of joining his post, at the same rate at which he would have drawn it but for recall to duty;

(ii) a free passage to India;

(iii) refund of his passage from India if he has not completed half the period of his leave by the date of leaving for India on recall or three months, whichever is shorter;

(iv) travelling allowance, under the rules for the time being in force, for travel from the place of landing in India to the place of duty.

For rules governing the drawal of traveling allowance for a journey on recall from leave, see Supplementary Rules 142 and 143.

Rule 24. Return from leave:

(1) A Government staff on leave shall not return to duty before the expiry of the period of leave granted to him unless he is permitted to do so by the authority which granted him leave.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-rule (1), a Government staff on leave preparatory to retirement shall be precluded from returning to duty, save with the consent of the authority competent to appoint him to the post from which he proceeded on leave preparatory to retirement.

(3)(a) A Government staff who has taken leave on medical certificate may not return to duty until he has produced a medical certificate of fitness in Form 5.

(b) (Not printed)

(c) (Not printed)

(d) In the case of a non-Gazetted Government staff , the authority under which the Government staff is employed on return from leave may, in its discretion, accept a certificate signed by a Registered Medical Practitioner.

(4)(a) A Government staff returning from leave is not entitled, in the absence of specific orders to that effect, to resume as a matter of course the post which he held before going on leave.

(b) Such Government staff shall report his return to duty to the authority which granted him leave or to the authority, if any, specified in the order granting him the leave and await orders.

NOTE.- A Government staff who had been suffering from Tuberculosis may be allowed to resume duty on the basis of fitness certificate which recommends light work for him.

Rule 25. Absence after expiry of leave:

(1) Unless the authority competent to grant leave extends the leave, a Government staff who remains absent after the end of leave is entitled to no leave salary for the period of such absence and that period shall be debited against his leave account as though it were half pay leave, to the extent such leave is due, the period in excess of such leave due being treated as extraordinary leave.

(2) Willful absence from duty after the expiry of leave renders a Government staff liable to disciplinary action.