Pay Fixation – Information Document by DoPT
(Updated on 13.09.2022)
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions
Department of Personnel & Training
Establishment (Pay-I Section)
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Pay Fixation
Department of Personnel and Training has issued various instructions from time to time on pay fixation of Government servants. These instructions are broadly categorized as under:
A. Pay fixation on promotion and availability of option.
B. Pay fixation on transfer to a lower post on own volition under FR 15(a).
C. Restriction of Officiating Pay under FR 35.
D. Stepping up of Pay.
2. All these instructions issued till date have been consolidated under easily comprehensible headings for the facility of reference and guidance of all concerned.
Part- A : Pay fixation on promotion and availability of option:
I. FUNDAMENTAL RULE
1F.R. 22 (I) The initial pay of a Government servant who is appointed to a post on a time scale of pay is regulated as follows:
2(a)(1) Where a Government servant holding a post, other than a tenure post, in a substantive or temporary or officiating capacity is promoted or appointed in a substantive temporary or officiating capacity, as the case may be, subject to the fulfillment of the eligibility conditions as prescribed in the relevant Recruitment Rules, to another post carrying duties and responsibilities of greater importance than those attaching to the post held by him, his initial pay in the time-scale shall be fixed by giving one increment in the level from which the Government servant is promoted and he or she shall be placed at a cell equal to the figure so arrived at in the level of the post to which promoted or appointed and if no such cell is available in the level to which promoted or appointed, he shall be placed at the next higher cell in that level.
Save in cases of appointment on deputation to an ex cadre post or to a post on ad hoc basis or on direct recruitment basis, the Government servant shall have the option, to be exercised within one month from the date of promotion or appointment, as the case may be, to have the pay fixed under this rule from the date of such promotion or appointment or to have the pay fixed initially at the next higher cell in the level of the post to which he or she is promoted on regular basis and subsequently, on the date of accrual of next increment in the level of the post from which Government Servant is promoted, his pay shall be re-fixed and two increments (one accrued on account of annual Increment and the second accrued on account of promotion) shall be granted in the level from which the Government Servant is promoted and he or she shall be placed at a cell equal to the figure so arrived, in the level of the post to which he or she is promoted; and if no such cell is available in the level to which he or she is promoted, he or she shall be placed at the next higher cell in that level.
In cases where an ad hoc promotion is followed by regular appointment without break, the option is admissible from the date of initial appointment or promotion to he exercised within one month from the date of such regular appointment.
In cases where an officer has retired as ad hoc before being regularised to that post and later on has been assessed during the process of regularisation and found fit by the competent authority along with his or her juniors, who are still in service and are eligible to avail of the option facility from a date on which the retired employee was still in service, the same option facility shall also be extended to the retired employee, to be exercised within three months from the date when his or her junior became eligible to avail of option facility and in cases where such retired employee was himself the junior most, he or she may exercise the option facility within three months from the date when his or her immediate senior became eligible to avail of option facility:
Provided that where a Government servant is immediately before his promotion or appointment on regular basis to a higher post, drawing pay at the maximum of the level of the lower post, his initial pay in the level of the higher post shall be fixed at the cell equal to the figure so arrived at in the level of the post to which promoted or appointed by increasing his pay in respect of the lower post held by him on regular basis by an amount equal to the last increment in the level of the lower post and if no such cell is available in the level to which he is promoted or appointed, he shall be placed at the next higher cell in that level.
3(2) When the appointment to the new post does not involve such assumption of duties and responsibilities of greater importance, he shall draw as initial pay, the stage of the time scale which is equal to his pay in respect of the old post held by him on regular basis, or if there is no such stage, the stage next above his pay in respect of the old post held by him on regular basis:
Provided that where the minimum pay of the time scale of the new post is higher than his pay in respect of the post held by him regularly, he shall draw the minimum as the initial pay:
Provided further that in a case where pay is fixed at the same stage, he shall continue to draw that pay until such time as he would have received an increment in the time scale of the old post, in cases where pay is fixed at the higher stage, he shall get his next increment on completion of the period when an increment is earned in the time-scale of the new post.
On appointment on regular basis to such a new post, other than to an ex-cadre post on deputation, the Government servant shall have the option, to be exercised within one month from the date of such appointment, for fixation of his pay in the new post with effect from the date of appointment to the new post or with effect from the date of increment in the old post.
(3) When appointment to the new post is made on his own request under sub-rule (a) of Rule 15 of the said rules, and the maximum pay in the time-scale of that post is lower than his pay in respect of the old post held regularly, he shall draw that maximum as his initial pay.
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