05.08.1981. Restriction of Officiating Pay under FR-35 during 3rd CPC
Restriction of Officiating Pay under FR 35 — Clarification for Regular Cadre Promotions
Fundamental Rule 35 (FR 35) lets the Central Government fix an officiating employee's pay below what the normal rules would allow. Until 1981, it was unclear whether this restriction could also be applied to an employee who is simply promoted within their own cadre — not brought in from outside on transfer or deputation.
This Office Memorandum settles the question: FR 35 restrictions do not apply to regular cadre promotions, provided the employee is due for promotion, falls within the zone of consideration, and meets all prescribed qualifications. In practice, this meant genuinely-earned, in-cadre promotions could not be short-changed on officiating pay the way outside/deputation appointments could.
Status of this OM: Superseded. This 1981 letter was issued during the 3rd Central Pay Commission regime and was folded into a consolidated instruction the very next Pay Commission cycle (1986, updated 1987) — see the timeline further down. It survives today only as the historical origin of a principle that later, currently-active orders (most recently 2019) independently restate.
The Office Memorandum — Full Text
No. F.1/23/80-Estt(Pay-I)
Government of India / Bharat Sarkar
Ministry of Home Affairs / Grih Mantralaya
Department of Personnel & Administrative Reforms
(Karmik aur Prashasnik Sudhar Vibhag)
New Delhi, the 5th August, 1981
OFFICE MEMORANDUM
Subject: Restriction of officiating pay under FR 35 — clarification regarding.
The undersigned is directed to refer to Fundamental Rule 35 which provides that the Central Government may fix the pay of an officiating Government servant at an amount less than that admissible under the normal rules. Under the existing orders, the aforesaid provisions of FR 35 operate only in respect of appointments by transfer on deputation. Recently, a question was raised as to whether the said provisions of FR 35 would also apply to cases of promotion within the cadre.
2. The matter has been considered. It has been decided that the restriction of officiating pay under FR 35 should not be invoked in respect of regular cadre promotions where the employee becomes due for promotion, falls within the zone of consideration, and fulfils all the qualifications prescribed for promotion.
3. In so far as the persons in the Indian Audit & Accounts Department (I.A. & A.D.) are concerned, these orders issue in consultation with the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
4. Hindi version is enclosed.
(S. Hariharan)
Under Secretary to the Government of India
View full distribution / endorsement list (20 recipients)
- Comptroller and Auditor General of India, New Delhi (w.r.t. U.O. No. 450-A/91-80 dated 22.6.1981)
- Union Public Service Commission, New Delhi
- Election Commission, New Delhi
- Rajya Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi
- Lok Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi
- Supreme Court of India, New Delhi
- All State Governments and Union Territory Administrations
- Central Vigilance Commission, New Delhi
- Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, New Delhi
- Ministry of Finance, Defence Division
- Ministry of Railways (Railway Board), New Delhi
- Secretary, Staff Side, National Council (JCM), Ashoke Road, New Delhi
- All Members of the Staff Side of the National Council, JCM
- Indian Red Cross Society, 1, Red Cross Road, New Delhi
- All India Services Division, Deptt. of Personnel & A.R.
- All Integrated Financial Advisers of Administrative Ministries
- All Officers/Branches in the Department of Personnel & A.R.
- Controller General of Accounts, Ministry of Finance
- Controller General of Defence Accounts, New Delhi
- All Controllers of Accounts/Pay & Accounts Offices of all Ministries/Departments
Related Rulings & Amendment History
The 1981 clarification was quickly absorbed into a consolidated instruction and then re-issued at every subsequent Pay Commission. Each entry below replaced the one before it — only the current (2019) order is citable today.
OM No. F.1/23/80-Estt(Pay-I), 5 August 1981 — this document
3rd CPC-era clarification: FR 35 restriction does not extend to regular, due, qualification-fulfilling cadre promotions — only to appointments by transfer/deputation.
OM No. 10/12/85-Estt.(Pay-I), 18 July 1986
Consolidated instruction that re-issued the 1981 applicability principle together with a rupee ceiling for the first time — also clarifying that non-regular (ad hoc) promotions within a cadre are subject to restriction, even though regular ones are not. This is the order that effectively retired the standalone 1981 letter.
OM No. 18/26/86-Estt.(Pay-I), 29 July 1987
Modified the 1986 ceiling, benchmarked to Fourth Central Pay Commission (4th CPC) pay scales.
OM No. 18/7/98-Estt.(Pay-I), 15 December 1998
Revised the ceiling formula after the Fifth CPC (5th CPC), capping restricted officiating pay against the new revised basic-pay scales.
OM No. F.1/4/2009-Estt(Pay-I), 8 March 2010
Adapted the ceiling to the Sixth CPC's running pay-band & grade-pay structure — roughly 12.5%–15% of basic pay, capped at ₹2,000/month, depending on the pay band.
OM No. 1/4/2009-Estt.(Pay-I), 31 December 2013
Clarified application of the 2010 ceilings, made expressly effective retrospectively from 1 January 2006 (the date the 6th CPC scales took effect).
OM No. 1/4/2017-Estt.(Pay-I), 28 February 2019
Recast the ceiling for the Seventh CPC pay-matrix system introduced by the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016: an increase is treated as "substantial" — and FR 35 restriction kicks in — only above 12.5% of basic pay or ₹6,700/month, whichever is lower. It independently restates that restriction applies solely to non-regular officiating arrangements, not to due, in-cadre, qualification-fulfilling promotions — the same principle first stated in 1981, now standing on this order rather than the original letter.
| Year | Order | Pay-Commission context | What changed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | F.1/23/80-Estt(Pay-I) | 3rd CPC | FR 35 restriction held inapplicable to regular cadre promotions (this document) | Superseded |
| 1986 | 10/12/85-Estt(Pay-I) | 3rd/4th CPC | Consolidated the 1981 principle with the first rupee ceiling; non-regular/ad hoc promotions declared restrictable | Superseded |
| 1987 | 18/26/86-Estt(Pay-I) | 4th CPC | Ceiling modified for 4th CPC scales | Superseded |
| 1998 | 18/7/98-Estt(Pay-I) | 5th CPC | Ceiling revised to new basic-pay scales | Superseded |
| 2010 | F.1/4/2009-Estt(Pay-I) | 6th CPC | Ceiling redefined using pay band + grade pay | Superseded |
| 2013 | 1/4/2009-Estt(Pay-I) | 6th CPC | Retrospective clarification from 1.1.2006 | Superseded |
| 2019 | 1/4/2017-Estt(Pay-I) | 7th CPC | Ceiling reset to 12.5% / ₹6,700, whichever lower, on the pay matrix | Active |
Discussion
FR 35 sits inside the Fundamental Rules (FR&SR) — the framework of service conditions for Central Government employees, made under Article 309 of the Constitution and carried forward largely unchanged from the pre-independence civil service rules. Its purpose is narrow but important: an officiating appointment is, by definition, a temporary or stop-gap arrangement, and FR 35 gives the government the discretion to avoid paying such an appointee the full pay of the higher post before the arrangement is regularised.
The difficulty this 1981 memorandum resolved was one of scope, not of amount. Two very different situations were being treated the same way: (a) an officer moved sideways into a post via transfer or deputation — genuinely a stop-gap, outside-cadre arrangement, and (b) an officer promoted within their own cadre, in due course, after clearing the normal eligibility and zone-of-consideration requirements. Applying FR 35 to the second category would have meant that even a fully-earned promotion could be paid at less than the prescribed pay — effectively penalising employees for being promoted on schedule. The 1981 order draws a clean line: FR 35 restriction is reserved for case (a); regular, qualifying cadre promotions are excluded from it altogether.
But the 1981 letter itself did not last long as a standalone instrument. Barely five years later, OM No. 10/12/85-Estt(Pay-I) dated 18 July 1986 re-issued the same applicability principle bundled together with the first rupee ceiling for restricted cases — and went further, clarifying that non-regular (ad hoc) promotions within a cadre remain restrictable even though regular ones are not. From that point on, every citable instruction on this subject has been a single, consolidated order covering both "does FR 35 apply" and "by how much" — 1986 → 1987 (4th CPC) → 1998 (5th CPC) → 2010 (6th CPC) → 2013 (retrospective clarification) → 2019 (7th CPC, currently in force). This is standard practice for Indian service-rule circulars: rather than leaving an old clarification standing and cross-referencing it forever, the department periodically folds it into a fresh, self-contained order at each Pay Commission cycle.
So while the 1981 OM predates even the 4th Pay Commission and is not itself the instrument an establishment officer would cite today, its substance did not disappear — it was carried forward, restated, and is embedded in the 2019 OM's "applicability" clause almost word-for-word. That is the correct way to read this document: a superseded original whose ruling still governs, by virtue of having been re-enacted downstream.
For current HR/establishment purposes, readers should cite the 2019 OM (No. 1/4/2017-Estt(Pay-I), 28 February 2019) for both the applicability question and the ceiling (12.5% of basic pay or ₹6,700/month, whichever is lower) — not this 1981 letter. As always with service rules, verify against the latest consolidated FR&SR text and any department-specific instructions before relying on it for a live pay-fixation case.
This post reproduces a historical government circular for reference/archival purposes. It is not legal advice; verify against the current consolidated Fundamental Rules and the latest DoPT instructions before relying on it for an actual pay-fixation case.