Compulsorily retired, dismissed or suspended? Past service counts after reinstatement, the gap does not, DoPPW says

The clarification came in an office memorandum dated October 26, 2026, issued under Central Civil Service (Pension) Rules, 2021, which replaced the 1972 rules.

The department reiterated that a government servant dismissed, removed or compulsorily retired and subsequently reinstated on appeal or review is entitled to count past service as qualifying service

"The period of interruption in service between the date of dismissal, removal or compulsory retirement, as the case may be, and the date of reinstatement, and the period of suspension, if any, shall not count as qualifying service unless regularized as duty or leave by a specific order of the authority which passed the order of reinstatement," DoPPW said.

The distinction matters here because pension under the CCS (Pension) Rules is calculated on qualifying service. Every month that is excluded from that count can reduce the pension and, in cases near the threshold, affect eligibility itself.

The memorandum effectively placed the onus on the reinstatement order, saying unless that order expressly treats the suspension and the period out of service as duty or leave, the gap will remain outside the pensionable period.

"All Ministries/Departments are requested that the above provisions regarding Counting of past service on reinstatement under the Central Civil Service (Pension) Rules, 2021 may be brought to the notice of the personnel dealing with the pensionary benefits in the Ministry/Department and attached/subordinate offices thereunder, for strict implementation," the memorandum signed by Ravindra Kumar Yadav, Under Secretary to the Government of India, said.

The department has also issued another memorandum, saying it has received representations where processing of pension cases is delayed because service verification is not done on time.

"Instructions regarding periodic verification of service have been issued by Department of Personnel & Training and by this Department, these instructions are not meticulously adhered to resulting in delay in sanctioning of retirement benefit of the employees," it said

To address this, the department has re-circulated two earlier instructions for compliance under Rule 30 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021: an office memorandum dated October 2, 2022 on periodic verification of qualifying service and its monitoring at the level of the Secretary of the administrative ministry or department. And another O.M. dated October 29, 2025 on periodic verification of qualifying service.

Ministries have been asked to bring both to the notice of all concerned.