Arrested and Held Over 48 Hours? Deemed Suspension and Getting Back to Work

What the rule does at the 48th hour

Under Rule 10(2) of the Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965, an employee kept in custody beyond 48 hours is treated as if the appointing authority had suspended him, starting from the date he was detained. It does not matter whether the detention is on a criminal charge or otherwise, so preventive detention is covered too. Nobody has to sign anything for this to happen. Once custody crosses 48 hours, the suspension exists, and it reaches back to the day you were taken in.

The office usually issues a short order afterwards saying you are deemed to have been placed under suspension with effect from a certain date. That order only records what the rule has already done. Some employees try to attack the deemed suspension by pointing out that the order came late or was signed by the wrong officer. That rarely goes anywhere. The useful fight is about how long the suspension lasts, and that is where most people lose months.

The same sub-rule has a second limb. A conviction carrying a jail term longer than 48 hours also brings suspension, this time from the conviction date, unless the department removes you from service then and there. That situation is handled differently and is explained further down.

The rules that decide your position

Counting the 48 hours: police custody, judicial custody and the bail hearing

The clock starts when the detention starts, which is normally the time of arrest written in the arrest memo, not the time you were produced before the magistrate. Police custody and judicial custody both count. If you were arrested at 7 in the evening on a Friday and walked out on bail at noon on Sunday, you were in custody for 41 hours and Rule 10(2) does not apply. If bail papers were processed only at 9 on Sunday night, it does.

This is why the arrest memo and the release papers matter so much. Ask the lawyer handling your bail to get certified copies of the arrest memo, the remand order and the release order, and keep the jail release slip. The time of release is often written on that slip and nowhere else. A few hours either side of 48 decide if there is any suspension at all.

If custody stayed under 48 hours, there is no deemed suspension. The department can still suspend you under Rule 10(1)(b) where a criminal case is under investigation, inquiry or trial, but that needs a real order by the competent authority after applying its mind, and that order can be questioned on its own merits. The days you were away should be covered by leave; apply for it as soon as you are out.

Anticipatory bail changes the picture. If a sessions court or the High Court protected you from arrest, there was no custody and nothing to deem. If you surrendered and got regular bail on the same day, count the hours before you assume anything.

While custody lasts: what the family can do

• Inform the office in writing. Government instructions expect an arrested employee to report the arrest and its circumstances to his superiors promptly. When the employee cannot, a family member should send a short letter giving the date of arrest, the police station and the FIR number, and saying the employee will report once released. Hiding an arrest is treated as a separate lapse.
• Do not send leave applications. Once custody crosses 48 hours, leave is the wrong category. A leave application sent in panic only confuses the record later.
• Collect papers early. FIR copy, arrest memo, remand orders, bail application and bail order. The same papers are needed for the criminal case and the service side, and they are easier to get while the bail lawyer is already on the file.
• Keep letters to the office short. Do not write long explanations about the complainant or the facts of the FIR. Whatever you write goes into the personal file and may be read by a disciplinary authority or a prosecutor later.
• Ask how subsistence allowance will be paid. The family can ask the drawing and disbursing officer what certificate is needed and which account the allowance will go to. The certificate of not being employed elsewhere can be signed after release for the months already passed.

Bail does not end the suspension

This surprises almost everyone. Bail ends the custody, but the deemed suspension carries on under Rule 10(5) until an authority modifies or revokes it. If you turn up at office with the bail order, the section officer will, quite correctly, refuse to let you mark attendance. You stay suspended, on subsistence allowance, until an order says otherwise.

Advocate B.K. Singh's first question to an employee who comes to him after bail is simple: on what date did your appointing authority receive written intimation of your release? Very often nobody sent one. The family told the section on the phone, or the employee met the branch officer in the corridor. Under the proviso to Rule 10(7), where you were still inside at the 90-day mark, the review period runs from the release or from the date the appointing authority is informed of it, whichever is later. Without a written intimation, the department can say the clock never began.

So the intimation is the most useful paper you will write in the first week. Send it through your head of office, marked to the appointing authority. Enclose the bail order and release slip, state the date and hour you came out, mention where you are now living and a mobile number that works, and ask for revocation of the deemed suspension. Keep the diary number or an acknowledged copy. Speed post with tracking works; where the office accepts emails, a mail to the authority's NIC id gives you a cleaner timestamp. Our guide on grounds for asking for revocation of suspension covers what to write.

From release to rejoining: the order in which things should happen

For most Group B and Group C staff, whether posted in a Delhi ministry or a district-level field office, things go best in roughly this order. Group A officers follow the same steps, with the cadre controlling authority in place of the head of office.

1. Send the intimation of release

   No later than the second day after you come out, put the bail order and release slip before the appointing authority with a request to revoke the deemed suspension. You can mention the 90-day review requirement politely. Keep proof of delivery.

2. Add a short note on the nature of the case

   Explain in four or five lines what the FIR is about and whether it has any link with your official duties. If it is a matrimonial complaint, a neighbour's quarrel or a road accident, say so plainly. Do not argue the criminal case in this letter.

3. Claim subsistence allowance

   Hand in the certificate of no other employment and claim the allowance backdated to the day of arrest. If three months have passed or are close, ask for the FR 53 review and an increase, since the delay is not of your making.

4. Track the review committee

   If 90 days from your intimation are near and nothing has arrived, write again asking whether the review committee has met. An extension passed after the 90 days have run out is open to challenge, so note every date.

5. Appeal if revocation is refused or suspension is extended

   A refusal to revoke, or an extension, can be appealed under Rule 23 within 45 days. It is normally heard by the officer one level above whoever passed the suspension; the schedule to the rules or your department's delegation order confirms who. Keep it short and factual.

6. Go to the Tribunal if the department sits on it

   If the appeal lies undecided, or extensions are being signed as a formality, an Original Application (OA) can be moved before the Central Administrative Tribunal, asking for interim relief as well. The Tribunal does not interfere with suspension lightly, so the application has to show what went wrong in the process, not only the hardship.

7. Join and record the date

   When the revocation order comes, join on the date it allows and submit a joining report. Ask in writing that the suspension period be decided under FR 54-B, even if the order says it will be decided later.

The Tribunal normally wants to see that the department had its chance first; that is the point of Section 20 of the Administrative Tribunals Act. An appeal that is pending for six months, or a refusal that is final, opens the way to the Tribunal. Read how a Section 20 representation should be written before you rush to file.

How review committees look at an arrest case

The review committee is supposed to ask whether keeping you out of office still serves any purpose. In an arrest case that usually turns on three things: how serious the offence is, any link it has with the work you do in office, and whether your presence in office could affect the investigation or the witnesses. A bribery trap in your own section is weighed very differently from a fight among relatives in your home town.

Government guidance on suspension has long said it is not a punishment and should be reserved for offences involving moral turpitude, corruption, or conduct that makes your continuance against the public interest. If the FIR falls outside those categories, the case for revocation becomes strong once the investigation is over or the police have filed their report in court. Where the investigation is live and the witnesses are your colleagues, expect resistance.

Revocation does not have to mean going back to the same seat. The department can revoke the suspension and post you to a non-sensitive desk, or to another office in the same station. Some employees refuse this and stay suspended longer out of pride. A posting you dislike can be questioned later; months on reduced pay cannot be undone.

Then there is Ajay Kumar Choudhary v. Union of India (2015), where the Supreme Court said a suspension ought not to stretch past three months unless a memorandum of charges has been served in that time. How far that applies to a deemed suspension tied to a criminal case is argued both ways, and benches across the country have read it differently. Some treat the filing of a police chargesheet in court as enough to justify continuing the suspension. It is a good point to make where nothing is moving, but not one to lean on alone.

Subsistence allowance for the days in custody and after

Subsistence allowance is payable from the date the deemed suspension begins. FR 53 pegs it at what you would have received on half pay leave, with dearness allowance worked out on that figure. Before paying, the office needs your signed statement that you have taken up no other job, trade or business during the period. Families often do not know this, and months go unpaid simply because no certificate reached the cash section.

After three months, the competent authority has to look at the amount again. If the suspension has gone on for reasons not attributable to you, the allowance can go up by as much as half of the original figure, which takes you to roughly three quarters of half pay. If the authority thinks you caused the delay, for instance by seeking adjournment after adjournment in the trial court, it can cut it by up to 50 per cent. A cut should come with reasons you can answer.

HRA and similar compensatory payments may still be drawn where their usual conditions hold, such as staying on in the same station. Ask the office for a written statement of what is being paid and what is held back; it saves arguments later. For the review of the amount, see when to ask for subsistence allowance to be raised, and for the paperwork, the certificate of not being employed.

Time and cost at each stage

Papers to keep in one folder

When the FIR has nothing to do with your job

A large share of arrests of central employees come out of family and neighbourhood disputes: a complaint by a wife or her parents, a property fight between brothers, a scuffle at a wedding, a road accident with injuries. None of these touch the office. Yet deemed suspension applies with the same force, because Rule 10(2) looks only at the fact of custody, not at what the case is about.

In such cases, the request for revocation should describe the case without getting into blame, and point out that there is no link with official duties and no colleague is a witness. If a compromise is under way, the High Court has quashed the FIR, or the police have filed a closure report, send that to the office at once. Do not wait for the next review.

Separately, think about whether the department may also treat the incident as misconduct under the CCS (Conduct) Rules, 1964. A private dispute is not misconduct by itself, but conduct unbecoming of a government servant under Rule 3 is a wide phrase, and some offices do issue a chargesheet over the same incident. If that happens, read about criminal and departmental proceedings running together before you reply to anything.

If you were convicted: Rule 10(2)(b) and what follows

A conviction with a sentence of more than 48 hours brings deemed suspension from the date of conviction, if the department does not dismiss you at once. Rule 19 of the CCS (CCA) Rules then allows the disciplinary authority to impose a penalty on the ground of the conduct that led to the conviction, without a regular inquiry. The authority must still consider the circumstances of the case and choose a penalty that fits. Dismissal is not automatic, and the rule permits you to be heard on the proposed penalty, which you should ask for in writing.

If the appellate court suspends your sentence and grants bail, the conviction itself still stands. Departments often keep the suspension going, or proceed under Rule 19, while the criminal appeal is pending. If the conviction is set aside later, a penalty based only on it falls with it, and you can ask for reinstatement and a fresh decision on the intervening period. Send a certified copy of every appellate order to the office within days of getting it.

Small convictions, such as a fine for a traffic offence, do not attract Rule 10(2)(b) at all, because there is no sentence of imprisonment beyond 48 hours. Disclose them where a form asks, but they are not a suspension issue.

Railway, postal, defence civilian and CAPF staff

On the railways, the Railway Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1968 apply instead. They carry an equivalent deemed suspension clause and the same idea of review and revocation, though the forms and appellate authorities differ; see the page for railway staff. Regular staff of the Department of Posts are under the CCS (CCA) Rules like any other central employee. Gramin Dak Sevaks are not. They are governed by the GDS (Conduct and Engagement) Rules, 2020, where the matching step is being put off duty, with its own rules on allowance and review.

A storekeeper in an ordnance depot, a draughtsman in the MES or a nursing assistant in a military hospital is a defence civilian. The CCS (CCA) Rules apply to such staff, and their forum is the Central Administrative Tribunal; the AFT is for uniformed members of the forces. CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP and SSB personnel are a different story: each force has its own Act and rules, and after the departmental appeal the case lies in the High Court. Staff of public sector undertakings and nationalised banks also usually end up before the High Court.

For Group A officers the difference is mostly practical. Appointments in that group are usually made in the President's name through the cadre controlling ministry, and files move slowly. Send the intimation of release to the cadre controlling authority through your immediate superior, with an advance copy direct, so the date of receipt in the ministry cannot be disputed.

Which Tribunal bench, and whether to file at all

A challenge to a deemed suspension, a refusal to revoke it or an extension is an OA under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985. It normally goes to the bench covering your present place of posting, or the place where the order was passed. For staff working in Delhi, that means the Principal Bench at Copernicus Marg. Someone working in Ghaziabad or Noida would ordinarily go to the Allahabad Bench, and someone in Gurugram or Faridabad to the Chandigarh Bench, though an order issued from a Delhi headquarters can sometimes bring the case to the Principal Bench. Check the bench before preparing papers. The general process is set out on the page about preparing and filing an OA.

Because suspension is not a penalty, benches hesitate to undo it. An OA works best where there is a clear failure in the process: no review within 90 days of the intimation of release, an extension passed after the deadline, a suspension running for a year with no chargesheet in either forum, or subsistence allowance simply not paid. Urgent interim relief under Section 24 is possible in a strong case; see interim relief before the Tribunal.

Sometimes the honest advice is to wait. If the police report is due in court within weeks, or the review committee is about to meet, a well-written representation will often get you back sooner than a case the department will take two months to answer.

Mistakes that keep people suspended longer

• Relying on phone calls. A spoken update to a section officer is not an intimation to the appointing authority. Without a dated letter, nobody can prove when the review period began.
• Arguing the criminal case in letters to the office. Long accounts of the complainant's motives end up in the personal file and can be quoted against you later.
• Refusing a changed posting. Turning down revocation because it comes with a move to another section usually means more months on subsistence allowance.
• Not claiming subsistence allowance. It is not paid without the certificate. Arrears can be claimed later, but it is easier not to fall behind.
• Missing the 45-day appeal. An order extending suspension is appealable. Let the deadline pass and you lose the simplest remedy you had.
• Rushing to the Tribunal. An OA filed a week after bail, with no request for revocation on record, rarely gets interim relief.
• Neglecting the trial. Missed dates in the criminal court invite a cut in subsistence allowance and give the department a reason to keep you out.

After you rejoin: the suspension period and your record

Revocation leaves one question open: what to make of the months you spent out. FR 54-B answers it. Where the authority finds the suspension was entirely unjustified, the whole period is paid in full and treated as duty, counting for increments, leave and pension. In any other case it may sanction only part of the pay, but it must first tell you what it proposes and hear your side. Where the criminal case is still pending, most departments put this decision off until the case ends. That is permitted, but put your request on record so the matter is not forgotten.

On acquittal, the certified copy of the judgment should reach the office quickly, along with a letter asking that the months under suspension be regularised as duty. Whether the acquittal is clean or on benefit of doubt will matter, and departments read judgments closely; see honourable acquittal and benefit of doubt. If a departmental penalty follows instead, the suspension period is decided along with it.

Suspension also touches promotion. A DPC that sits during your suspension, or after a court has taken the police report on file, will probably put your result in a sealed cover. Advocate B.K. Singh usually tells clients to note the DPC dates for their cadre for this reason, so that a review DPC can be asked for at the right time. Our page on the sealed cover procedure covers what happens to that envelope later.

Your next few days

Out on bail but still suspended? Then three letters should leave your hands this week: the intimation of release with the bail order, the claim for subsistence allowance with the certificate, and, if a refusal or extension has already been passed, an appeal under Rule 23. Keep copies with proof of delivery. If the employee is still in custody, a family member can send the intimation of arrest and ask how the allowance will be paid.

Wider questions, such as who can order a suspension and how long it can run, are covered on our page for a suspended central government employee. The team at the Dwarka and Vaishali offices can go through your papers in person or online. If you want someone to read your bail papers and suspension orders, or to keep you posted on changes in the law, speak to Advocate B.K. Singh.