In short. If your office refused leave, marked days as dies non, or regularised an absence as extraordinary leave when other leave was at your credit, the label decides your pay, your next increment and even your pension service. This page is for central employees and recently retired staff whose leave record was settled against them. Most such orders can be corrected by a reasoned representation within a few months; if not, CAT can set them aside, typically within one to two years. Start by getting the exact order and your leave account.
Is this your situation?
- You applied for earned leave in time, heard nothing, went on leave, and now face an unauthorised absence memo.
- An office order says a period of your absence is treated as dies non, and you were never asked to explain.
- Your medical leave was regularised as extraordinary leave even though earned leave or half pay leave was at your credit.
- Your annual increment moved from July to January because a period was not counted.
- Strike or protest days were marked as a break in service under FR 17A.
- Your medical certificate from a private hospital was rejected and the period treated as leave not due or EOL.
- You retired and found that a past dies non or EOL period has cut your qualifying service.
Which label has your office used?
Read the office order slowly, because the exact words matter more than the general sense of being punished. 'Leave refused' means the office said no before or during the period. 'Dies non' means the days are wiped out for pay and service but do not break your service. 'Extraordinary leave' (EOL) is leave without pay that counts for some purposes and not others. 'Break in service' under FR 17A is the harshest, because it cuts your earlier service off for certain purposes.
Each label can be challenged on different grounds, and each costs you something different. An employee who argues that 'dies non is unfair' without noticing that the order actually says 'break in service' is fighting the wrong battle. Get the order, underline the label and the period, and then read the table below.
What each label costs you
| How the period is treated | Pay for the period | Counts for increment | Counts as pension service | Breaks your service |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Earned leave or half pay leave | Yes, full or half | Yes | Yes | No |
| EOL granted on a medical certificate | No | Yes, under FR 26 | Yes | No |
| EOL for personal reasons | No | No, unless the authority certifies a cause beyond your control | No | No |
| Dies non | No | No | No | No |
| Break in service under FR 17A | No | No | Past service at risk unless condoned | Yes, for LTC, quasi-permanency and departmental exam eligibility |
| Unauthorised absence (no order yet) | No, under FR 17(1) | Undecided until regularised | Undecided until regularised | Can lead to disciplinary action |
The rules your case turns on
Rule 7, CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972
Leave cannot be claimed as of right, and the competent authority may refuse or revoke it when the exigencies of public service require. The same rule adds the limit that matters most in practice: the authority cannot change the kind of leave that is due and applied for, except at the employee's written request. If you applied for earned leave that was at your credit, the office cannot on its own turn it into EOL.
Rule 19, CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972
Leave on medical grounds needs a medical certificate in the prescribed form. The authority may get a second medical opinion from a government medical officer. What it cannot do is quietly ignore a certificate and treat the period as unpaid without giving reasons.
Rule 25, CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972
If you stay away after leave ends without an extension, you get no leave salary for the overstay, and the period is debited as half pay leave to the extent due, with the rest treated as EOL. Wilful absence after leave can also lead to disciplinary action. Note the order the rule follows: it debits available leave first.
Rule 32, CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972
EOL is granted when no other leave is admissible, or when other leave is admissible but the employee asks in writing for EOL. Sub-rule (6) lets the leave authority retrospectively convert periods of absence without leave into EOL. That power exists to regularise, not to punish, and it does not override Rule 7.
FR 17(1), FR 17A and FR 26, Fundamental Rules
The proviso to FR 17(1) says an officer absent without authority gets no pay and allowances for that period. FR 17A treats unauthorised absence during an illegal strike, or in concerted action without a valid reason, as a break in service for LTC, quasi-permanency and eligibility for departmental exams, unless the competent authority decides otherwise. FR 26 decides which periods count for increments, including EOL on medical certificate.
When a refusal of leave is lawful, and when it is not
A refusal is lawful when the competent authority actually applies its mind to the needs of the office at that time: an audit, an election, a staff shortage that is real and recorded. It does not have to write a long judgment, but the file should show a reason connected to work. A refusal by someone who is not the leave sanctioning authority, or a silence that the office later calls a refusal, stands on much weaker ground.
Silence is the most common problem. An employee applies for twenty days of earned leave three weeks in advance, gets no reply, and proceeds. The office then calls it unauthorised absence. Tribunals look at whether the employee did what a reasonable person would do: applied in time, followed up, left a contact address, and joined when told to. If you did all that, the absence is far from wilful, and the period should be regularised as the leave you applied for.
Refusals that single out one employee while colleagues in the same section get leave at the same time also invite scrutiny under Article 14. Keep the names and dates if this happened to you. Do not rely only on your memory; office leave registers and attendance records can be obtained under RTI.
Dies non: the order that needs a notice
A dies non order takes away pay, increment credit and pension service for the days covered. Because it has those civil consequences, government instructions under FR 17A and a long line of tribunal decisions expect the employee to be told what is proposed and given a chance to explain before the order is passed. An order that appears in your service book without any notice is open to challenge on that ground alone.
Offices use dies non for three kinds of periods: strike or protest days, days of absence with no application at all, and gaps between relief from one station and joining the next. In the third case, ask whether joining time was due. A transfer usually carries joining time, and a delay caused by the office itself, such as late issue of the relieving order, cannot fairly be pushed onto you.
Advocate B.K. Singh often finds that dies non orders in older service books were passed in bulk for a group of employees after a protest, with no individual notice. Where the employee's own record shows he was on sanctioned leave or on duty that day, the order fails on its own facts.
Earned leave at your credit, EOL in your service book
This is the most frequent error and the easiest to correct. You fell ill, sent a medical certificate, rejoined after six weeks, and the office regularised the period as EOL. Yet your leave account shows ninety days of earned leave and some half pay leave. Under Rule 7 the office cannot alter the kind of leave due and applied for without your written request, and under Rule 25 even an overstay is debited to available leave first.
The fix is a short representation that quotes Rule 7 and Rule 32, attaches the leave account, and asks for the period to be regularised as earned leave or commuted leave on medical certificate. Ask for the pay for the period and the restoration of your increment date as consequences. If the office replies that you did not apply in the right form, point out that the certificate was received and acted on, and that the dispute is only about the kind of leave.
Be careful about one trap. If you signed an application that said 'EOL', even under pressure from the section, the office will rely on Rule 32. In that case explain in writing why you signed it, ask to withdraw it, and request that the leave due be granted instead.
Getting the period regularised the right way
Collect the order and the leave account
Ask for a copy of the order regularising the period and an extract of your leave account as on the first day of the absence. Your e-HRMS e-Service Book should show both; if the entries are not there, ask the establishment section in writing.
Work out what leave was due
Count the earned leave, half pay leave and commuted leave available on that date. If you were medically unfit, commuted leave uses half pay leave at double rate and pays full salary, which may cover the whole period.
Gather proof of your application and illness
Leave applications with diary numbers, emails, WhatsApp messages to the controlling officer, medical certificates, discharge summaries and the fitness certificate on rejoining.
Write one reasoned representation
Address the leave sanctioning authority through proper channel. Quote the rule, state the leave due, say what you want the period to be treated as, and list the consequences you are asking for: pay, increment and service counting.
Follow up with RTI if ignored
After a month, ask under RTI for the notings on your representation. A file that shows no action for months helps you later.
Appeal or go to CAT
If the order was passed as a penalty or alongside one, use the appeal route under the CCS (CCA) Rules. Otherwise, after six months or a rejection, an Original Application can ask CAT to quash the order and direct proper regularisation.
A made-up case: a tax assistant in Bhopal after a road accident
Here's a made-up example. Farida, a tax assistant in a CGST commissionerate in Bhopal, was injured in a road accident in October and admitted for nine days. Her husband informed the superintendent by phone and later sent the hospital papers. She was on bed rest for another two months and rejoined in early January with a fitness certificate.
In March, an office order regularised all seventy four days as EOL 'as no leave application was received in time'. Her leave account showed 112 days of earned leave and 140 days of half pay leave. Because EOL other than on medical certificate does not count for increments, her July increment was pushed back.
Her representation pointed out that the hospital records had been received in October and that Rule 7 barred the office from changing the kind of leave due without her written request. She asked for the period to be treated as commuted leave on medical certificate, or earned leave in the alternative, with full pay and restoration of the July increment. In this illustration the office reviewed the file after an RTI request revealed that the medical papers were on record, and issued a revised order. Had it refused, an OA before the Jabalpur Bench, which covers Madhya Pradesh, would have been her next step.
Papers to collect before you write
- The order refusing leave, or declaring dies non, EOL or break in service
- Your leave application with diary number, email or other proof of sending
- Leave account extract or e-Service Book printout as on the date the absence began
- Medical certificates, hospital records, discharge summary and fitness certificate
- Any show cause notice and your reply, or a note that none was ever issued
- Pay slips for the period and for the months after, showing the cut and the increment date
- Orders granting leave to colleagues in the same period, if you claim unequal treatment
- For strike periods: the call notice, the office circular and your attendance record
Leave options the office should have looked at before EOL
EOL is meant to be the last stop, used when nothing else is admissible. Before an office reaches it, the leave rules offer several kinds of paid leave that employees often do not know they had. Earned leave is the obvious one. Half pay leave builds up at twenty days for each completed year of service and pays half salary. Commuted leave, available on a medical certificate, converts half pay leave at double the rate into fully paid days, so sixty days of half pay leave can cover thirty days of illness on full pay.
Then there is leave not due, which is half pay leave granted in advance against future credit when nothing else is left, mostly on a medical certificate (a limited amount is allowed otherwise), for an employee the authority expects to return to duty. It is a loan, and it can be set off later, but it keeps salary flowing and keeps the period counted. An office that jumped to EOL while half pay leave or leave not due was available has not followed the scheme of the rules.
When you write your representation, list these in order and say which one should have been applied. If the office replies that you did not ask for commuted leave, answer that a medical certificate was on record and that Rule 7 required it to grant the leave due. Ask for the corrected entry to be reflected in the increment date; how a shifted increment date works is explained in the guide on January or July increment dates.
Medical certificates the office would not accept
Offices sometimes reject a certificate because it came from a private doctor, was not in the prescribed form, or arrived late. Each of these is a matter of procedure. Rule 19 gives the authority a way to test the certificate: it can refer you to a government medical officer or a medical board for a second opinion. If it did not do that, refusing the certificate outright is hard to defend.
Where you live in a CGHS city, the office may expect a CGHS or government hospital certificate for longer illnesses. In a small town with no such facility, a certificate from a registered medical practitioner should be enough unless the office has good reason to doubt it. Keep the prescriptions and bills as well; they show the illness was real even if the format of the certificate is challenged.
Leave refused just before a transfer or after a chargesheet
Two situations need extra care. The first is leave applied for immediately after a transfer order. Offices often refuse it to force joining, and an employee who stays back on medical grounds is then marked absent at the new station. If you have a genuine reason not to move, challenge the transfer itself, as explained on our page about transfer orders against the policy, and keep the leave application separate.
The second is leave during a pending inquiry. Being under a chargesheet does not take away your right to leave, but long leave may be seen as an attempt to delay the proceedings. Apply in time, attend every hearing date you are given, and ask for leave around the hearing schedule. If the office has already started an absence case against you, read charged with unauthorised absence before replying.
Leave cut short or revoked while you were away
Rule 7 also lets the authority revoke leave already granted when the needs of the service require it. A recall must be in writing and must reach you. If you were recalled and the recall was compulsory, the return journey is treated as duty and travelling allowance is admissible, so ask for that too. A phone call from a section officer telling you to come back is not a revocation order; ask for the order and join as soon as you reasonably can after receiving it.
Problems arise when an office revokes leave, the employee cannot return at once because of illness or distance, and the office then marks the days after the recall as dies non. The answer is to show when the recall actually reached you and what you did next. The safest habit is an old one: reply in writing the same day, say when you will join, and give the reason for any delay.
Strike days and break in service under FR 17A
FR 17A was written for strikes and concerted absence. It allows the competent authority to treat such absence as a break in service for limited purposes: LTC, quasi-permanency and eligibility for departmental exams that need a minimum period of continuous service. It is not meant to wipe out pension service on its own, and the authority can decide otherwise in a given case.
Employees who joined a one-day strike called by a recognised federation sometimes find years later that the day blocked them from a departmental exam. If that happened, check whether a notice was issued and whether the department later condoned the break for everyone, as departments often do after a settlement with the unions. A condonation order for others in the same office is strong material.
Why these entries matter more at retirement
A few days of dies non look small at forty. At sixty they can mean a lower pension if they push your qualifying service below a full six-monthly block, and they can delay the date of an MACP that was due at ten, twenty or thirty years. If you are within five years of retirement, ask for your e-Service Book now and check every leave entry. Our guide to service book mistakes in joining and leave entries lists what to look for.
Retired employees can still challenge a wrong entry if it affects pension, because the effect continues every month. The page on service left out of qualifying service deals with pension counting, and the effect on your increment is covered under increment withheld or not released.
Railway, postal, defence civilian and Group A staff
Railway employees are governed by the railway leave rules in the Indian Railway Establishment Code, not the CCS (Leave) Rules, though the principles on refusal and kind of leave are close. Railway medical certificates usually have to come from the railway medical officer, and private certificates need countersignature, so the dispute is more often about that step.
Gramin Dak Sevaks are not regular civil servants. Their leave and absence are dealt with under the GDS (Conduct and Engagement) Rules, 2020, and a long absence can lead to the engagement being ended rather than a dies non order. Regular postal staff follow the CCS (Leave) Rules. Defence civilians in units and depots follow the CCS (Leave) Rules and go to CAT. Group A officers face the same rules, but the leave sanctioning authority is usually higher, and a refusal by a lower officer is more likely to be without power.
Where the case is filed
Central government employees, defence civilians and staff of bodies notified under Section 14(2) file before the CAT bench covering their place of posting, or where the order was passed. A retired employee can file where he or she lives after retirement. CAPF personnel, PSU and bank employees, and staff of autonomous bodies outside the notification go to the High Court; armed forces members go to the Armed Forces Tribunal; state government employees go to their State Administrative Tribunal or High Court.
Leave orders are rarely urgent enough for an interim order, except where the period is being used to stop salary entirely or to deny eligibility for a promotion exam that is about to be held. In that case ask for interim relief at the first hearing and explain why waiting would cause loss that cannot be undone.
How long it usually takes, and what it costs
| Stage | Typical time | Official cost |
|---|---|---|
| Reply to a show cause notice on dies non or EOL | Within the period in the notice, often 10 to 15 days | Nil |
| Representation for regularisation | Decision expected within 6 months | Nil |
| RTI for leave register, notings and colleagues' leave orders | 30 days, plus 30 to 45 days for first appeal | Rs 10 fee and copying charges |
| Original Application in CAT | Often 1 to 2 years to final order | Small fixed fee, Rs 50 under the current procedure rules; confirm with the registry |
| Re-fixation of pay and increment after a favourable order | 2 to 4 months, often stated in the order | Nil |
Where employees damage their own leave cases
- No proof of applying. A leave application handed to a colleague with no diary number is almost impossible to prove later. Email it to the controlling officer as well.
- Signing an EOL form to get the salary started. It feels like a formality. It becomes the office's best evidence under Rule 32.
- Ignoring the first notice. If you do not reply to a show cause notice about dies non, the order that follows will say you had your chance.
- Not joining when called back. Whatever the merits of the refusal, staying away after a written direction to join turns a leave dispute into a disciplinary case.
- Waiting until retirement. By then the leave records may be incomplete and the people who knew the facts have moved on.
Getting your leave record checked
Bring the order, your leave account and whatever proof you have of applying, and we will tell you plainly whether the entry is worth challenging and what it is costing you in pay and pension. We meet clients at Dwarka, New Delhi and Vaishali, Ghaziabad, and online for those posted elsewhere. Fees are discussed at the first meeting and agreed in writing, stage by stage. Women employees whose leave issue is about child care should also read child care leave refused or cut short.
If your leave was refused or a period was marked dies non or EOL and you want it looked at properly, contact Advocate B.K. Singh for advice on your papers or for updates on the law.
Frequently asked questions
Can my office refuse earned leave even if I have enough balance?
Yes. Under Rule 7 leave is not a right, and it can be refused when the needs of the office require it. But the refusal should come from the competent authority and should have a work-related reason. A refusal without any reason or by the wrong officer can be challenged.
What does dies non mean in a government service book?
It means the days are not counted for pay, increment or pension, but your service is not treated as broken. It is usually applied to absence without leave or strike days. Because it has financial consequences, you should be given a chance to explain before it is ordered.
Can the office change my earned leave into EOL without asking me?
Not under Rule 7 of the CCS (Leave) Rules, which bars changing the kind of leave due and applied for except at your written request. If you had leave at credit and applied for it, ask for the order to be corrected. Attach your leave account to the request.
Will EOL affect my pension?
EOL taken on a medical certificate counts as qualifying service and for increments. EOL for personal reasons generally does not. If a long period was wrongly treated as personal EOL, it can reduce your qualifying service, so get it corrected before retirement.
I was on a one-day strike. Can it break my service?
FR 17A allows a break in service for strike absence, but only for LTC, quasi-permanency and eligibility for departmental exams, and the authority can decide otherwise. Check whether a notice was issued and whether the break was later condoned for others.
How long do I have to challenge a dies non order?
Start with a representation as soon as you see the order. If it is rejected, you generally have one year from the rejection to approach CAT. Where the entry keeps reducing your pay or pension, the effect continues, but delay can still limit the arrears.
Is a private doctor's certificate valid for medical leave?
It can be, if it is in the required form and from a registered medical practitioner. The office can ask for a second opinion from a government medical officer under Rule 19 if it has doubts. Rejecting it outright without that step is open to challenge.
My increment date shifted because of EOL. Can it be restored?
Yes, if the EOL is changed to leave that counts for increment, such as earned leave or EOL on medical certificate. Ask for the increment date to be restored as a consequence in your representation. The arrears of pay follow from the restored date.