In short. If you left one central government post for another through proper channel, by technical resignation, and the new office started you at the bottom cell of the new level, you may be entitled to keep the pay you were drawing before. FR 22-B(1) and a DoPT OM of 5 August 2020 protect it while you hold a lien on the old post. The claim begins with a representation to the new office's pay-fixing authority. If refused, or unanswered for six months, the Central Administrative Tribunal can decide it, usually within one to three years.
Is this your situation?
- You were a regular central government employee and got selected for another central post through SSC, UPSC or a departmental advertisement.
- Your application was forwarded by your office, or you gave intimation and got a no objection certificate before joining.
- You were relieved by technical resignation, not an ordinary resignation, and your lien was kept in the old office.
- The new office fixed your basic pay at the first cell of the new level, well below what you were drawing.
- You moved to a post at the same level or a lower level and lost several years of increments.
- You were told pay protection is only for promotion, or only after confirmation.
- Your new office says your old service is "not relevant" for pay, leave or pension.
Short answer: your old pay usually travels with you
A central government servant who is selected for a fresh central post by direct recruitment, having routed the application through the office and been relieved on technical resignation, does not start from zero. During probation in the new post, FR 22-B(1) keeps you on the presumptive pay of your old permanent post, the one you hold a lien on, whenever that figure beats the new post's opening pay. When you are confirmed, pay is fixed again under FR 22. The DoPT OM of 5 August 2020 confirms how this works in the 7th CPC pay matrix.
So if a new office has put you at cell 1 of your new level and ignored ten years of increments, the first question is not whether the rule exists. It is whether you satisfy its conditions: were you a government servant, did you apply through proper channel, did you hold a lien, and is the new post one with probation. If those answers are yes, the office has usually just made a mistake, sometimes because the dealing assistant has only ever handled fresh recruits.
This page is for movement by direct recruitment. Promotion, deputation and absorption are governed by other rules. If your issue is pay on promotion, see our page on wrong pay level or cell after promotion; for deputation and absorption, see repatriation and absorption disputes.
Four conditions the new office will check
- You were a regular central government servant. Protection under FR 22-B is for people moving from one government post to another. Casual staff, contract staff and those engaged through outsourcing agencies are not covered.
- You applied through proper channel. Either your application went through your office, or you informed the office and it issued a no objection certificate before you joined the new post. Applying directly and resigning without permission breaks the chain.
- You left by technical resignation and kept a lien. The relieving order should say the resignation is technical, to take up another government post, and that lien is retained. An ordinary resignation ends your service and your claim to protection with it.
- The new post has probation. FR 22-B is built around the probation period. The DoPT OM covers posts in a different service or cadre filled by direct recruitment. Where there is no probation, protection is handled through FR 22 and older DoPT instructions, which are worth reading closely.
The rules behind pay protection
FR 22-B(1), Fundamental Rules
This rule deals with a person already in government service who is appointed as a probationer in another service or post. The ordinary probationer's pay is the bottom of the scale, or a special probationary stage. The rule then carves out an exception: where the presumptive pay of the permanent post you have a lien on is more, that is what you get. Presumptive pay is the notional salary of the old post as if you had never left it, so it keeps growing with the increments that would have fallen due there.
FR 22(I)(a)(1) and FR 22(I)(a)(2)
When probation ends and you are confirmed, pay is fixed afresh. Where the new post is one of heavier responsibility, FR 22(I)(a)(1) is used, with an increment in the old level before placement in the new level. Where it is not, FR 22(I)(a)(2) places you at the same pay or the next cell in the new level.
DoPT OM dated 5 August 2020 (file 12/2/2017-Estt(Pay-I))
This OM explains protection in the 7th CPC pay matrix with effect from 1 January 2016 in three situations: a new post at a lower level, at a higher level, or at the same level. In each case presumptive pay is drawn during probation if it is higher, with increments on it. The protected figure is capped at the top of the new level. It also says that seniors in the new cadre get no stepping up merely because a protected junior is paid more (see when a junior draws higher pay).
DoPT instructions on technical resignation and lien
DoPT's consolidated instructions on technical resignation treat a resignation submitted to take up another government post, applied for through proper channel, as technical. Past service then counts for pension, earned leave and half pay leave are carried forward, and a lien on the old post is kept for a period so that you can return if you are not confirmed. Your relieving order should reflect all of this.
How protection works at each level of move
| Your new post is | During probation | On confirmation |
|---|---|---|
| At a lower level than the old post | Old post's presumptive pay, where it exceeds the new pay, with increments added | Pay fixed under FR 22(I)(a)(2); presumptive pay protection ends but fixation takes it into account |
| At the same level | You draw presumptive pay of the old post and earn increments in the same level | Pay fixed under FR 22(I)(a)(2), which normally leaves it where it is with the next increment on the usual date |
| At a higher level | You draw presumptive pay if it is still higher than the new post's starting pay, which happens when you had many years in the old post | FR 22(I)(a)(1): one notional increment in the old level, then placement in the new |
| Any level | Protected pay cannot exceed the maximum of the new level | Same limit applies |
A made-up example: a DRDO technical officer turned ministry assistant
Here's a made-up example. Sanjay Reddy works as a Senior Technical Assistant in a DRDO laboratory in Hyderabad, at Level 7, cell 10, drawing Rs 58,600 basic. He clears the SSC examination for Assistant Section Officer, also at Level 7, in a ministry in Delhi. His laboratory forwards his application, gives him a no objection certificate and relieves him by technical resignation with lien retained for two years.
The ministry's pay section fixes him at the entry pay of Level 7, Rs 44,900, the figure printed in the offer of appointment. He loses Rs 13,700 a month in basic pay alone, before DA. When he asks, he is told that the offer letter said so and that pay protection applies only on promotion.
His representation cites FR 22-B(1) and the DoPT OM of 5 August 2020, attaches the relieving order and his last pay certificate, and asks for presumptive pay of Rs 58,600 from his date of joining, with his July increment. The ministry refixes his pay after four months, with arrears. If it had not, he would have filed an OA at the Principal Bench. This story is invented; real files have their own wrinkles, often in the relieving order.
Why offices get this wrong
The offer of appointment for a direct recruit always states the entry pay of the level. That line is written for fresh candidates, and it does not override FR 22-B for someone who arrives from another government post. Dealing assistants sometimes treat it as final. A polite letter citing the rule and the OM fixes many cases without any further step.
The second common problem is the relieving order. If your old office wrote "resignation accepted" without the word technical, or did not mention lien, the new office reads it literally. The fix is to ask the old office to issue a corrigendum, quoting the forwarding of your application and the NOC. Old offices usually cooperate, because the paperwork shows they forwarded you.
The third problem is the last pay certificate. Without an LPC showing your exact level, cell and next increment date, the new office cannot calculate presumptive pay. Ask for it before you leave, and keep a copy of your service book and personal file entries.
When protection is lawfully refused
- You resigned outright. If you applied directly, did not tell your office, and resigned to join, the old service ended. You join as a fresh recruit.
- You came from a state government. FR 22-B and the DoPT OM deal with central government servants. State government employees joining central posts generally do not get this protection, though individual recruitment rules occasionally provide something.
- You came from a PSU or autonomous body. Older DoPT instructions allow limited protection for some employees of central public sector undertakings and central autonomous bodies who join government through proper channel. The conditions are narrower, so read the instruction your office relies on.
- You held only an ad hoc, temporary or contract post. Without a lien on a permanent post, there is no presumptive pay to protect.
- The new level's maximum is lower than your old pay. The protection stops at the top of the new level.
- You moved by deputation, not direct recruitment. Deputation pay is governed by deputation terms and the option between deputation allowance and pay in the new scale.
Beyond basic pay: leave, pension and NPS
Technical resignation protects more than pay. Your past service counts as qualifying service for pension where the old pension rules apply, your earned leave and half pay leave move with you, and your next increment date can be worked out on the basis of the protected pay. Check each item in your first pay slip and your new service book.
Pension is where the stakes are highest. If you joined your first post before 1 January 2004 and moved after that date through proper channel with technical resignation, you remain under the old pension scheme. Offices sometimes enrol such employees afresh in NPS. If that has happened to you, read our page on the old pension scheme and act quickly. For those already in NPS, your PRAN should continue unchanged; a new PRAN is a sign that something has gone wrong.
If your old office later treats your move as a plain resignation and forfeits past service, see resignation treated as forfeiting pension and the page on counting qualifying service.
Probation extended, not confirmed, or going back to the old post
Protected pay continues for as long as you are on probation in the new post, including any extension of probation. Offices sometimes stop it at the end of the original probation period while the confirmation file is still pending. If you have not been confirmed and have not been discharged, you are still a probationer, and FR 22-B(1) still applies.
Your lien on the old post is the safety net. If you are not confirmed in the new post, or you decide within the lien period that the move was a mistake, you can go back to the old post. On reversion you return to the pay you would have drawn there, as if you had never left. The lien does not last indefinitely; DoPT's instructions allow it for a limited period, commonly up to two years, and the relieving order should state it. Once you are confirmed in the new post, the lien on the old one ends.
Many people do not realise that the lien also matters for the protection itself. The rule speaks of presumptive pay of the permanent post on which you hold a lien, or would hold one but for its suspension. If your old office has already terminated the lien, perhaps because the lien period ran out before confirmation, the office may argue protection ended with it. That argument can be answered where the delay in confirmation was the new department's doing, but it needs documents.
If you have already retired on the lower pay
Some people only discover the problem at retirement, when the pension calculation shows a basic pay lower than colleagues who joined the same post from outside government. If your pay was never protected on your move, every later fixation, promotion and MACP was built on a lower base, and your pension reflects it.
The claim can still be made after retirement, because wrong pay fixation is a continuing wrong. The relief usually sought is notional refixation from the date of joining the new post, actual arrears for a limited period, and revision of pension, gratuity and leave encashment. The difficulty is evidence: relieving orders from twenty years ago may be hard to find. Start with your service book, which often records the technical resignation and the old pay, and ask the pension sanctioning authority for the pay fixation papers on your file.
Getting your pay protected: the sequence that works
Collect the paper trail from the old office
You need the forwarding letter or NOC, the relieving order mentioning technical resignation and lien, the last pay certificate and the service book entries. If any of these is missing or badly worded, ask for it now, while people still remember you.
Work out your presumptive pay
Take your old level and cell and add the increments you would have earned on the usual 1 January or 1 July dates. Compare with the new post's pay. Our guide to reading the pay matrix helps with the arithmetic.
Write to the new office's pay-fixing authority
Cite FR 22-B(1) and the DoPT OM of 5 August 2020, attach the papers, and ask that your pay be refixed at the presumptive figure from your joining date, with arrears and the right increment month. Route it through your controlling officer and get a diary number.
Chase the old office if needed
If the new office says the relieving order is unclear, send a short request to the old office for a corrigendum. Copy the new office so both know the issue is moving.
Wait, but watch the clock
The Tribunal expects the department to get up to six months to answer (Section 20, Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985), and Section 21's one year begins once it refuses or that period lapses. Because underpayment repeats every month, the right is not lost by delay, though arrears older than roughly three years before the OA are commonly disallowed. See our note on when the one-year clock starts.
File an OA if refused
The application asks for pay protection under FR 22-B with arrears and consequential refixation on confirmation. Attach every document in the chain. The question is mostly on paper, so these cases are often decided on the first or second final hearing date.
Documents to keep in one folder
From the old office
- Forwarding letter of your application, or the NOC
- Relieving order showing technical resignation and lien
- Last pay certificate with level, cell and next increment date
- Leave account and service book extract
From the new office
- Appointment offer and your joining report
- First pay fixation statement and pay slips
- Order confirming you, if issued
- Any reply refusing protection
Rules and orders
- Copy of FR 22-B and FR 22
- The 5 August 2020 DoPT OM
- DoPT instructions on technical resignation
- Recruitment rules of the new post showing probation
Different situations, different wrinkles
Railway employees moving to another railway post or to a central ministry face their own establishment rules on the railway side, but FR 22-B principles apply on the central side. The relieving order from the division is the document most often wrongly worded.
Postal staff clearing SSC or other direct recruitment examinations often move from Level 4 or 5 to a higher level, where protection matters only if they had many years of service. Gramin Dak Sevaks are in a different position altogether, because GDS engagement is not a regular civil post for this purpose.
Scientists and technical staff moving between research organisations need to check one thing first: was the old employer a government department or an autonomous society? DRDO laboratories and ISRO centres are part of government departments, so their staff stand on the same footing as any central employee. CSIR laboratories and many research institutes are autonomous societies, which brings in the narrower rules for autonomous body staff mentioned above. Our page for scientists in ISRO, DRDO and CSIR covers the forum point.
Ex-servicemen joining civil posts are governed by separate re-employment pay rules, not technical resignation. See ex-servicemen in civil posts.
Group A officers moving between services after a UPSC examination face the same rule, but probation in Group A services is often longer and confirmation slower. Make sure your protected pay continues for the whole probation, including any extension.
Where to file if the office will not budge
Rule 6 of the CAT (Procedure) Rules, 1987 points you to the bench covering your present station, or the one where the refusal was issued. If the old office is also a necessary respondent because the relieving order needs correcting, both offices are made parties. A Delhi ministry employee would file at the Principal Bench; someone who joined a regional office in Bengaluru, at the Bengaluru Bench.
If your new employer is a body not notified under Section 14(2), such as many public sector undertakings or banks, the Tribunal cannot hear it and you would petition the High Court instead. A uniformed member of the Army, Navy or Air Force uses the AFT, and a state employee the state's own forum.
Time and expense, stage by stage
| What happens | Usual time | General cost |
|---|---|---|
| Getting papers and corrigendum from the old office | Two to eight weeks, depending on cooperation | Nil, or RTI fee of Rs 10 if needed |
| Representation to the new office | Decision expected within six months | Nil |
| Preparing and filing the OA | One to three weeks | Tribunal fee is a small fixed sum (Rule 7 of the CAT (Procedure) Rules fixes it at Rs 50; the registry will confirm today's amount and how to pay), plus copying and attestation |
| Notice, reply and rejoinder | Three to eight months | Counsel's fee as agreed |
| Final hearing and judgment | One to three years, faster in some benches | Counsel's charges are talked through when you first meet and recorded in writing, one stage at a time |
| Refixation and arrears after an order | Two to four months is a common compliance period | Contempt or execution petition only if the department ignores the order |
How Advocate B.K. Singh approaches these claims
Advocate B.K. Singh's first request in a pay protection matter is the relieving order from the old office. More cases turn on its wording than on anything else. If it says technical resignation and lien retained, the claim is usually strong. If it says resignation accepted, the first job is to correct it, and an OA before that is premature.
He also asks whether the client is still on probation. Protection during probation is the clearest part of the rule. After confirmation, the dispute shifts to how FR 22 was applied, and the arithmetic becomes more important than the principle. Where the new office has already confirmed you and fixed pay at a figure lower than your old pay, the fixation statement needs to be checked line by line.
Common mistakes when changing government jobs
- Joining before the NOC arrives. If you join the new post without being relieved properly, the old office may treat it as a resignation. Wait for the relieving order, or at least ensure it is issued with the right wording.
- Not asking for the LPC. The last pay certificate is the base of every calculation. Take it with you.
- Signing a fresh NPS form without question. If you were under the old pension scheme, do not sign up as a new NPS subscriber just because the form is put in front of you.
- Assuming the offer letter is the final word. The pay figure in the offer is the entry pay of the level, written for fresh recruits.
- Letting years pass. Underpaid salary is a recurring grievance, yet each year of delay can cost a year of arrears.
This week
Get the relieving order, the forwarding letter or NOC, and the last pay certificate in one place. Calculate your presumptive pay. Write a short representation to the new office's pay-fixing authority citing FR 22-B(1) and the DoPT OM of 5 August 2020, and send it through proper channel. If the relieving order is badly worded, write to the old office the same day. If you want your relieving papers and pay sheet checked, or news of fresh pay protection orders, contact Advocate B.K. Singh.
Frequently asked questions
Is pay protected when a central government employee joins a new post by direct recruitment?
Yes, if you applied through proper channel, were relieved by technical resignation and hold a lien on your old permanent post. FR 22-B(1) then lets you keep the old post's presumptive pay through probation, where that is the larger figure. On confirmation, pay is fixed under FR 22.
What is presumptive pay?
Think of it as your old salary carried forward on paper, with every increment you would have earned had you not moved. It is the figure protected during probation in the new post.
My offer letter says entry pay. Does that override pay protection?
No. The entry pay in an offer of appointment is written for fresh recruits. For someone coming from another central government post through proper channel, FR 22-B and the DoPT OM of 5 August 2020 govern.
Does pay protection apply if I moved to a lower level post?
Yes. The DoPT OM covers moves to a lower, equal or higher level. You draw your old presumptive pay during probation, subject to the maximum of the new level.
I worked in a state government before joining a central post. Will my pay be protected?
Generally not under FR 22-B, which is for central government servants. Check the recruitment rules of your new post and any specific DoPT order that may apply to your situation.
What happens to my leave and pension when I resign technically?
Earned leave and half pay leave are carried forward, and past service counts for pension under the rules that apply to you. If you joined government before 2004 and moved later through proper channel, you should remain under the old pension scheme.
My old office wrote 'resignation accepted' instead of technical resignation. What now?
Ask the old office for a corrigendum, citing the forwarding of your application or the NOC. Once the relieving order reflects technical resignation and lien, send it to the new office with your representation.
How far back can I claim arrears of protected pay?
From the date of joining the new post, in principle. A long wait before approaching the Tribunal usually means only about three years of arrears, counted back from filing.