In short. Under FR 24 your annual increment comes automatically. Only a competent authority's written order can hold it back, normally as a minor penalty imposed through the disciplinary rules, and the order must say for how long and whether it affects future increments. If the increment has quietly failed to appear, write and ask why, and for a copy of any order. Often it is an office error or a misreading of leave or suspension rules, which a representation can fix in weeks; if not, the tribunal can direct release with arrears.
Is this your situation?
- Basic pay in your January or July slip has not moved, and no one has explained.
- The office says your increment is held because an inquiry or vigilance case is pending.
- A penalty of withholding increments has run its course, but your pay was never restored.
- Your increment date was shifted after a spell of extraordinary leave or suspension.
- You were told the increment will be released after your APAR is received or your probation is cleared.
- Your pay was fixed on promotion or MACP and the next increment date looks wrong.
- You are about to retire and a missing increment will reduce your pension for life.
An increment is not a reward that the office decides to give
FR 24 starts from the position that an increment shall ordinarily be drawn as a matter of course unless it is withheld. Withholding is an act, done by an authority with the power to do it, recorded in an order that states the period and whether future increments are postponed. Silence is not withholding. A pay bill that simply leaves out your increment is not an order under FR 24, and nobody in the accounts section has power to decide on your conduct.
Since the Seventh Pay Commission, the 2016 revised pay rules allow one increment yearly, either in January or in July, the date being fixed by when you joined, were promoted or got an upgradation, and you need six months in the level by that date. It adds 3% to basic pay, which in the matrix means the next cell down in your level's column. When the date arrives and the conditions are met, the increment is due. It is for the department to explain why it was not paid, not for you to show why it should be.
That said, there are lawful reasons why an increment date moves or an increment is not drawn. The rest of this page separates those from the reasons that do not hold up, and sets out what to do in each case.
The rules in two minutes
FR 24, Fundamental Rules
Increments are drawn as a matter of course. They may be withheld by the Central Government or a delegated authority if conduct has not been good or work has not been satisfactory, and the withholding order must state the period and whether the postponement affects future increments. Today such withholding is imposed as a penalty under the CCS (CCA) Rules, with their procedure.
FR 26, Fundamental Rules
Sets out what time counts when your next increment is worked out. Duty counts. Leave other than extraordinary leave counts. Extraordinary leave generally does not, which pushes the increment date forward, except for leave on a medical certificate and certain cases such as civil commotion or approved higher technical or scientific study, covered in DoPT orders including an OM of 2 July 2010.
Rule 10, CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016
January and July are the only increment dates. Each employee gets one of them, fixed by the date of joining, promotion or upgradation, provided six months have been put in at that level.
Rules 11(iv) and 16(1-A), CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965
Withholding of increments of pay is a minor penalty under Rule 11(iv). Under Rule 16(1-A), if the proposal is to withhold increments for more than three years, with cumulative effect for any period, or in a way likely to affect pension, the full Rule 14 inquiry must be held first. The Supreme Court in Kulwant Singh Gill v. State of Punjab (1991) treated withholding with cumulative effect as a major penalty in substance.
Reasons offices give, and whether they hold
- Your inquiry or vigilance case is pending. Does not hold. There is no rule that stops an increment because proceedings are pending. The sealed cover procedure applies to promotion, not to increments. See our page on vigilance clearance holding things up.
- Your APAR has not come. Does not hold. Increments are not linked to the receipt of an APAR. A poor APAR is not a withholding order either.
- You were on extraordinary leave. May hold, for the period of EOL that does not count under FR 26. Check whether any part was on a medical certificate, which does count.
- You were under suspension. Holds for the time being. Increments do not accrue while suspended; what happens afterwards turns on the FR 54-B decision about the suspended period.
- A penalty of withholding is running. Holds, if a valid penalty order exists and its period is still running. Ask to see it.
- Your probation has not been declared complete. Usually does not hold, unless your recruitment rules or terms make the increment depend on passing a test or clearing probation. Ask for the rule.
- The pay software did not generate it. Not a reason at all. It is an office error, to be corrected with arrears.
Withholding as a penalty: what must come first
An increment held back as punishment presupposes a Rule 16 memo listing what you are said to have done, a chance to reply, and a written order from the disciplinary authority considering your reply. If any of these is missing, the withholding is open to challenge. Departments sometimes skip the memo altogether and issue a one-line order that the increment is withheld for unsatisfactory work. That is a penalty without procedure, and tribunals set such orders aside.
A cumulative withholding, one running beyond three years, or one that will eat into pension cannot be done through the short minor penalty route. For those, Rule 16(1-A) insists on a regular Rule 14 inquiry. Employees close to retirement should look at this carefully: an increment withheld in the last year of service, even without cumulative effect, may reduce the last pay on which pension is calculated, which brings Rule 16(1-A) into play.
A penalty order must also say how long the withholding lasts and whether it postpones future increments. An order silent on these points is defective. Our page on replying to a Rule 16 minor penalty memo covers the earlier stage, and the note on reduction to a lower stage of pay explains how a related penalty works.
Penalty period over, but the increment never came back
This is the most common problem we see with increments, and the simplest to fix. Say one increment was withheld for two years, non-cumulatively. For those two years you stay on the lower stage. Once they are over, your pay should jump to where it would have been if the penalty had never happened, with every increment since counted. In practice, the order expires, nobody in the office diarises the date, and you continue to draw the reduced pay.
With cumulative effect, the position is different. The withheld increment is lost permanently, and your future increments are postponed accordingly. People sometimes assume their pay will catch up after the penalty ends; with a cumulative order it will not, which is why such an order needs a full inquiry in the first place.
If the penalty was non-cumulative and has expired, send your head of office the penalty order, the date it ended and a request for refixation with arrears from that date. This rarely needs a tribunal case unless the office disputes the reading of the order.
Extraordinary leave, suspension and dies non
EOL taken without medical papers is left out when the increment is counted. Under the two-date system, a few months of such EOL can push your increment from January to July, or July to January, and the new date continues in later years. That is lawful. What is often wrong is the calculation: the office may count the whole year as lost, or fail to treat EOL taken on a medical certificate as counting. Check the leave order and the medical papers.
No increment is paid while you are suspended. After reinstatement, an FR 54-B order settles the status of those months. Where they become duty, say because you were cleared fully or the suspension had no basis, the increments that fell due in that time are drawn with arrears. Where they do not, they drop out of the count and the increment date moves. A decision under FR 54-B is itself an order that can be challenged; our page on suspension and its aftermath discusses it.
Periods treated as dies non, typically unauthorised absence regularised neither as leave nor as duty, also do not count, and push the increment date. If your absence was later regularised as leave, ask for the increment date to be reworked. See our page on leave refused or treated as dies non.
Probation, departmental tests and the first increment
A new recruit draws the first increment on the due date like anyone else unless the rules applicable to the post say otherwise. Some recruitment rules or terms of appointment make an increment depend on passing a departmental examination or a language test within a set time, or on completing probation. Where such a condition exists, it binds; where it does not, the office cannot invent one.
Extension of probation is not the same as withholding an increment, and a probationer whose probation is extended for unsatisfactory work is still entitled to increments unless the rules or an order say otherwise. Ask for the exact provision your office relies on. If it cannot produce one, your claim is strong.
Maternity leave, child care leave, deputation and training
Not every absence from the desk affects the increment. Earned leave, half pay leave, commuted leave, maternity leave and child care leave are all leave other than extraordinary leave, and count in full. A woman employee who returns from six months of maternity leave followed by child care leave should find her increment on the usual date. If it has been postponed, the office has almost certainly treated the leave wrongly, and a short letter citing the leave order usually fixes it.
Joining time on transfer counts as duty. So does an approved training course. Deputation is a common blind spot: an employee on deputation keeps drawing increments in the parent cadre's level, but the borrowing office pays the salary and the parent office maintains the service book, and each assumes the other will process the increment. People come back from a three-year deputation in another city to find that two increments were never drawn. If you are on deputation, check each January and July slip, and ask the borrowing office's DDO to confirm the increment against the parent office's records.
The same applies after an inter-departmental move through proper channel or an absorption. The new office fixes pay on joining, and a mistake in the date of the next increment carried over at that point repeats every year after. Our page on pay on joining a new central job covers that fixation.
Getting a missing increment released
Compare two pay slips
Put the pay slip for the month before the increment date next to the one for the month after. Note the basic pay in both and the cell in your level. If they are the same, write down the increment date you expected and why.
Ask for the reason and the order
Write to your head of office or DDO, through proper channel, asking plainly: has the increment been withheld; if yes, by whom, under which rule, and may you have the order? A short, polite letter is more likely to get a written answer.
Check the service book
Ask to see your service book or e-Service Book entries for the period. Increments, leave and penalties should be recorded there, and an entry withholding an increment without an order is a useful piece of evidence; see our note on getting a copy of your service book.
Send a representation if the answer is wrong
If the office gives a reason that does not hold, or none at all, send a representation to the next higher authority setting out FR 24, the date due and the relief: release of the increment with arrears from the due date. Attach the pay slips and the office's reply.
Go to the tribunal if needed
A rejection, or six silent months, opens the way to an Original Application at the bench covering your place of work. Where a penalty order is involved, the appeal under Rule 23 should usually come first.
Do not wait for the next increment date to raise it. Each missed increment compounds, because the next one is calculated on the lower base.
Papers to collect
- Pay slips for at least three months before and after the increment date.
- Your appointment, promotion or MACP order, which fixes the increment date.
- Pay fixation statement on your last promotion or upgradation.
- Leave orders for any extraordinary leave in the year, with medical certificates if any.
- Suspension, revocation and FR 54-B orders, if you were suspended.
- Any penalty order, with the appellate order if you appealed.
- Service book entries or e-Service Book printout for the period.
- Every letter you have sent about the increment, and every reply.
How long it takes and what it costs
| Step | Usual time | Outgoings apart from our fee |
|---|---|---|
| Letter to head of office or DDO | A reply within two to six weeks is common where it is an office error | None |
| Representation to higher authority | Up to six months before the tribunal can be approached under Section 20 | Speed post |
| Appeal against a withholding penalty | File inside 45 days; a decision often takes a few months | None |
| Original Application in the tribunal | Drafting two to four weeks; a simple increment case is often decided within a year | The tribunal charges a token fee (Rule 7 says Rs 50; the registry will confirm today's amount), plus printing |
| Payment after a favourable order | Whatever period the order allows, commonly eight to twelve weeks | None, unless contempt proceedings are needed |
A pharmacist in Pune and an increment held for vigilance
Here's a made-up example. Ms Kulkarni, a pharmacist at a central government dispensary in Pune, receives a Rule 16 memo in November 2025 about a shortfall in a medicine stock register. She replies within ten days. No order is passed on the memo. Her increment due on 1 January 2026 does not appear in her pay slip, and the dispensary's administrative officer tells her it will be released once the vigilance matter is closed.
In February she writes asking for the order withholding the increment. The reply says no order has been passed, but the increment is kept pending in view of the disciplinary case. She sends a representation to the Additional Director, citing FR 24 and pointing out that a pending minor penalty memo is not an order withholding anything. Nothing comes back by the end of August.
Her lawyer files an Original Application. The department's reply concedes that no penalty has yet been imposed. On these facts, a tribunal would ordinarily direct release of the January 2026 increment with arrears, leaving the department free to decide the Rule 16 memo in accordance with law. If a penalty is later imposed, it operates from the date of that order, not backwards.
Ms Kulkarni's case turned on two letters: her own request for the order, and the office's reply admitting there was none. Had she accepted the oral explanation in January and waited for the vigilance matter to close, she might have waited two years and lost part of the arrears to delay.
Which forum, and how far back arrears go
A central government employee's increment dispute is a service matter for the Central Administrative Tribunal, filed at the bench for the place of posting or where the decision was taken. Retirees have the extra choice of the bench where they live. Railway, postal and defence civilian staff, and those of notified bodies, take the same road. CAPF personnel take theirs to the High Court, and employees of PSUs and banks claim increments under their own rules and settlements, outside the tribunal.
A missing increment is a continuing wrong, because every month's pay is lower than it should be. That helps on limitation: the claim is not dead because the increment was first missed years ago. It does not help much on arrears. Tribunals still tend to apply Union of India v. Tarsem Singh (2008) to pay, refixing pay for the future but paying arrears only for around three years before filing. That cap has been questioned in recent pension cases, so check the current position, but do not count on recovering a decade of arrears. Our page on pay arrears and interest explains how interest is argued.
What the tribunal can order, and when a case is not worth it
Where there is no order at all, the usual result is a direction to release the increment from the due date, refix pay in later years, and pay the arrears within a fixed time. Interest is sometimes awarded where the delay was plainly the department's fault, though it is not automatic. Where a withholding penalty exists, the tribunal examines the procedure and the reasons; it may quash the order, or send the matter back to the disciplinary authority to decide again properly, which is less satisfying but common.
The tribunal will not decide whether your work was good enough to deserve the increment. That is a matter for the competent authority. Its job is to see that the rules were followed, the order was passed by the right person, and the reasons bear some relation to the record.
Some cases are not worth a tribunal filing. If the increment is missing because of a few weeks of EOL that genuinely does not count, the loss is a shift of six months in the increment date, and a representation pointing out any arithmetic error is enough. If a valid penalty is running and you did not appeal it, the better course is often to let it run and make sure it is restored on time. Spend the effort where there is no order, a defective order, or a penalty that has quietly outlived its period.
Retiring soon: why the last increment matters most
Pension is worked out on last pay or the ten-month average, whichever helps you more. An increment lost near the end therefore shrinks your pension permanently, and family pension after it. Two years or less from superannuation with an increment missing? Treat it as urgent.
A related but separate problem affects those who retire at the end of June or December, with an increment due the following morning. Following the KPTCL judgment of 2023 and later Supreme Court directions, DoPT has allowed a notional increment for pension purposes in such cases. That is covered on our page on the last increment for 30 June and 31 December retirees; whether it counts for family pension and commutation is still being clarified, so check the current position.
When the increment date itself is wrong
Sometimes the increment is paid, but on the wrong date. On promotion or MACP you choose whether pay is fixed straight away or from your next increment date in the old level, and that choice sets every later increment date. If the option was never offered, or was recorded wrongly, your increments may be falling six months late every year.
This is a fixation error rather than a withholding, but the remedy looks similar: ask for the fixation statement and the option form, check the dates, and represent. Our guide on how the January or July increment date is decided walks through the arithmetic.
Mistakes that cost people their increments
- Accepting an oral reason. Without a written reason you have nothing to challenge and nothing to show the tribunal.
- Waiting for the inquiry to end. Inquiries take years. A pending case does not justify holding the increment, and arrears beyond three years may be lost while you wait.
- Not appealing a withholding penalty. A penalty order not appealed in 45 days is much harder to challenge later. Appeal first.
- Forgetting the end date of a penalty. Put it in your diary the day the order comes, and write to the office the week it ends.
- Ignoring the EOL calculation. One wrong month of EOL can move the increment date for every remaining year of service.
Group C staff, officers and autonomous bodies
For Group C staff, the increment is usually processed by the drawing and disbursing officer in a regional or divisional office, and errors are often local. A letter to the head of office solves many of them. For Group A and B officers, increments are rarely missed by error; when they are held, it is more often because of a pending vigilance matter, and Advocate B.K. Singh's first question in such cases is whether any order exists at all. Usually it does not.
People working for autonomous bodies, research councils, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan and central universities may have their own pay rules that adopt the Fundamental Rules with changes. Check which rules apply to you and whether the body is under the tribunal; if it is not notified under Section 14(2), the remedy is a writ. Gramin Dak Sevaks receive annual increments in their TRCA under their own scheme, not under FR 24.
Do this before the next pay day
Take your last two pay slips and your most recent fixation order, and write down the date your increment should have come and the amount it should have added. Then send a one-page letter asking for the reason and the order. If an order exists, you will know what to appeal. If none exists, you will have the department's admission in writing, which is the most useful document in any later case.
If an increment of yours has been withheld or not released and you want someone to go through the papers, or want updates on DoPT orders on increments, contact Advocate B.K. Singh.
Frequently asked questions
Can the office simply stop my increment without passing an order?
No. FR 24 says increments are drawn as a matter of course unless withheld by a competent authority, and withholding needs a specific order stating the period and its effect. A pay bill that omits the increment is not such an order.
Can an increment be held because an inquiry is pending against me?
No rule allows that. The sealed cover procedure applies to promotion, not increments, so the increment should be released while the inquiry continues.
Does extraordinary leave delay my increment?
Generally yes, because EOL does not count under FR 26 and the increment moves to the next 1 January or 1 July. EOL on a medical certificate, and a few other approved kinds, do count.
What happens to increments during suspension?
They are not drawn while you are suspended. On reinstatement, if the period is treated as duty under FR 54-B, the increments are released with arrears; if not, the increment date shifts.
My withholding penalty has ended. Why is my pay still low?
If the penalty was without cumulative effect, your pay should be restored to the stage you would have reached; offices often forget to do this. If it was with cumulative effect, the loss is permanent and later increments are postponed.
Is withholding an increment a minor or major penalty?
Rule 11(iv) lists it among minor penalties. Still, Rule 16(1-A) demands a full Rule 14 inquiry before any withholding that is cumulative, lasts over three years or is likely to hit pension.
How much back pay will I get for a missed increment?
Your pay is corrected going forward, but for pay claims tribunals usually allow arrears for roughly three years before you filed. Raising the issue promptly protects the most money.
Where do I complain about a withheld increment?
First to your head of office in writing, then to the next higher authority. If that fails, central employees can file in the Central Administrative Tribunal; CAPF personnel go to the High Court.