Effects of extraordinary leave on government service

              Hello, my dear readers. In this post, we will talk about the effects of without pay leave on the service of a regular government employee. Extraordinary leave is also known as without pay leave.

               As per rule 8.121(1) of the Punjab civil service rules volume 1 part 1, Extraordinary leave may be granted to any Government employee in special circumstances:–

(a) When no other leave is admissible, or

(b) When other leave is admissible, but Government employee concerned applies in writing for the grant of extraordinary leave.

       Also, the authority empowers to grant extraordinary leave may commute retrospectively period of absence without leave into extraordinary leave. Extraordinary leave taken by a Government employee otherwise than on medical certificate may also be Commuted into "leave not due‟ at the discretion of the authority competent to sanction leave. Let's study the effects of extraordinary leave:-

Different effects of Extraordinary leave

(a) On Annual Increment;
(b) On Probation;
(c) On Assured Career Progression that is ACP;
(d) On Other kinds of leave;
(e) On qualifying service.

            Always remember extraordinary leave taken on a medical certificate is countable for all of the above aspects. Now let's study the effects if the employee takes extraordinary leave otherwise than on medical certificate:-

Effect on Annual Increment

                The annual increment of an employee will be postponed for the days for which he takes extraordinary leave. This means if an employee takes extraordinary leave of two months and if his date of annual increment is 01-03-2021 then he will get this increment on 01-05-2021.

Let's study the whole concept by the following question:-

Question: Suppose an employee has joined as a Math teacher on 25-10-2013 forenoon. He takes extraordinary leave without pay from 16-05-2014 to 15-07-2014. When he will get his increment.

Answer: In the normal course, if the employee has not taken extraordinary leave(without pay) then he would have been granted increment on 01-10-2014. But due to extraordinary leave from 16-05-2014 to 15-07-2014 the date of annual increment will be 01-12-2014 calculated as under:-

                               Date of Joining:    25-10-2013

                 Date of next increment:   01-10-2014

        Period of extraordinary leave:   Y--M--D

                            16-05-14 to 31-05-14: 0--0--16

                                            June-2014:  0--1--00

                   01-07-2014 to 15-07-2014: 0--0--15

                                                     Total: 0--2--01 

                So adding 2 months and 1 day to 01-10-2014 it becomes 02-12-2014 that will be 01-12-2014 vide note 2 below rule 4.9 A of the Punjab civil service rules volume 1 part 1.

Effect on probation 

                If the employee takes extraordinary leave during the probation then his probation period will be extended for that period of time. This means if an employee has joined as a regular government employee on 15-01-2019 forenoon on probation of two years and has availed extraordinary leave of 13 days during the probation. Then he will complete his probation period of two years on 28-01-2021 which he was otherwise in normal routine completed on 15-01-2021.

                      This indicates that the probation period of that employee is extended for 13 days. Remember one thing in this case that date of increment will not change as he has availed extraordinary leave of fewer than 30 days. for more clarity you can read the "effect on annual increment" section again. The government of Punjab, Department of Personnel has issued a letter no. 1/04/2018-1PP.1/63 dated: 20-06-2018 in this regard.

Effect on Assured Career Progression(ACP)

                Like probation, ACP that is Assured Career Progression which is given to a government employee on the completion of 4,9 and 14 years of service on the same post and in the same cadre is also extended for the time for which you take extraordinary leave.

                   It is also clarified by the government of Punjab, Department of personnel by their letter no. 7/14/2011-1PP1/117 dated 06-02-2014 that period of extraordinary leave will not be counted towards service countable for assured career progression. This means that if an employee has completed 4 years of service on 12-12-2016 and he has availed 14 days extraordinary leave during these four years then he will get ACP from 26-12-2016.

Effect on other leave

In case of Earned leave

                    As you know as per rule 8.1 of the Punjab CSR volume 1 part1, leave is earned by duty only. So as the employee is not on duty during extraordinary leave and also he is not drawing any kind of pay during this leave. So the period of extraordinary leave is excluded during the calculation of earned leave. Again we clarified here that extraordinary leave here means EOL without a medical certificate.

In case of Half pay leave

                    As we have learned that according to rule 8.113(iii) half pay leave means leave earned in respect of a completed year of service. The meaning of a Completed year of service is continuous service of the specified duration under the Punjab Government and includes periods spent on duty as well as on leave including extraordinary leave. Clearly period of extraordinary leave is included during the calculation of half pay leave.

Effect on service qualifying for pension

                    According to rule 4.7 of the Punjab Civil service rules volume II, The time passed by a Government employee on leave of all kinds except extraordinary leave, other than that extraordinary leave counted towards increment under rule 4.9 (b) of Volume I (Part I), shall count as service qualifying for pension.

                   From above we can conclude that extraordinary leave taken without a medical certificate is not countable towards the service qualifying for pension.

                        So that's all. We hope that this article helps you a lot. If you like this article kindly share it with your friends and colleagues. Please follow this website for the latest updates and like us on Facebook also. In case of any query, you can comment in the comment section provided below.