Combined Section Officer Limited Departmental Competitive Examination 2019-2022 Rules

MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS

(Department of Personnel and Training)

NOTIFICATION

New Delhi, the 17th July, 2023

RULES

G.S.R. 515(E).—The rules for the Combined Section Officers’ (Grade ‘B’) Limited Departmental Competitive Examination for the years 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 to be conducted by the Union Public Service Commission, for additions in the Select Lists for the Section Officers’ Grade (Grade ‘B’) of the Services mentioned below are, with the concurrence of the Ministries concerned, published for general information.

Category I

Section Officers’ Grade of the Central Secretariat Service. (2019-2022)

Category II

Section Officer Grade of the General Cadre of the Indian Foreign Service, Branch ‘B’ (2019-2022)

Category III

Section Officers’ Grade of the Railway Board Secretariat Service (2019-2022)

Category VIII

Section Officers’ Grade of the Intelligence Bureau. (2019-2022)

Category X

Section Officers in Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service (2019-2022)

Category XI

Assistant Director/Section Officers/Manager Gr.I in Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (2019-2022)

1. The number of persons to be selected for inclusion in the Select List for each grade/service will be specified in the Notice issued by the Commission. Final Selection of the candidates under different categories shall be decided and results declared inter alia based on the guidelines issued by the Department of Personnel & Training vide O.M. No. 36012/2016/2019-Estt (Res.) dated 12.04.2022 subject to final outcome of the Civil Appeal No. 629 of 2022 arising out of SLP (C) NO. 30621/2011.

combined_section_officer_limited_departmental_competitive_examination

In respect of Category – III (i.e the Section Officers’ Grade of RBSS), the seniority list of Assistant Section Officers’ grade is under challenge, the result of Category-III (i.e the Section Officers Grade of RBSS) for the year 2019-2022 would be provisional subject to the outcome of the pending court cases (O.A.s No. 114/2022 and 215/2022), before the Hon’ble Central Administrative Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi, and revision of seniority list of Assistant Section Officers (ASOs’) Grade of RBSS, if any.

2. The examination will be conducted by the Union Public Service Commission in the manner prescribed in Appendix to these Rules. The dates on which and the places at which the examination will be held shall be fixed by the Commission and informed separately by the Commission.

3. Permanent or regularly appointed temporary Officers of the Grade and Services mentioned in column 1 below who on the crucial date of eligibility (as mentioned below) satisfy the conditions regarding length of service and educational qualification etc. mentioned in column 2 shall be eligible to appear at the examination for the respective categories of service mentioned in column 3.

Crucial dates of eligibility

1st July, 2019 for 2019 Examination
1st July, 2020 for 2020 Examination
1st July, 2021 for 2021 Examination
1st July, 2022 for 2022 Examination

Note: Candidates(s) eligible for 2019 examination are also eligible for 2020-2022 Examination. Similarly, Candidates(s) eligible for 2020 examination are also eligible for 2021-2022 Examination, Candidates(s) eligible for 2021 examination are also eligible for 2022 Examination, subject to fulfilment of all other eligibility conditions and provided candidate specifically opts to be so considered.

Column 1	Column 2	Column 3
Assistant Section Officers’ Grade of the Central Secretariat Service and Personal Assistants’ Grade	Not less than 5 years’ approved Service and shall also have earned at least four Annual Performance Appraisal Reports in the Assistant Section Officers’ Grade of the Central Secretariat Service or Personal	Category I

(Stenographers Grade C) of the Central Secretariat Stenographers’ Service	Assistants’ grade of the Central Secretariat Stenographers’ Service. Personal Assistants of CSSS shall possess a Bachelor’s Degree from a recognised University or equivalent.
Assistant Grade of the General Cadre, Personal Assistant Grade of the Stenographers’ Cadre and Cypher Assistant Grade of the Cypher sub-cadre of the Indian Foreign Service, Branch ‘B’	Not less than 5 years approved service and shall also have earned at least 4 Annual Performance Appraisal Reports in the Assistant Grade of the General Cadre/Cypher Assistant Grade of the Cypher Cadre/Personal Assistant Grade of the Stenographers’ Cadre. Further, candidates should possess a Bachelors degree from a recognized University and should have completed such mandatory training programme(s) as may be prescribed by the Ministry of External Affairs.	Category II
Assistant Section Officers’ Grade of Railway Board Secretariat Service and Grade C/ Personal Assistants’ Grade of the Railway Board Secretariat Stenographers’ Service.	Not less than 5 years’ approved and continuous Service in the Assistant Section Officers’ Grade of the Railway Board Secretariat Service or in Grade II / Grade C/Personal Assistants’ Grade of the Railway Board Secretariat Stenographers’ Service or in both as the case may be.	Category III
Assistant Grade of IB/ Stenographers’ Service Grade II of IB	For LDCE 2019- Permanent or regularly appointed temporary Assistant /Stenographers Grade-II (Personal Assistants) of the Intelligence Bureau with not less than 4 years of approved and continuous service in the case of officers appointed in the grades on the basis of Competitive Examination or Limited Departmental Competitive Examination as the case may be, provided that the examination should have been held not less than five years before the 1st July of the year in which the Section Officers Limited Departmental Competitive Examination is held, or not less than five years of approved and continuous service, in the case of officers appointed in the grades on the basis of seniority in their respective feeder grades on 1st July of the year in which Section Officers grade Limited Departmental Competitive Examination is held, will be eligible to appear in the examination. For LDCE 2020-2022: i. Permanent and regularly appointed Assistant Section Officers: or ii. Stenographers Grade-II (Personal Assistants) of the intelligence Bureau possessing a Bachelor’s Degree from a recognised university, with not less than five years’ approved service and shall also have earned at least four Annual Performance Appraisal Reports.	Category VIII
Assistant Section Officer in AFHQ Civil Service	Not less than 5 years’ approved and continuous service in the Assistant Section Officer grade of the Armed Forces Headquarters Service.	Category X
Employees in the grade of Social Security Officer/Manager Grade- II/Superintendent	The employees in the grade of Social Security Officer/Manager Grade-II/Superintendent with two years regular service in pay band-2, Rs. 9300-34800 with grade pay of Rs. 4600/- .	Category XI

Provided that in the case of a candidate (except a candidate appearing for Category I, Category II, who had been appointed to the Grades mentioned in column 1 above on the result of a Competitive Examination, including a Limited Departmental Competitive Examination, such an examination should have been held not less than 5 years before the crucial date and he/she should have rendered not less than 4 years approved and continuous service in that grade on the crucial date.

Note 1 – Permanent or regularly appointed officers of the Grades and Services mentioned in Column 1 above who are on deputation to ex-cadre posts for a specified period with the approval of the competent authority will be eligible to be admitted to the examination, if otherwise eligible and the service rendered by them during the period of deputation will qualify towards the length of service mentioned in column 2.

This however does not apply to the officers of the Grades and Services mentioned in Column 1 above who have been appointed to ex-cadre posts or to another Service on “transfer” (whether they have a lien or not) in their respective Grades and Services referred to in Column 1.

Note 2 – Assistant Section Officers of the Central Secretariat Service and Stenographers of the Central Secretariat Stenographers’ Service who have opted for appointment to the Indian Foreign Service, Branch ‘B’ and have been appointed to any Grade of that Service in pursuance of such option shall not be eligible for admission to the examination for Category I.

Note 3 – Assistant Section Officers of the Central Secretariat Service and Stenographers of the Central Secretariat Stenographers’ Service who are on deputation to the Indian Foreign Service, Branch ‘B’ shall not be eligible for admission to the examination for Category II.

4. After the notification of the rules of the examination in the gazette of India by the Department of Personnel & Training and publication of Notice of Examination by the Commission, the candidates will have to fill in the application form on-line on the UPSC web-site and hard copies of the same are to be routed through proper channel to the Cadre Controlling Authorities of participating services for verification/authentication and onward transmission to the Commission. The scrutiny of applications for deciding the eligibility of candidates with reference to the stipulated eligibility conditions will be done by the CCAs concerned. However, the decision of the Commission as to the acceptance of the application of a candidate and his/her eligibility or otherwise for admission to the examination shall be final.

5. The decision of the Commission with regard to the acceptance of the application of a candidate and his eligibility or otherwise for admission to the Examination shall be final.

6. No candidate will be admitted to the examination unless he holds certificate of admission from the Commission.

7. A candidate who is or has been declared by the Commission to be guilty of:-

i. Obtaining support for his candidature by the following means, namely:-

a. Offering illegal gratification to; or
b. Applying pressure on; or
c. Blackmailing, or threatening to blackmail any person connected with the conduct of the examination; or

ii. impersonation, or

iii. procuring impersonation by any person, or

iv. submitting fabricated document or documents which have been tampered with, or

v. uploading irrelevant photos in the application form in place of actual photo/signature

vi. making statements which are incorrect or false or suppressing material information, or

vii. resorting to the following means in connection with his candidature for the examination, namely:-

a. obtaining copy of question paper through improper means;
b. finding out the particulars of the persons connected with secret work relating to the examination;
c. influence the examiners; or

viii. being in possession of or using unfair means during examination, or

ix. writing obscene matter or drawing obscene sketches or irrelevant matter in the script(s), or

x. misbehaving in the examination hall including tearing of the scripts, provoking fellow examinees to boycott examination, creating a disorderly scene and the like; or

xi. harassing or doing bodily harm to the staff employed by the commission for the conduct of their examination, or

xii. being in possession of or using any mobile phone, (even in switched off mode) , pager or any electronic equipment or programmable device or storage media like pen drive, smart watches etc. or camera or Bluetooth devices or any other equipment or related accessories either in working or switched off mode capable of being used as a communication device during the examination; or

xiii. violating any of the instructions issued to candidates along with their Admission Certificates permitting them to take the examination, or

xiv. attempting to commit or, as the case may be, abetting the Commission of all or any of the acts specified in the foregoing clauses; may, in addition to rendering himself liable to criminal prosecution, be liable :-

a. to be disqualified by the Commission from the Examination held under this Rules for which he/she is a candidate, and/or

b. to be debarred either permanently or for a specified period-

i. by the Commission from any examination or selection held by them ;
ii. by the Central Government from any employment under them; and

c. to disciplinary action under the appropriate rules. Provided that no penalty under this rule shall be imposed except after-

i. giving the candidate an opportunity of making such representation in writing as he may wish to make in that behalf ; and
ii. taking the representation, if any submitted by the candidate within the period allowed to him, into consideration.

7 .1 Any person who is found by the Commission to be guilty of colluding with a candidate(s) in committing or abetting the commission of any of the misdeeds listed at the clauses (i) to (xiii) above render himself liable to action in terms of the clause (xiv).

8. (i) After the examination, candidates shall be considered for vacancies for four years 2019, 2020, 2021 & 2022 subject to their eligibility for any of the years and will be arranged by the Commission in the order of merit as disclosed by the aggregate marks finally awarded to each candidate subject to qualifying standards for each paper/part of the examination as decided by the Commission. However, the results shall be declared separately to ensure that if vacancies remain unfilled in any of the years, the same are carried forward to next vacancy year.

Year wise and Category wise merit lists for inclusion in the Select List will be based on the number of vacancies and candidate’s merit and fulfilment of all other eligibility conditions. The Commission reserves the right to fix minimum qualifying standards for any or all stage(s) or paper(s) of the Examination.

Vacancies remaining unfilled in any of the years due to non-availability of suitable/qualified candidates will be carried forward to the next Vacancy year for Category I, III, VIII and XI. In case of candidates appearing for Category II, only vacancies reserved for SC/ST Category candidates remaining unfilled in any of the years due to non- availability of selected/qualified candidates will be carried forward to the next examination.

(ii) The final selection of the candidates including candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes for inclusion in the Select List for each category will be decided based on the guidelines issued by the Department of Personnel & Training vide OM 36012/16/2019-Estt. (Res.) dated 12.04.2022 subject to the final outcome of the Civil Appeal No. 629 of 2022 arising out of SLP(C) No. 30621/2011.

(iii) For LDCE 2021 and 2022, the final selection of the PwBD candidates for inclusion in the Select List for each category will be decided based on the guidelines issued by the Department of Personnel & Training vide OM 36012/01/2020-Estt. (Res.-II) dated 17.05.2022.

Note: – Candidate should clearly understand that this is a competitive and not a qualifying examination. The number of persons to be included in each Select List on the result of the examination is entirely within the competence of Government to decide. No candidate will therefore have any claim for inclusion in the Select List on the basis of his performance in this Examination as a matter of right.

9. The form and manner of communication of the result of the examination to individual candidates shall be decided by the Commission in their discretion and the Commission will not enter into correspondence with them regarding the result.

10. Success in the examination confers no right to selection unless Government are satisfied after such enquiry as may be considered necessary, that the candidate, having regard to his conduct in service, is eligible and suitable in all respects for selection :

Provided that the decision as to ineligibility for selection in the case of any candidate recommended for selection by the Commission shall be taken in consultation with the Commission.

11. A candidate who after applying for admission to the examination or after appearing at it, resigns his appointment or otherwise quits the service or severs his connection with it or whose services are terminated by his Department or who is appointed to an ex-cadre post or to another Service on ‘transfer’ (whether they have a lien or not) in the Assistant Section Officers’ Grades of the Central Secretariat Service/Railway Board Secretariat Service/AFHQ Civil Service/I.B./ or any post in the Indian Foreign Service, Branch ‘B’ will not be eligible for appointment on the result of this examination.

This, however, does not apply to a person who has been appointed on deputation to an ex-cadre post with the approval of the competent authority.

[F. No. 06/01/2023-CS.I(P)

RAJAT KUMAR, Jt. Secy.

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