IREC Rule No.902: Definitions
902. Definitions:-
In these rules, unless, there is anything repugnant in the subject or context;
(1) ‘Accounts Officer’ means the Financial Adviser and Chief Accounts Officers of a railway or such other officer as may be appointed in this behalf by the Railway Board.
(2) ‘Children’ means legitimate children and step-children. It shall also include adopted children.
(a) For the purpose of payment of Provident Fund excluding special contribution, only if the Accounts Officer is satisfied after obtaining such legal advice as he may consider necessary that under the personal law of the subscriber, adoption is legally recognized as conferring the status of a natural child; and
(b) For the purpose of payment of special contribution to the provident fund, at the discretion of the General Manager, according to the circumstances of each case irrespective of whether the adoption was valid under the personal law of the subscriber having regard to his religion or not.
(3) ‘Controlling Officer’ means in relation to the classes of subscribers specified in the first column of the table below, the officer or authority specified in the corresponding entry in the second column thereof.
| Sl.No. | Classes of Subscribers | Controlling Officer |
| 1 | Subscribers under the Administrations control of a General Manager. | General Manager |
| 2 | Subscriber employed in a department or office, project or factory directly under the control of the Railway Ministry. | Head of the department office, project or factory |
| 3 | Subscribers not above the rank of Section Officers of the Railway Ministry | Secretary, Railway Board |
| 4 | Head of departments or Officers directly under the control of the Railway Ministry and General Manager and Officers above the rank of Section Officers employed in the Office of Railway Ministry. | The Railway Board |
| 5 | Railway servants employed in the Railway Audit Department. | The additional Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General of India (Railways) |
Railway Ministry’s Decision: The powers exercised by the Secretary, Railway Board, as ‘Controlling Officer’ may also be exercised by the Joint Secretary, Railway Board, in respect or officers not above the rank of Section Officers and by the Deputy Secretary, Railway Board, in respect of Group ‘C’ and Group ‘D’ staff of the Railway Board’s office, provided the Controlling Officer and / or General Managers are empowered to re-delegate such powers to lower authorities or, such powers can be exercised by authorities lower than the controlling officers under the relevant rules.
[Authority: No.E55/AD-6/4, 15.05.1956, 19.04.1951 & No.F(E)III/74PW/1, 10.06.1974]
(4) ‘Dependent’ means any of the following relatives of a deceased subscriber namely, a wife, husband, parent, child, minor brother, unmarried sister and deceased son’s widow and child, and where no parent of the subscriber is alive, a paternal grandparent.
(5) ‘Emoluments’ means pay as defined in Rule 103(35) in IREC Vol-I and includes any remuneration of the nature of pay received in respect of foreign service, and dearness pay;
Provided that;
(i) The monthly emoluments of a Group ‘C’ and Group ‘D’ railway servant entitle to running allowances shall include a fixed components representing the pay element in the running allowance, as notified by the Government through administrative instructions from time to time.
(ii) The emoluments of a railway servant who is on deputation out of India shall be deemed to be the emoluments he would have drawn had he remained on duty in India; and
(iii) In the case of a person re-employed under reemployment terms, emoluments shall mean only the emoluments as admissible as a re-employed person. If in any case pension is held in abeyance, the gross pension (including portion of pension commuted) and /or pensionary equivalent of other retirement benefits held in abeyance shall be excluded from these emoluments.
Railway Ministry’s Order: The term ‘Actual Amount Of Running Allowances’ represents running allowance subject to the usual limit of seventy-five percent of pay, of running staff employed in relief of permanent station staff and running staff attached to the Indian Territorial Army (Railways).
(6) ‘Family’ means;
(a) In the case of male subscriber, the wife or wives, parents, children, minor brothers, unmarried sisters, deceased son’s widow and children and where no parents of the subscriber are alive, a paternal grandparents;
Provided that if a subscriber proves that his wife has been judicially separated from him or has ceased, under the customary law of the community to which she belongs, to be entitled to maintenance, she shall thenceforth be deemed to be no longer a member of the subscriber’s family in matters to which these rules relate unless the subscriber subsequently indicates, by express notification in writing to the Accounts Officer that she shall continue to be so regarded;
(b) In the case of a female subscriber, the husband, parents, children, minor brothers, unmarried sisters, deceased son’s widow and children and where no parents of the subscriber are alive, a paternal grandparents.
Provided that if a subscriber, by notification in writing to the Accounts Officer, expresses her desire to exclude her husband from the family, the husband, shall henceforth be deemed to be no longer a member of the subscriber’s family in matters to which these rules relate, unless the subscriber subsequently cancels formally in writing her notification excluding him;
Provided further that in either case if the child of a subscriber has been adopted by another person and if, under the personal law of the adopter, adoption is legally recognized as conferring the status of a natural child, such a child shall be considered as excluded from the family of the subscriber.
(7) ‘Fund’ means the State Railway Provident Fund.
(8) ‘Pay’ for the purpose of Special contribution to Provident Fund admissible to Railway servants under Rule 915 means pay as defined in Rule 103(35) which the railway servant was receiving immediately before quitting service. The benefit of higher officiating pay will, however, be given only if such pay was drawn continuously for a period of not less than 22 days. In the case of running staff, the pay for Special Contribution to Provident Fund will include the monthly average of the running allowance drawn during 365 days of running duty immediately preceding quitting service limited to 55% of the pay as determined above. In the case of running staff the pay for special contribution to Provident Fund will include a fixed component representing the pay element in the running allowance, as notified by the Government through administrative instructions from time-to-time.
Note-1: If a Railway servant, immediately before his retirement or death etc. has been absent from duty on leave, the pay for the purpose of Special Contribution to Provident Fund should be taken as that it would have been had he not been absent from duty;
Provided that the benefit of higher officiating or temporary pay is given only if it is certified that he would have continued to hold the higher officiating or temporary appointment but for his proceeding on leave.
Note-2: The officiating pay drawn by Railway servant while on deputation to other departments of the Central Government or to a State should be taken into account for determining pay under the above para.
Note-3: The pay drawn by the Government servant while on Foreign Service or deputation to non-Government bodies will not count for Special Contribution to Provident Fund. In such a case the pay which the Government servant would have drawn under the Government, had he not been sent on Foreign Service / deputation will also be taken into account.
Note-4: In the case of persons governed by the prescribed scales of pay the ‘Dearness Pay’ shall mean pay under Rule 103(35)
[Authority: No.F(E)III 68PF-1/21, 12.09.1969]
Railway Ministry’s Decision:-
(i) The intention of the term ‘Running Duty’ in this rule is to exclude only such periods during which the railway servant is taken off from the running post to officiate in a stationary post and draws the pay of the stationary post without any running allowances;
(ii) In cases where a railway servant has been officiating in a stationary post for the entire period of 365 days or more, the period of 365 days immediately preceding the date of the stationary appointment should be taken.
[Authority: No.F41AL19(I), 02.10.1941]
(iii) In the case of members of the running staff, who on transfer from a stationary post to a running post, may not have completed three hundred and sixty-five days of running duty before quitting service, their average running allowance for purposes of this rule should be calculated on the basis of actual days of running duty in the manner indicated in (i) above.
(iv) The term ‘monthly average of running allowance drawn during the 365 days of running duty immediately preceding the date of quitting service’ used in proviso (i) of the rule should be interpreted to mean 1/12th of the total running allowances drawn during the 365 days or running duty immediately preceding the date of quitting service.
(9) ‘Running Allowance’ is an allowance ordinarily granted to running staff for the performance of duty directly connected with the charge of moving trains; and include ‘Mileage Allowance’ or ‘Allowance In Lieu Of Mileage’ but excludes special compensatory Allowance.
(10) ‘Service’ for the purpose of the special contribution admissible under Rule 915 means continuous service during which a subscriber holds a lien or a suspended lien on a permanent post paid monthly from railway revenues but includes the period of;
(i) Officiating or temporary service or service as paid apprentice or as a probationer if followed without break by permanent service;
(ii) Service in monthly paid works establishment;
(iii) Which the President may by a general or special order permit to be counted as service.
(11) ‘Subscriber’ means a person who is required or is permitted to subscribe to the fund under these rules;
(12) ‘Technical Department’ means Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Transportation (Power) and Mechanical Engineering and Signal and Tele-communication Department;
(13) ‘Year’ means a financial year.