Casual Leave: RBE No.17/1991 – Master Circular No.15

No.E(G)90 LE1-2.(Master Circular), dated 24.01.1991

Sub: Casual Leave.

1.     The instructions issued by the Railway Board from time to time on the subject of Casual Leave are contained in several letters. It has now been decided by the Railway Board, to issue a consolidated Master Circular, as below, incorporating all the instructions issued so far on the subject, for the information and guidance of all concerned.

2.   Casual Leave is a leave admissible to Railway servants in all groups (i.e. A, B, C & D) and is granted to enable them to attend to sudden/ unforeseen needs/ requirements. It is not recognized as leave or subject to any rule under the leave rules applicable to the Railway servants, Therefore, a Railway servant on casual leave is technically not treated as absent from duty and his pay is not intermitted.

[Ref: Rule 507-R.I. (1985 Edition) and

App.XXXI (iv) (2) of R.I. (1974 Edition)]

2.1   Casual Leave should not, however, be granted to Railway servants so as to cause evasion of the rules regarding:

(a)   Date of reckoning of pay and allowance;

(b)   Change of office;

(c)    Commencement and end of leave; and

(d)   return to duty; or

so as to extend the term of leave beyond the time admissible by rule.

[Ref: Rule 236 – Establishment Code Vol-I/1985]

3.     The total Casual Leave admissible to Railway servants in a calendar year will be as under:-

I	(i)	13 days	To all Railway servants who are eligible to avail of all Public holidays or workshop paid-holidays;
	(ii)	12 days	(a) Workshop staff;
			(b) Railway servants in workshops not covered by the term workshop staff and Railway servants in Printing Presses and Stores Depots, who are getting 15 paid-holidays in a year;
	(iii)	12 days	Divisional Medical Officers and Assistant Medical officers.
	(iv)	12 days	Apprentice Mechanics, Apprentice Khalasis, under training in workshops and other Apprentices not governed by the Apprentices Act, 1961 attached to workshops and printing Presses, who are getting 15 paid holidays in a year;
	(v)	12 days	Trade Apprentices governed by the Apprentices Act, 1961 working in Establishments where proper leave rules do not exist or the total leave of different types admissible to the workers is less than 37 days in a year. [Ref: Rule 9(i) (a) of Apprenticeship Rules 1962]
II		15 days	To all Railway servants who, because of the nature of their duties are not allowed to avail themselves of public holidays at all or are allowed to avail themselves only of a few public holidays;
III		15 days	Artisan staff other than workshop staff, provided they are not covered by a collective option to convert casual leave into paid holidays;
IV		15 days	Casual Labourers who have attained temporary status and who are being allowed to avail of 3 National holidays like regular line staff;
V		17 days (12 days normal 5 days extra)	Railway servants on the Northeast Frontier Railway described in pars 2(ii) of Board’s letter No.E(G)83 AL12/8, dated 23.07.1984.

[Ref: Board’s letters No.E(G)58 AL1/1, dated 15.02.1958,

PC/60/LE7/1, dated 23.04.1960,

E(G)67/LE1/7,  dated 22.11.1967,

*E(G)70/LE1/5, dated 27.04.1972,

E(G)70 LE1/5 Pt., dated 22.06.1973,

E(G)83 AL12/8, dated 23.07.1984,

*E(G)70 LE1/5, dt. 18.02.1972]

4.     Public holidays, closed Saturdays, Sundays and weekly offs falling within a spell of casual leave will not count as casual leave and may be prefixed and/or suffixed to casual leave. A restricted holidays when it is availed of by a Railway servant, should be treated as a Public holiday for this purpose.

[Ref: Board’s letter No.PC-60/LE7/1, dated 24.08.1960]

5.     There is no limit on the total period of absence at a time on casual leave inclusive of public holidays, closed Saturdays, Sundays and weekly offs falling within the spell of Casual leave or which may be prefixed/ suffixed thereto.

[Ref: Board’s letter No.E(G)67 LE1/5, dated 05.08.1967]

6.     Casual leave for half-a-day either for the pre lunch session or for the post lunch session may be granted depending upon the applicant’s needs.

6.1.  A Railway servant, who takes casual leave, while on tour, is not entitled to draw daily allowance for the period of leave. If the casual leave is for half-a-day, while on tour, the Railway servant may draw only half of the normal daily allowance of that day.

[Ref: Rule 1617(2) Establishment Code Vol.II/1987]

6.2   Half-a-day’s casual leave should be debited to the casual leave account of the Railway servant concerned for each late attendance. The practice of allowing Railway servants to attend office late or leave early with permission has ceased with the introduction of the facility of grant of casual leave for half-a—day. Late attendance upto an hour, on not more than two occasions in a month, however, can be condoned by the competent authority, if it is satisfied that the late attendance is due to unavoidable reasons, such as illness in the family, cycle puncture, late running of buses/ trains etc.

[Ref: Board’s letter No.E(G)65 LE2/29, dated 06.11.1965]

63.   Cases of Railway servants leaving office early before the time for closing of office, without permission, should also be treated like late attendance and half-a-day’s casual leave should he debited to the casual leave account of the Railway servant(s) concerned for each such early departure.

[Ref: Board’s letter No.E(G)75 LE1/17, dated 17.10.1975]

6.4   Casual leave for half-a-day may be granted in conjunction with casual leave for a full day or full days.

[Ref: Boards’ letter No.E(G)65 LE2/29, dated 06.11.1965]

6.5   Facility of grant of half-a-day’s casual leave is admissible to all employees including the Teachers in the Railway Schools and colleges.

[Ref: Board’s letter No.E(G)87 LE1/38, dated 17.11.1987]

7.     Workshop staff may be granted casual leave for half-a-day or for the full day on Saturdays, depending upon the periods of working i.e. if there are two periods of working on Saturdays and the absence is during either of the two periods, casual leave may be granted for half-a-day there is only one period of working on a Saturday, the leave should be for a full day.

[Ref: Board’s letter No.E(G)72 LE2/41, dated 10.04.1973]

8.     Casual leave cannot be combined with any other leave, except with:-

(i) Compensatory casual leave granted to Groups ‘C’ & ‘D’ employees other than supervisory staff, for attending on Sundays and holidays;

(ii) Special casual leave sanctioned for participation in sporting events/ events of national importance and for scouting duties, subject to the stipulation laid down in Board’s letter No.E(W)80 WE6/2, dated 05.01.1983; and

(iii) Special casual leave sanctioned for sterilization, recanalisation operations under the Family Welfare Programme. There is also no objection to casual leave being followed by quarantine leave.

[Ref: Board’s letters No.E(W)80 WE6/2, dated 05.01.1983,

E(W)60 SP1/26, dated 30.01.1961,

E/78/H(FW)9/5, dated 11.06.1981, and

Rule 507–Establisıment Code Vol.I/1985]

8.1   Casual leave cannot also be combined with joining time.

[Ref: Board’s letter No.E(G)79 JT1/1, dated 21.02.1980]

8.2   Casua leave cannot be combined with vacation allowed for school staff.

[Ref: Board’s letter No.E55 LE2/74/3, dated 27.07.1955]

8.3   A Railway servant, who has taken casual leave for half-a-day on the afternoon of a working day and is unable to resume duty on the next working day due to unexpected sickness or compelling grounds and he has no casual leave at his credit, may, as an exception to the general rule, be permitted to combine half-a-day’s casual leave with regular leave. In no other situation can this facility be allowed.

[Ref: Board’s letter No.E(G)65 LE2/29, dated 25.06.1966]

9.     If, a Railway servant having no casual leave at his credit comes late without sufficient justification and the competent authority is not prepared to condone the late attendance and does not also at the same time propose to take action under the R.S.(D&A) Rules, the Railway servant should be informed that he would be treated as on authorized absence for the day on which he had come late. It should be left to the Railway servant either to face the consequences of such unauthorized absence or to apply for regular leave as may be due to him. These instructions are, however, not applicable to Railway employees governed by the provisions of P.W. Act, 1936 and I.D. Act.

[Ref: Board’s letter No.E(G)82 LE1/10, dated 20.09.1982 and 14.03.1983]

10.   A candidate who joins Railway service in the middle of the year is entitled to the full quantum of casual leave. While there is no restriction to the grant of the full quantum of casual leave to those joining service in the second half of the year, the authority sanctioning the casual leave should take into account all the circumstances before granting such leave. For example, it would be administratively inappropriate to sanction 12 days/ 15 days/ 17 days of casual leave to an employee, who has joined in the middle of December i.e. on 16^th December.

[Ref: Board’s letter No.E(G)56 LE2/91/3, dated 05.10.1956]

11.   Casual leave not availed of within the calendar year will lapse at the end of the year i.e. on 31^st December.

12.   General Manager may delegate powers to the Senior Subordinates/ Supervisors in independent charge of units, to sanction casual leave to the Group ‘C’ and Group ‘D’ working under them.

13.   (i) While referring to this master circular, the original letters mentioned herein should be read for a proper appreciation. The master circular is only a consolidation of the existing instructions and should not be treated as an substitution to the original circulars. In case of doubt, the original letters should be relied upon as authority;

(ii) The instructions contained in the original letters referred to have only prospective effect from the date of issue unless indicated otherwise;

(iii) If any circular on the subject which has not been superseded has been lost sight of in the preparation of the master circular, the said circular, which has been missed through oversight should not be ignored but should be treated as valid and operative.

14.   Copies of letters on the basis of which the consolidated master circular has been prepared are enclosed.

Important letter issued by Railway Board on Casual Leave

RBE No.	Letter No.	Date	Description	FR/ RBE
–	E(G) 55 LE2/74/3	27.07.1955
–	E(G)56 LE2-91/3	05.10.1956
–	E(G)58 AL1/1	15.02.1958
–	PC/60/LE7/1	23.04.1960
–	PC/60/LE7/1	24.08.1960
–	E(G)65 LE2/29	06.11.1965		280/1987
–	E(G)65 LE2/29	25.06.1966
–	E(G)67 LE1-5	05.08.1967
–	E(G)67 LE1/7	22.11.1967
–	E(G)70 LE1/5	18.02.1972
–	E(G)70 LE1/5	22.04.1972
–	E(G)72 LE2/41	10.04.1973
–	E(G)70 LE1/5Pt.	22.06.1973
–	E(G)75 LE1/1	17.10.1975
–	E(G)82 LE1/10	20.09.1982
–	E(W)80 WE6/2	05.01.1983
–	E(G)83 AL12/8	06.02.1984
–	E(G)83 AL12/8	20.02.1984
–	E(G)83 AL12/8	23.07.1984
280/1987	E(G)87 LE1-3	17.10.1987	Punctuality in Government Offices – Grant of Half-a-days Casual Leave.
	E(G)87 LE1/3	17.11.1987
17/1991	E(G)90 LE1-2	24.01.1991	Casual Leave.
29/1998	F(E)II/98/LE1/1	05.02.1998	Retrospective conversion of one kind of leave into another kind – Adding proviso after sub-rule (1) of Rule 505 – of R-I.
44/1998	E(G)98 LE 1-1	20.02.1998	Reduction in Casual Leave entitlement – Recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission.	09/1999, 70/2004,
09/1999	E(G)98 LE1/1	18.01.1999	Casual Leave.	28.01.1999, 70/2004
–	E(G)98 LE1/1	28.01.1999	Casual Leave.	70/2004
70/2004	E(G)2003 LE1/3	31.03.2004	Casual Leave.

Download Railway Board Circular RBE No.17/1991

Forward reference ⇒ RBE No.