Combined Section Officers’ (Grade ‘B’) Limited Departmental Competitive Examination for the year 2023: Notification

Combined Section Officers’ (Grade ‘B’) Limited Departmental Competitive Examination for the year 2023: Notification dated 21.09.2023

MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS
(Department of Personnel and Training)
NOTIFICATION

New Delhi, the 21st September, 2023

RULES

G.S.R. 680(E).—The rules for the Combined Section Officers’ (Grade ‘B’) Limited Departmental Competitive Examination for the year 2023 to be conducted by the Union Public Service Commission, for making additions in the Select Lists for the Section Officers’ (Grade ‘B’’) of the Services mentioned below are, published herewith the concurrence of the Ministries concerned, for general information.

Category I
Section Officers’ Grade of the Central Secretariat Service.

Category II
Section Officer Grade of the General Cadre of the Indian Foreign Service, Branch ‘B’

Category III
Section Officers’ Grade of the Railway Board Secretariat Service

Category VIII
Section Officers’ Grade of the Intelligence Bureau.

Category X
Section Officers in Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service

Category XI
Assistant Director/Section Officers/Manager Gr.I in Employees’ State Insurance Corporation

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.

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 2023 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, 2023 for 2023 Examination

Column 1	Column 2	Column 3
Assistant Section Officers’ Grade of the Central Secretariat Service and Personal Assistants’ Grade (Stenographers Grade C) of the Central Secretariat Stenographers’ Service	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 Assistants’ grade of the Central Secretariat Stenographers’ Service. Personal Assistants of CSSS shall possess a Bachelor’s Degree from a recognised University or equivalent. However, in pursuance of DoPT’s Order No. 21/04/2023-CS.I(P) dated 13.09.2023, the approved service of the DR ASO of CGLE 2017 shall be reckoned from 1.7.2018 and they will be eligible for appearing in the SO LDCE 2023 with minimum 3 APARs in relaxation of the existing conditions of the Rule 2(c) of CSS Rules, 2009 and Rule 4 of CSS Section Officers’ (LDCE), Regulations, 2010 as a one time measure.	Category I
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	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 GradeII/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 and category XI 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.

Click here to read/download full pdf