Guidelines regarding maintenance of Service Books

For reference of Officers engaged in maintenance of service books in their Office/Department, and for the use of the Government servants as reference, the rules relating to maintenance of service books are given below :

 [SR 197].

1.1   A Service Book should be maintained by the Head of Office for every Government Servant (Gazetted and Non-Gazetted) holding a substantive post on a permanent establishment or officiating in a post or holding a temporary post likely to last for more than one year.

Custody of Service Books
[SR 198].

1.2    A service book shall be maintained for a Government servant from the date of his first appointment to Government service. It must be kept in the custody of the Head of the Office in which he is serving and transferred with him from office to office.

Attestation of Entries in Service Books
[Government of India decision (1) below SR 199 in the Swamy's Compilation of FRs & S Rs, Part 1 (7th Edition)].

1.3   The Head of Office can delegate, to a subordinate gazetted officer under him, powers to attest entries in the service books of all gazetted officers (except his own) for the maintenance of which he is responsible. The Head of Office should however scrutinize at least ten per cent of these documents every year and initial the same in token of having done so.

Entries of Foreign Service in Service Books
[SR 203].

1.4   If a Government servant is transferred to foreign service, the Head of his Office or Department must send his service book to the Pay & Accounts Officer who will return it after noting in it, under his signature, the order sanctioning the transfer, the effect of the transfer in regard to leave admissible during foreign service etc. On the Government servant’s re-transfer to Government service his service book must again be sent to the Pay & Accounts Officer who will then note in it the fact of recovery of leave salary and pension contributions. No entry relating to the period spent on foreign service should be attested by any authority other than the PAO. This fact is ,however to be recorded by DDO in case of the merged DDO Scheme.

Leave Account
[Rule 15 of CCS (Leave) Rules].

1.5   A leave account shall be maintained for each Government servant (Gazetted or Non-Gazetted) by the Head of Office. Entries regarding leave in the leave account and the service book should be made distinctly and attested.

Nature of Entries in Service Books
[SR 199].

1.6   Every step in a Government servant’s offical life should be recorded in his service book and each entry must be attested by the Head of Office or if he himself is the Head of Office, by his immediate superior. The Head of Office must see that all entries are duly made and attested and that the service book contain no erasure or over-writing, all corrections being neatly made and properly attested.

[Government of India Orders(1) below SR 199 of the "Swamy's Compilation of FRs & SRs (Part 1) (7th Edition)''].

1.7   The entries regarding increments, and fixation of pay should be based on the Increment Certificates, and Pay fixation statements. The declaration of the Government servant electing the new scale of Pay and the statement showing the fixation of his initial pay in the relevant scale in support of the entry in the service book should be pasted in the service book.

[Rule 4 of the LTC Rules].

1.8   The declaration of Home-Town for purpose of Leave Travel Concession duly accepted by the competent authority should be pasted in the service book.

(SR 200].
1.9   Every period of suspension from employment and every other interruption in service must be noted promptly with full details of its duration and be properly attested.

Periodical Inspection of Service Books by the Govt. Servant Concerned
[SR 202].

1.10   The Head of Office should show the service book to each Government servant under his administrative control every year, and obtain his signature therein in token of his having inspected the service book. A certificate to the effect that he has done so in repect of the preceding financial year should be submitted by him to his next superior by the end of every September.

Entries regarding Date of Birth

1.11   The provisions of Rules 79 and 80 of GFRs should be observed with regard to the entry of the date of birth in the service book.

[Note 5 below FR 56].

1.12   No alteration in the date of birth of a Government servant should be made except with the sanction of the Ministry/Department concerned of the Central Government, under which the Government servant is serving, provided :

(a)    A request in this regard is made within five years of his entry into Government service

(b)    it is clearly established that a genuine bonafide mistake has occured; and

(c)    the date of birth so altered would not make him ineligible to appear in any School or University or UPSC examination in which he had appeared, or for entry into Government service on the date on which he first appeared at such examination or on the date on which he entered Government service.

Entries regarding verification of service
(GFR 81).

1.13   (i) In the beginning of each year all the service books should be taken up for verification of service by the Head of Office in terms of Rule 81 of GFRs and a certificate in the following manner recorded therein over his signature :- "Service verified upto (date) from ……………………the record from which the verification is made”.    [Government of India Decision No.(1) below GFR 81].

(ii)    If any portion of service cannot be verified from office records, the Head of Office should state distinctly that for the excepted periods (naming them) a statement in writing by the Government servant as well as a record of the evidence of his contemporaries ,is attached to the service book.  [Government of India decision(3) below GFR81].

1.14   In case of transfer of Government servant, the Head of Office under whom he was originally employed should record the verification of service in respect of the whole period during which the Government servant was employed under him before forwarding the service book to the office where his services are transferred.

Providing certified copy of Service Book

[Government of India decision No.(5) below GFR 81].

1.15   A certified copy of service book may be supplied on payment of a copying fee Rs. 5/- to a Government servant who asks for it on quitting Government service, by retirement, discharge or resignation.

Note regarding receipts of nominations for pension/ DCRG & other important to entries
[Government of India Decision No. 1 below Rule 53 of CCS (Pension) Rules,1972].

1.16   A clear note should be made in the service book regarding the receipt of nomination for DCR Gratuity and Family Pension and related notices from the Government servant and where they have been lodged for safe custody.

[Government of India Decision(7) below GFR 81].

1.17   The orders of the competent authority regarding the counting or otherwise of periods of extraordinary leave,or periods preceding breaks in service or qualifying service for pension should be obtained invariably at the very time the occasion arises and not later. Such orders should be noted in the service book.

[Government of India Order No. (5) below SR 199 in Swamy's Compilation of FRs,Part 1 (7th Edition)].

1.18   General Provident Fund Account No. allotted to a Government servant (including any subsequent changes in the Account No.) should be entered on the right hand top of page 1 of his service book by means of a rubber stamp.

[Para 4.2 of M/F OM No.F.15(3)/78 WIP dated 30-10-80,read with OM No..F.15(3)/78 WIP,dated 20-2-82].

1.19   The Head of Office should ensure that necessary note of the membership of CGEGI Scheme has been made in respect of Government Servants who were in service on 1st November,1980 and who did not exercise the option to opt out of the scheme and those who joined the Government Service later.

[Para 9 of the M/F O.M. No. F. 15(3)/78 WIP, dated 31-12-80].

1.20   The Head of Office should obtain from every Government servant who is a member of C.G.E.G.I. Scheme a nomination in Form 7/Form 8 as the case may be, countersign it and paste it in the Service Book. Whenever the nomination is revised by the Government servant, the fresh nomination should be similarly counter-signed and pasted.

1.21   The photograph of the Government servant should be pasted on the right side of page 1 of the service book.

4.23   Proper entries regarding medical examination of the Government servant at the time of appointment and attestation forms verifying antecedents and character etc. should be made at the appropriate place of the service book.