The Delhi government has tightened leave procedures for its top officials, requiring additional chief secretaries, principal secretaries and department heads to notify the Chief Minister and the minister in charge of their departments before taking any leave, including casual leave.
An order issued on Wednesday by Service Secretary Nandini Paliwal said the government had observed that existing instructions on leave were not being followed. The matter had been taken seriously by the Chief Minister, according to the order reported by Jagran – New Delhi.
The Service Department has directed senior officials to strictly comply with the procedure. A copy of every leave application submitted by a department head or an officer of a higher rank will also be sent to the Chief Minister’s Secretary, the order said.
The government has warned that failure to follow the instructions could lead to strict action. The direction covers officials responsible for the administration of major departments, including those handling urban development, education, power and other public services.
The latest order refers to instructions issued earlier by the government, under which the competent authority, identified in the report as the Lieutenant Governor, had directed all additional chief secretaries, principal secretaries and heads of departments to provide prior information to the Chief Minister and the concerned ministers before proceeding on leave.
The renewed direction follows concerns that senior officers were taking leave without following the prescribed process. Officials cited in the report described the issue as a serious administrative problem and said that instructions on the matter had been issued regularly.
The matter had also surfaced last year when the office of Cabinet Minister Ashish Sood directed officials in the Home, Education, Higher Education, Urban Development and Power departments to seek leave through WhatsApp. The office found that some officials were proceeding on leave without prior information or were failing to communicate their absence on the day of leave.
For Delhi’s administration, the procedure places responsibility for the absence of senior officials within a more visible chain of reporting. It also creates a formal record of leave applications at the level of the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, while retaining the role of the concerned minister in the approval or notification process.
The Service Department has not announced a separate implementation timeline in the reported order. The immediate instruction is for department heads and senior officials to follow the existing leave procedure strictly, with possible action for non-compliance.
