IAS, IPS couples can now work in one state

New Delhi, February 14

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In a Valentine’s Day gift to All India Services officers, the government today amended rules to mandatorily allow married couples from the IAS and IPS get the same cadre state. However, they will not get a cadre which is the home state of either of them.

The amendment was cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The rules will be applicable to officers of the three All India Services — Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS).

The decision to amend the rules was triggered by the case of 2011 batch IAS officer P Parthiban, who married his batchmate and Tamil Nadu cadre IPS officer Nisha, hailing from Delhi.

Parthiban is a native of Tamil Nadu and has been allocated Union Territories cadre, which includes Delhi. The couple had sought either the Tamil Nadu or the UT cadre to which they belonged citing their marriage, as civil services rules allow the couple to shift to one cadre state.

The earlier rule also did not make it incumbent upon the government to shift the cadres of officers mandatorily and said it may do so as far as possible.

The ACC today approved that in cases where either of the officers cannot opt for the cadre state of the spouse in case it was also his or her home state, they can be allotted the immediate next cadre they had opted for while filling out the detailed application form for civil services examination, an order issued by the DoPT said.

A candidate has to give his or her order of preference of a desired cadre before appearing for the main examination.

After today’s amendment to the rule, Parthiban and Nisha are likely to get the Gujarat cadre, as earlier opted by them, according to a senior DoPT official. — PTI