ALTHOUGH IAS OFFICERS BEGIN THEIR SERVICE CAREER AS SDMS, WHILE AS PER CADRE PROVISIONS, HCS OFFICER CAN BE POSTED AS SDM ONLY AFTER COMPLETION OF 5 YEARS OF SERVICE — ADVOCATE HEMANT KUMAR
Face2News/Chandigarh
Haryana’s administrative posting structure has come under scrutiny, with 11 junior-scale Indian Administrative Officers- IAS officers from the 2023 and 2024 batches and 12 junior-scale Haryana Civil Service (Executive Branch)- HCS(EB) officers from the 2023 batch serving as Sub-Divisional Officers (Civil), commonly known as Sub-Divisional Magistrates (SDMs).
The deployment of 23 young officers from two distinct civil services in the same field-administration role has raised questions about cadre classification, service eligibility and the rules governing appointments to one of the state administration’s most important grassroots executive positions.
Advocate Hemant Kumar of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chandigarh, who follows administrative and constitutional matters, has called for clarity on the regulatory framework governing these appointments. He argues that the relevant HCS cadre-strength order and applicable service provisions should be examined to establish the precise eligibility requirements for junior-scale officers posted as SDMs.
23 junior officers, one key administrative assignment
Of the seven IAS officers belonging to the 2023 batch, six are stated to be serving as SDMs. They are Ankita Puwar (Sampla), Abhinav Siwach (Bahadurgarh), Akash Sharma (Tohana), Kanika Goyal (Ambala Cantt), Yogesh Saini (Mahendragarh) and Ravi Meena (Jhajjar).
All five IAS officers from the 2024 batch are also stated to be serving as SDMs: Aditi Singhania (Ellenabad), Rahul Kanwaria (Pehowa), Ruhani (Ferozepur Jhirka), Suman Yadav (Uchana Kalan) and Yogesh Dilhor (Dabwali).
Alongside them, 12 HCS (Executive Branch) officers of the 2023 batch are serving in similar assignments. They are Mannat Rana (Panchkula), Kunwar Aditya Vikram (Nuh), Gurwinder Singh (Narnaul), Vipin Kumar (Maham), Ashish Sangwan (Badhra), Ajay Hooda (Kalayat), Raman Gupta (Indri), Lokesh (Manesar), Vishwanath (Jagadhri), Hanni Bansal (Faridabad), Hari Ram (Hathin) and Ankit Kumar-II (Gohana).
The resulting picture is striking: officers from the two services viz. IAS and HCS, at relatively early stages of their careers, are performing comparable sub-divisional administrative functions. However, occupying the same post does not, by itself, establish equivalence in service status, seniority, pay scale or promotional entitlement.
December 2025 cadre order under the spotlight
Hemant has drawn attention to an HCS cadre-strength determination order issued by Haryana’s Personnel Department in December 2025. According to his interpretation, the order identifies SDM/SDO (Civil) posts with the Senior Scale and Selection Grade categories of officers.
Hemant contends that this classification warrants a closer examination of the eligibility of the 12 officers from the 2023 HCS batch, who are stated to have been assigned sub-divisional responsibilities before completing five years of service.
If the applicable provisions require five years of service or placement in a specified grade for eligibility, the 2023-batch officers would ordinarily reach the five-year mark in 2028, depending on their respective dates of appointment and the rules governing the computation of qualifying service.
The central question, therefore, is whether the cadre order prescribes an eligibility condition for holding an SDM post or merely classifies sanctioned posts by grade. The distinction is legally significant and can be settled only by examining the exact wording of the order alongside the applicable service rules and appointment orders.
IAS and HCS: Different service structures
Direct-recruit IAS officers are commonly assigned field responsibilities as SDMs during the early years of their careers. Under the applicable IAS pay rules, eligible officers ordinarily enter the Senior Time Scale after completing four years of service, subject to the relevant conditions.
Their subsequent postings as Additional Deputy Commissioners (ADCs) and Deputy Commissioners (DCs) depend on experience, eligibility, available positions and the government’s administrative decisions.
HCS officers, meanwhile, belong to Haryana’s state civil service and are governed by their own recruitment, pay, promotion and cadre provisions. Their career progression cannot automatically be equated with that of IAS officers merely because they perform similar functions.
Hemant maintains that the two services have distinct institutional standing and career structures. In his view, the present deployment pattern makes it important to establish whether the appointments are consistent with the prescribed requirements for the posts concerned.
Government’s discretion versus rule-based appointments
The state government exercises administrative authority over postings and transfers, subject to the applicable legal and service framework. The exercise of that discretion, however, must be distinguished from the question of whether an officer satisfies the formal eligibility conditions attached to a particular post.
Hemant emphasizes that his concern is not simply that IAS and HCS officers are serving in similar positions. Rather, he believes that the relationship between the HCS cadre classification and the actual deployment of junior-scale officers deserves a transparent explanation.
The issue now calls for a clear answer from the Haryana government: do the applicable service rules permit junior-scale HCS officers to hold SDM posts before completing five years of service, and, if so, under which provisions?
A clarification from the Personnel Department, supported by the relevant cadre order and service rules, would help determine whether the present arrangement reflects a permissible exercise of administrative discretion or requires further explanation.
For a state whose district and sub-divisional administration depends on clearly defined responsibilities and service structures, the distinction between the authority to post an officer and the eligibility to hold a particular post remains central to the debate.
