In short. If your OPS option was not implemented, you are not alone: many employees who opted in 2023 under the 3 March 2023 OM still see NPS deductions in 2026. The OM made the option final and set dates for the switch, so the department cannot simply leave it pending. This guide is for central employees who opted and are still waiting, and for families of those who retired or died meanwhile. Letters and a Tribunal case usually take three months to two years. Begin by finding out whether your eligibility was ever decided in writing.
Is this your situation?
- You submitted the OPS option form in 2023 and kept the acknowledgement.
- Your pay slip still shows a 10 per cent NPS deduction and a government NPS contribution.
- No GPF account number has been allotted and no GPF deduction appears.
- Your PRAN is still active and the NPS statement shows fresh credits.
- Colleagues from the same batch have been shifted, but your case is still 'under process'.
- You are due to retire soon and nobody can say whether you will retire under NPS or old pension.
- You were asked to fill a UPS option form in 2025 while your OPS option was pending.
In short
- The switch has four links: eligibility decision, office order, GPF in place of NPS, and closure of the NPS account. Find out which link has broken in your case.
- The OM set dates for each link. Orders were due by 31 October 2023 and NPS accounts were to close from 31 December 2023.
- The option, once exercised, is final. Neither you nor the department can treat it as a request to be considered at leisure.
- Write to the officer who holds the broken link, by designation. The DDO, the PAO and the appointing authority each control a different part.
- If you are close to retirement, act now. Retiring with the switch incomplete creates a far bigger problem than a delayed GPF account.
- A group of affected colleagues can file one application before CAT. That is often faster and cheaper than individual cases.
What should have happened after you opted
The 3 March 2023 OM gave a one-time option to employees appointed against posts advertised or notified before 22 December 2003 but placed in NPS on joining after 1 January 2004. Eligible employees had to opt by 31 August 2023. After that, the matter was to go to the appointing authority. If the conditions were met, the appointing authority was to issue an order bringing the employee under the CCS (Pension) Rules by 31 October 2023. The NPS account of each such employee was to be closed with effect from 31 December 2023.
Once that order issued, three practical things had to follow. The DDO had to stop NPS deductions and start GPF subscriptions, because employees under the old pension rules must subscribe to the General Provident Fund. The Pay and Accounts Office had to allot a GPF account and handle the reversal of NPS money. And the Central Record-keeping Agency had to close or adjust the PRAN on the PAO's request.
Each of these is a separate act by a separate office. That is why so many cases are stuck. The appointing authority thinks its work ended with a list; the DDO waits for an individual order; the PAO waits for the DDO; and the employee keeps seeing NPS deductions every month. If your OPS option was not implemented, the first job is to find out exactly where the chain broke.
Where the switch gets stuck, and who holds the key
| Stage | Sign that you are stuck here | Who must act |
|---|---|---|
| Eligibility not decided | No reply to your option at all, or a letter saying 'under examination' | Appointing authority, often through the establishment or administration section |
| Eligibility accepted on a list, no individual order | Your name appears in a circular or minutes, but no office order mentions you | Appointing authority, to issue the order bringing you under the CCS (Pension) Rules |
| Order issued, deductions unchanged | Pay slip still shows NPS; no GPF line | DDO, on the strength of the order |
| Deductions changed, no GPF account | GPF deduction shown as 'unallotted' or held in suspense | PAO, to allot the account number |
| GPF running, NPS corpus not adjusted | PRAN statement still shows the old corpus and units | PAO, to request withdrawal or transfer through the CRA as per CGA instructions |
| Everything done, GPF balance looks wrong | Opening GPF balance does not match your own NPS contributions | PAO, to show the working under the CGA's instructions |
Read your pay slip and PRAN statement first
Two documents tell you more than any office will. The pay slip shows whether NPS deductions are still being made and whether a GPF subscription has started. The NPS transaction statement for your PRAN, which you can download from the CRA website, shows whether contributions are still being credited and whether any withdrawal or transfer has been processed.
Pull the pay slips for December 2023, a month in mid-2024 and the latest month. If all three show the same NPS deduction, the switch has not started at the pay stage. If the latest shows GPF but the PRAN statement still shows the full corpus, the switch is half done. Note the figures; you will need them in your letters.
Also check your service book. Once the order issues, an entry should record that you are governed by the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021. A missing entry is a small thing until you retire, when it becomes the first thing the pension section looks at.
OPS option not implemented: can the department sit on it?
No. The OM says the option once exercised shall be final. It also gave the appointing authority a date, 31 October 2023, to issue orders, and fixed 31 December 2023 for closing NPS accounts. Those dates were set by the department responsible for pension policy, in consultation with the Department of Expenditure and the Controller General of Accounts. An office that has still not acted in 2026 is out of step with the OM itself.
Departments sometimes explain delay by saying they are awaiting clarification from DoPPW or the CGA, or that the corpus transfer procedure is unclear. Ask for the date and number of the reference they made, and what reply came. Very often there is no pending reference at all, only an unprocessed file.
Section 20 of the Administrative Tribunals Act expects you to give the department a chance first. A clear representation, followed by six months of silence, is enough to approach the Tribunal. Your 2023 option and the acknowledgement, together with a 2026 representation on non-implementation, usually satisfy that requirement; see our page on the representation to send before going to CAT.
Advocate B.K. Singh's first tip: get the eligibility decision on paper
Many employees are told orally that their case is cleared, or see their name on a list circulated within the office. Advocate B.K. Singh's advice is not to rest on that. Ask, in writing, for a copy of the individual order issued under paragraph 7 of the OM bringing you under the CCS (Pension) Rules. If none exists, ask for one.
The reason is practical. Every later step, from the DDO's change in deductions to the PAO's handling of the corpus, depends on that order. A list or minutes of a committee meeting are internal documents; offices down the line will not act on them. And if the matter ever reaches the Tribunal, a written order accepting your eligibility turns the case into one about implementation, which is far simpler than one about eligibility.
If the appointing authority has not decided your eligibility at all, the case is different. Then you may need the advertisement proof discussed in our guide on proving a pre-2004 advertisement, and the Tribunal will be asked to direct a decision, not just implementation.
GPF account after OPS: what happens to your NPS money
Employees who move to the old pension rules must subscribe to the General Provident Fund from the date the switch takes effect. The NPS money is then split. Under the procedure the CGA laid down for this switch, your own contributions are credited to your new GPF account, and the government's contributions, along with the investment gains on them, go back to the government.
This is where many employees get a surprise. The corpus shown in the PRAN statement is much larger than the amount that reaches GPF, because the government share and much of the market growth do not come to you. That is the trade-off of the switch: you give up the NPS corpus and receive a defined pension, GPF, and the other benefits of the old rules. If you opted in 2023, that choice is final, so the question now is only whether the accounting was done correctly.
Ask the PAO for the working: total employee contributions, the amount credited to GPF, the date of credit, and the basis for any interest or returns added. Compare it with your own pay slips. Gaps usually come from missing months, especially periods of transfer, deputation or leave, when deductions were made in one office and credited from another.
Past NPS deductions may have been claimed as income tax deductions in earlier years. How the reversal is treated for tax is a separate question; take advice from a tax practitioner before you file your next return.
Getting the switch completed
Send each letter by designation, keep a copy, and note the date of dispatch.
Collect your proof of option
Find your 2023 option form and the acknowledgement or diary number. If you have no acknowledgement, ask the establishment section in writing to confirm the date your option was received, and file an RTI application asking for a copy of it.
Ask for the individual order
Write to the appointing authority asking for a copy of the order bringing you under the CCS (Pension) Rules, or for a decision on your option within a stated period if none has issued. Cite the OM and its dates.
Write to the DDO with the order
Once you have the order, send a copy to your DDO asking for NPS deductions to stop and GPF subscriptions to start from the next pay bill, and for arrears of adjustment to be worked out.
Write to the PAO about GPF and the corpus
Ask the PAO to allot a GPF account, to process the NPS account in line with the CGA's procedure, and to give you the working of the opening GPF balance.
Escalate once if nothing moves
After a month, write to the next higher authority with a copy to the Secretary of the department, listing the dates of your earlier letters and the monthly loss. Use CPENGRAMS if you wish, but do not let it replace a letter on file.
Approach the Tribunal
If six months pass after your representation without action, file an OA asking for implementation within a fixed time. Our page on old pension cases for pre-2004 recruits explains the relief usually sought.
A batch of colleagues in the same office facing the same delay can file one joint application, which saves effort and makes the department deal with all of them together. Our page on a group OA for several applicants explains when that works.
If you retire before the switch is done
This is the situation to avoid. An employee whose option is final but who is still shown in NPS on the date of retirement faces two incompatible sets of papers: NPS exit forms, which lead to a lump sum and an annuity, and CCS pension forms, which lead to a PPO. Offices tend to process whichever system the employee appears in, which means NPS.
If you are within eighteen months of retirement and the switch is incomplete, treat it as urgent. Write to the Head of Office stating that your option under the 3 March 2023 OM is final, that your pension papers must be prepared under the CCS (Pension) Rules, and that you do not consent to NPS exit processing. The guide on the pension papers timeline in your last 12 months shows how early the old-pension papers must start moving.
If retirement is close and nothing has moved, an application to the Tribunal with a request for an interim direction may be justified, asking that pension papers be processed under the CCS rules or at least that no irreversible NPS step be taken while the case is pending. Tribunals consider such requests on the facts, and the closer the retirement date, the clearer the urgency.
Once an annuity has been purchased from the NPS corpus, unwinding it is complicated. The time to stop that is before it happens.
If an employee dies while the switch is pending
Families sometimes find, after a death in service, that the employee had opted for old pension but was still in NPS. The difference for the family is large. Under the CCS (Pension) Rules, the family gets family pension under Rule 50, worked out on last pay, along with death gratuity. Under NPS, the family's position depends on the corpus and on the separate rules for death in service under NPS.
The family should write to the Head of Office with the death certificate and a copy of the option, asking that the case be treated under the CCS (Pension) Rules because the option was final and the switch was the department's job. If the appointing authority never decided eligibility, ask for that decision now. Our guide on death in service under NPS and family pension covers the NPS side of the choice.
Do not sign NPS withdrawal forms in a hurry while this question is open. Ask first how the department proposes to treat the option, in writing.
The UPS form you may have been handed in 2025
The Unified Pension Scheme was notified on 24 January 2025 and came into effect on 1 April 2025 as an option for NPS subscribers. The window for existing employees to choose it closed on 30 November 2025, after extensions. Some offices handed UPS forms to everyone shown in NPS, including employees whose OPS option was pending.
If you signed a UPS form while your OPS option was pending, do not panic, but put your position on record. Write that your option under the 3 March 2023 OM was exercised on a stated date, is final under that OM, and that the UPS form was filled only because you were still shown in NPS through no fault of yours. Ask that your OPS option be implemented. Whether a UPS choice made in these circumstances affects your old pension claim has not been settled in any clear way, so check the current position before relying on either.
If you did not sign a UPS form, you have one less complication. For background on how UPS compares with NPS for those who remain in it, see our guide on questions to ask before locking in UPS or NPS.
How long it usually takes and what it costs
| Step | Usual time | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Letters to the appointing authority, DDO and PAO | One to three months to see a response | Postage |
| RTI for the option record and file notings | 30 days, plus a first appeal if needed | Rs 10 per application to a central office |
| Implementation after an order issues | One to four pay cycles for deductions; longer for corpus and GPF credit | Nil |
| OA before CAT for a time-bound direction | Often six months to two years; implementation cases on admitted eligibility tend to move faster | A small fixed filing fee (Rs 50 under Rule 7 of the CAT (Procedure) Rules; check the current amount and mode), copies, and the lawyer's fee discussed at the first meeting and agreed in writing for each stage |
| Compliance or contempt if the Tribunal's deadline is missed | A few months | Further lawyer's fee by agreement; no large court fee |
Papers to collect
- Your option form under the 3 March 2023 OM and its acknowledgement or diary number
- Appointment letter and the notice under which you were recruited
- Any list, circular or minutes showing your eligibility was accepted
- Any individual order bringing you under the CCS (Pension) Rules
- Pay slips from December 2023, mid-2024 and the latest month
- PRAN transaction statement downloaded from the CRA website
- Any GPF account allotment letter or GPF statement
- Your letters, RTI applications and the replies, in date order
- Orders granting the switch to batchmates in your office or elsewhere
Where to go if letters fail
A central civil employee files an Original Application before the CAT bench for the place of posting. The relief usually asked for is a direction to issue the order under the OM if it has not issued, to stop NPS deductions and open a GPF account, to complete the corpus adjustment, and to do all this within a fixed period. Where eligibility has been accepted, the department often has little to say except that it is working on it, and tribunals tend to set a deadline.
If the Tribunal sets a deadline and the department misses it, the next step is an application for compliance or a contempt petition under Section 17. These usually produce action quickly, because officers named in a contempt petition have to explain themselves personally.
Central Armed Police Forces personnel are outside CAT and go to the High Court. Employees of autonomous bodies need to check whether their body adopted the OM and whether it is notified under Section 14(2); if not, the forum is the High Court.
Employees in Uttarakhand should note that their cases moved from the Allahabad Bench to the Principal Bench in New Delhi by a central notification of 18 July 2023. Circuit sittings at Nainital have been held; check the current schedule with the registry.
A made-up example: fifteen surveyors in Dehradun
Here's a made-up example. Rajesh joined the Survey of India in Dehradun as a Surveyor in March 2004, after a recruitment advertised in September 2003. He and fourteen colleagues from the same recruitment opted for old pension in July 2023. In February 2024 an internal committee listed all fifteen as eligible. No individual orders followed.
In October 2026 their pay slips still showed NPS deductions. The DDO said he could not act without orders. The establishment section said the list had been sent to the accounts wing. The PAO said nothing had been received. Rajesh's PRAN statement showed contributions still being credited every month.
The fifteen wrote one joint representation to the appointing authority asking for individual orders within sixty days, attaching the committee's list and their option acknowledgements. When nothing came after six months, they filed a joint OA before the Principal Bench, which hears Uttarakhand cases. Because eligibility had been accepted in writing, the dispute was narrow: not whether they were entitled, but when the department would act. Cases of this kind are the easiest to present, which is why the written eligibility decision matters so much.
Railway, postal and defence civilian staff
Railway employees should check the Railway Board's own instructions on the option, which apply in place of the DoPPW OM, and the Railway Services (Pension) Rules, 2026, which replaced the 1993 Rules in January 2026. On the railways, the switch passes through the divisional personnel and accounts offices; the State Railway Provident Fund takes the place of GPF. Ask the divisional accounts office for the status of your PF account and NPS adjustment.
Postal employees should write to the divisional head, who is usually the appointing authority for Group C posts, and to the postal accounts office that maintains GPF. Defence civilian employees should identify their Controller of Defence Accounts office, which handles both GPF and the NPS side for many establishments.
In all three, the pattern is the same: an eligibility decision, an individual order, a change in deductions and an adjustment of the NPS account. Only the names of the offices differ.
What not to do while waiting
Do not stop paying NPS contributions on your own or ask the DDO to stop without an order. Unilateral changes create recoveries and confusion later. Push for the order instead.
Do not withdraw from NPS, take a partial withdrawal or change your NPS fund choice in a way that assumes you are staying. If the switch goes through, those steps complicate the adjustment.
Do not file a fresh option form if the department asks you to 'opt again'. Your 2023 option is final. Reply that it stands, attach the acknowledgement, and ask for implementation. A second form can be used later to argue that the first was incomplete.
And if the switch ultimately fails because eligibility is rejected, remember that your NPS rights remain. Missing government contributions or delayed credits can be claimed separately; our page on missing government share in an NPS account deals with that.
Your next three letters
This week, write to the appointing authority asking for your individual order. Next, send the DDO and the PAO copies of whatever you have, asking for the change in deductions, a GPF account and the NPS adjustment. Then diarise a date six months from the first letter.
Advocate B.K. Singh's second tip is to put the monthly cost of the delay in every letter: the NPS deduction still being made, the GPF interest not being earned, and the months to your retirement. A letter that says 'my case is pending' is easy to file away. A letter that says 'the delay has now run for 34 months and I retire in 19 months' gets read. For the Tribunal stage, our page on employees placed in NPS against pre-2004 vacancies explains what is usually asked for.
If your OPS option is still not implemented, ask Advocate B.K. Singh to look at your papers or to tell you when new orders on the switch come out.
Frequently asked questions
I opted for OPS in 2023 but NPS is still being deducted. Is my option valid?
If you were eligible and opted by 31 August 2023, the OM says the option is final. Continued NPS deduction usually means the appointing authority's order, or the DDO's action on it, is still pending. Ask for the order in writing.
Who is supposed to issue the order moving me to old pension?
The appointing authority for your post. It was to examine the option and issue the order by 31 October 2023. The DDO and PAO act only after that order.
Will I get the full NPS corpus into my GPF account?
No. Under the CGA's procedure, your own contributions go to GPF, while the government share and the gains on it return to the government. Ask the PAO for the working to check it.
Can I withdraw my OPS option now that UPS has come?
The OM says the option once exercised is final. If you are considering any change, take advice first and get any departmental position in writing, because a mistake here is hard to reverse.
I retire next year and the switch is not done. What should I do?
Write to the Head of Office now that your pension papers must be prepared under the CCS (Pension) Rules and that you do not consent to NPS exit processing. If nothing moves, an urgent application to the Tribunal may be needed.
My colleagues got their orders but I did not. Can I rely on theirs?
Yes, as evidence. Orders for batchmates from the same recruitment show that the department accepted the facts that apply to you as well. Attach them to your representation and any application.
Can several of us file one case together?
Yes, if your facts and the relief you seek are the same. A joint application before CAT keeps costs down and the department has to deal with everyone at once.
What if the department says it is waiting for a clarification?
Ask for the number and date of the reference it sent and the reply received. If no reference exists, say so in your next letter. Pending clarification does not override the dates in the OM.
Advocate B.K. Singh
Founder of B.K. Singh & Associates. MCA, LL.B., LL.M. More than twenty years in practice before the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court and other High Courts, the Central Administrative Tribunal and other tribunals. This guide was written and reviewed by his team.
This guide explains the law in general terms and is not legal advice. For advice on your own papers, contact the team.
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