Ordnance Factory Employees After 2021: Status, Deemed Deputation and Forum

Ordnance factory employees' status, in plain words

On 1 October 2021 the Ordnance Factory Board stopped existing as a production organisation. Its 41 factories went to seven new defence public sector undertakings: Munitions India, Armoured Vehicles Nigam, Advanced Weapons and Equipment India, Troop Comforts, Yantra India, India Optel and Gliders India. The people did not change employer in law. They were sent to these companies on deemed deputation while remaining employees of the Central Government.

That remains the position for the great majority. A deemed deputationist holds a lien on a government post, is governed by the central service rules, and is only working for the company. When people ask about ordnance factory employees' status in 2026, the honest answer is that it depends on a single document: the absorption option you gave, or did not give, by 15 October 2026.

If you stayed, you are a central government servant in every sense that matters for pay, leave, discipline and pension, and your service disputes go to the tribunal. If you opted for absorption and it took effect, you are now one of the DPSU employees, deemed to have retired from government on the absorption date, and governed by the company's rules for the future.

From OFB corporatisation to deemed deputation till retirement: the orders in sequence

What deemed deputation actually means day to day

Ordinary deputation is voluntary, temporary and comes with an allowance. Deemed deputation is none of these. It was imposed by order, it now runs to retirement, and no deputation allowance is paid. The service is treated as foreign service with a company, with the government as the lending employer and the company as the borrowing one.

In practice the company runs the shop floor and the office. It sets production targets, shifts and duties, and its officers sign most routine orders. But the company cannot change the rules that make you a government servant. Your conduct and discipline remain under the CCS (Conduct) Rules, 1964 and the CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965; your pay under the central pay matrix, DA orders and the MACP scheme; your leave under the CCS (Leave) Rules; and your pension under the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 if you joined before 2004, or under NPS (and UPS if you switched) if you joined later.

The grey zone is authority. Some powers over deemed deputationists were delegated to the companies; others stayed with the government side, including the Directorate of Ordnance (Coordination and Services) at Kolkata, which handles residual OFB work. A major penalty must come from an authority at least equal to the one that actually appointed you; the Supreme Court restated in September 2026, in Union of India v. Ramdhani Prasad, that a later delegation does not change this under Article 311(1). So when a company officer signs a dismissal or a compulsory retirement order against a deemed deputationist, the first question is whether he had the power at all.

If you chose to stay: what is protected and what to watch

The June 2026 decision, as reported, keeps those on deemed deputation under the rules that apply to central government servants for pay, allowances, leave, medical facilities and career progression. In concrete terms, the DA rate for central employees, MACP at 10, 20 and 30 years, and pay revisions for central staff should reach you as they reach any other central employee. When the Eighth Pay Commission's recommendations are accepted, expect the question of how they are applied to deemed deputationists to be asked; watch the orders closely.

Promotion is the harder area. Your promotion in your government cadre, for instance from chargeman to junior works manager, is a government matter decided under your recruitment rules. Promotion inside the company's executive hierarchy is a company matter. Employees who stayed say company recruits and absorbed colleagues will overtake them in company posts. Whether that is lawful depends on the terms of the deputation and the way the government cadre is now managed. Keep every seniority list you receive and object in writing within the time given.

Transfers are the other flashpoint. Companies have moved deemed deputationists between factories and cities, and benches of the tribunal have examined such transfers against the government transfer policy that applies to the employee. A transfer can be tested for breach of policy, mala fides or a punitive purpose, and an employee with a disabled dependant may rely on the caregiver exemption in DoPT's OM of 8 October 2018. Our page on ordnance factory staff and the right forum covers how such cases are framed.

If you opted for absorption: what the package says

Absorption ends government service. The common package circulated by the companies treats an absorbed employee as having retired from government on the absorption date, with no lien kept in the old department. After that, the company's service rules, promotion policy and transfer liability (any unit within that company) apply.

For old pension members recruited before 1 January 2004, the package offers two routes under Rule 37 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021. The first is pro rata pension (or service gratuity) and retirement gratuity from the government for the government years, paid through the defence pensions budget, with NPS cover for company service. The second is to count government service in the company's scheme, with the government paying a one-time lump sum into the company's pension fund. The option is stated to be final and irrevocable. For NPS members, absorption is again a deemed retirement with NPS exit benefits, and the same PRAN may continue if the company has NPS; UPS members are dealt with under Rule 16 of the CCS (UPS) Rules, 2025.

Other terms include pay protection (basic pay plus IDA not below basic pay plus DA, with personal pay for any shortfall in total emoluments), a 3 per cent annual increment, transfer of earned leave and half pay leave, a choice on GPF, and a one-time choice of CGHS or the company scheme after retirement. NPS members get a one-time option, to be given within a year of the terms being notified, between gratuity for government service now and combined gratuity on final retirement. One clause deserves attention: dismissal for misconduct after absorption leads to forfeiture of the government-service retirement benefits.

Ordnance pension: what applies to whom

Questions people are asking after the October 2026 deadline

• I did not submit any option. What am I? As reported, 92 employees gave no option. The 2026 decision says those who do not opt for absorption stay on deemed deputation, but ask your unit in writing what has been recorded, and keep the reply.
• I opted for absorption and regret it. The package calls the pension option irrevocable. A request to withdraw before the absorption order is issued may still be considered; after the order, it is very difficult unless the record differs from what you signed.
• My form says something I did not choose. Write to the company and to the Department of Defence Production at once, attach your copy, and ask for correction before any absorption order is passed. Delay here is costly.
• Can the company refuse my promotion in the government cadre? It does not decide that alone. Promotion in your government cadre follows your recruitment rules and a DPC; refusal is a service matter for the tribunal.
• Will dependants still get compassionate appointment? Unions have asked for it to continue for deemed deputationists. The DoPT scheme applies to government servants, but which posts are available now that factories are company-run is unsettled; see our page on compassionate appointment and check current orders.

Checking your status and correcting a wrong record

1. Collect the three status papers

   Your original appointment order, the 2021 order or circular placing you on deemed deputation, and your 2026 option form with its acknowledgement. If you never received a copy of the 2021 order, ask your section in writing for the circular number and date.

2. Ask for the recorded option in writing

   Write to the HR section of your factory asking what option is recorded against your name, and whether any absorption order has been issued. A written reply is worth far more than a verbal assurance from the section.

3. Compare and object quickly

   If the recorded option differs from your copy, send a representation to the company's HR head and the Department of Defence Production the same week, with your copy attached. Ask that no absorption order be passed until it is decided.

4. Keep the departmental remedy alive

   For a penalty, appeal within 45 days under Rule 23 of the CCS (CCA) Rules. For pay, MACP, promotion or pension, send a single representation with reasons, routed through your controlling officer, and hold on to the receipt.

5. Mark the limitation date

   Count twelve months from the last rejection. If nobody answered, count six months from the day your representation went in, then twelve more. That is the scheme of Sections 20 and 21 of the Administrative Tribunals Act. Federation cases do not keep your personal claim alive.

6. Choose the forum by status on the date of the order

   Government-side matters go to the tribunal against the Union of India through the Department of Defence Production, with the company added where it holds records or passed the order. Company-side matters of absorbed staff go to the High Court.

Which forum hears a former OFB employee

The forum follows status, judged on the date of the decision you challenge. A deemed deputationist's grievance about pay, MACP, promotion in the government cadre, transfer, discipline or pension is a service matter of a central government servant and goes to the Central Administrative Tribunal under Section 14 of the Administrative Tribunals Act. The seven companies are government companies, but we are not aware of any notification under Section 14(2) bringing their own employees under the tribunal; check the current list before assuming otherwise.

An absorbed employee's dispute about a company decision after absorption, such as grade, promotion under the company policy, a company transfer or company discipline, goes to the High Court under Article 226, or to the industrial machinery under the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 where the employee is a workman. Our page on PSU and other staff who go straight to the High Court explains that route. An absorbed employee's claim about the government years, such as pro rata pension or an MACP due before absorption, stays with the tribunal.

The guide on which department to sue while on deputation works through the respondent question in more general terms, and our page on civilian staff in defence units covers MES, depot and workshop staff, who were never part of the corporatisation.

Benches for the main ordnance towns

The bench is the one covering your factory, or, for a retiree, the place of residence. Khamaria, Gun Carriage, Vehicle Factory and Grey Iron Foundry at Jabalpur, and the factories at Katni and Itarsi, go to the Jabalpur Bench. Ishapore, Cossipore, Dum Dum and the other Kolkata area factories go to the Kolkata Bench. Avadi and the Tiruchirappalli factories go to the Chennai Bench, Medak to the Hyderabad Bench, and the Kanpur, Shahjahanpur and Muradnagar factories to the Allahabad Bench.

The Maharashtra factories (Ambajhari, Bhandara, Chandrapur, Ambernath, Bhusawal, Varangaon, Dehu Road, Khadki) are under the Mumbai Bench, which held a circuit sitting at Nagpur in September 2026; ask the registry whether further Nagpur sittings are listed. Dehradun's factories go to the Principal Bench at New Delhi, since Uttarakhand was shifted there in 2023. If the bench's order is later questioned by either side, the writ is heard by two judges of the High Court for the state where that bench sits.

Time and official cost for a deemed deputationist's case

Documents to keep in one folder

Two practical tips from Advocate B.K. Singh

First, get your status in writing. Advocate B.K. Singh asks every former OFB client for one document before anything else: a letter from the factory or company stating what option is recorded and whether any absorption order exists. Most forum mistakes in these cases come from employees who assumed their status and filed in the wrong place. A one-page letter settles it.

Second, do not let the union's case stand in for yours. Federation litigation on corporatisation and absorption has been running since 2021. Advocate B.K. Singh regularly meets employees whose own MACP or pay fixation claims from 2020 to 2022 are now years out of time because they assumed the federation's case covered them. It did not. If you have a personal claim, represent and file on your own timeline.

Retired staff, widows and families

Anyone who retired from a factory before October 2021 is simply a retired central government servant. Pension revision, the 30 June notional increment for pension, family pension on the pensioner's death, commutation restoration after fifteen years, and recovery of excess payment all follow the ordinary rules for central pensioners, and disputes go to the tribunal. The Rafiq Masih protection against recovery from Group C retirees applies to them as to anyone.

Deemed deputationists who retire in 2026 or later without absorption also retire from government service, with pension papers processed on the government side. Delay in pension or gratuity can attract interest under Rule 65 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 at the GPF rate where the delay is administrative. A family whose earning member dies while on deemed deputation should claim family pension and death gratuity under the central rules and NPS or UPS as the case may be, not under any company scheme.

Your next step

This week, write the single letter asking what option is recorded against your name. Of all the papers on ordnance factory employees' status, that reply is the one you will need most. If you have a pending grievance about pay, MACP, a transfer or a penalty, write down the date of the last order and count a year from it. If you opted for absorption, keep the signed pension option in a safe place; you will need it at final retirement, perhaps decades from now. For individual MACP disputes, our page on MACP upgradation not granted explains the benchmark and level rules.

The service page on ordnance and defence production employees sets out the forum table in short form. We explain our fees when we first meet and confirm them in writing before each stage begins. To have your status papers read, or for updates on orders affecting former OFB staff, contact Advocate B.K. Singh.