In short. If your MACP upgradation did not come at 10, 20 or 30 years, or came and was later cancelled, the dispute almost always turns on three things: whether your APARs met the benchmark, how many promotions or upgradations you had already received, and the date from which your regular service is counted. Most of these cases can be sorted out by a well-argued representation; the rest go to the Central Administrative Tribunal and typically take one to two years there. Start by getting your service book and the screening committee's decision in writing.
Is this your situation?
- You completed 10, 20 or 30 years in the same level and nothing happened, or the screening committee 'deferred' you.
- You were told one of your APARs was 'Good', not 'Very Good', and you never saw that grading before.
- Your MACP was granted, then cancelled after an internal audit, and a recovery has started.
- The office counted a cadre-wide upgradation or a merger of scales as your 'promotion'.
- Years of ad hoc or previous-department service were left out when your 10 years were counted.
- You turned down a promotion once and now the office says you lose MACP altogether.
- A disciplinary case or vigilance matter is pending and your MACP has been kept in a sealed cover.
Why MACP is refused, in one paragraph
MACP is meant for people who are stuck. If you have spent ten years in the same level of the pay matrix without moving up, the scheme moves your pay one level higher, while you keep doing the same job. That is the whole idea, and nearly every refusal is the department saying you were not really stuck (you had a promotion or an earlier upgradation), or you were stuck for less time than you think (your service is counted from a later date), or you were stuck but did not qualify (your APARs fell short of the benchmark). Find out which of these three your office is relying on before you write a single letter.
A refusal you can see is easier to fight than one nobody puts in writing. Many employees simply notice that a colleague who joined with them has moved to the next level and they have not. If that is your situation, ask your administration section in writing for the screening committee's recommendation in your case and the reasons. An RTI application works if the office goes quiet.
The scheme and the orders that changed it
MACP Scheme, DoPT OM of 19 May 2009
Brought in from 1 September 2008 after the Sixth Pay Commission, replacing the old ACP scheme of 1999 that gave two upgradations at 12 and 24 years. MACP gives three, at 10, 20 and 30 years of continuous regular service, each one to the next grade pay (now the next pay level). Promotions earned in the meantime are set off against these three.
DoPT OM of 28 September 2016 (Seventh CPC)
Kept the scheme going under the pay matrix and raised the benchmark to 'Very Good' for every post, with effect from 25 July 2016. An upgradation falling due on or after that date needs the reckonable APARs to reach 'Very Good'. Before that date the old rule applied: 'Good' up to grade pay Rs 6600, and 'Very Good' for Rs 7600 and above.
DoPT OM of 22 September 2017 and later OMs
DoPT has kept issuing clarifications on how the scheme works under the Seventh CPC, including on pay fixation on upgradation. The OM of 20 September 2018 applied the promotion rules on choosing the date of pay fixation to MACP as well. Departments often quote one of these OMs in a refusal; ask for a copy of the exact OM relied on and read the paragraph yourself.
Union of India v. M.V. Mohanan Nair (Supreme Court, 2020)
Upheld the rule that MACP takes you to the next level in the pay hierarchy, not to the pay of the next promotion post in your cadre. Claims that MACP must match the promotional post's pay now face this judgment, though individual cases about wrongly mapped levels can still be argued.
Counting your upgradations: some common service histories
| Your service history | What MACP usually gives | Where offices go wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Joined in the entry level, no promotion at all | First MACP after 10 years, second after 20, third after 30, each one level up | Counting from the date of joining on probation is correct; offices sometimes start from confirmation |
| One regular promotion before 10 years | That promotion uses up one of the three; the next MACP comes after 10 years in the promoted level | Granting a second MACP and then withdrawing it years later on audit |
| Two promotions in your career | Only one MACP remains; its due date depends on the years spent in the last promoted level, and the scheme's own illustrations are worth checking | Missing that the remaining MACP is due at all |
| Got upgradations under the old ACP scheme | ACP upgradations count against the three MACPs | Treating an ACP that only gave a scale on paper as a full upgradation |
| Post upgraded by a pay commission or merger of scales | Generally not treated as a promotion or upgradation for MACP | Counting it as one and refusing the next MACP |
| Ad hoc service followed by regular appointment | Only regular service counts, usually from the date of regular appointment | Ignoring a later order that regularised you from an earlier date |
The benchmark: what 'Very Good' means for your APARs
The screening committee looks at the APARs that the rules treat as reckonable for the upgradation, much as a DPC would for promotion. If the overall grading of those years falls short of 'Very Good', the upgradation is deferred and your case is looked at again in the next round, when an older weak year may drop out. Deferment is not a permanent refusal, though people often hear it that way.
What you can attack is a grading that was never shown to you. After Dev Dutt v. Union of India (2008), every APAR entry must be communicated with a chance to represent, and an uncommunicated below-benchmark grading should not be used against you. For APARs written from 2008-09 onwards, the APAR is supposed to be disclosed to you as a matter of routine, so check whether you received it and whether you represented within the time given. If you did and the reporting chain did not decide your representation, that is a strong point. Our guides on MACP refused for APAR grading and on APARs graded below benchmark go into the detail.
Earlier promotions and upgradations that eat into your three
The set-off rule causes more disputes than the benchmark. Every regular promotion you have received since joining counts as one of the three upgradations. So does any upgradation under the old ACP scheme. If you joined as a Lower Division Clerk, were promoted once, and are still in that promoted level 12 years later, you have one promotion and are due one MACP, not two.
Things that are not promotions get counted as promotions surprisingly often. A cadre restructuring that moves everyone in a grade to a higher pay level, a merger of two pay scales by a pay commission, or a non-functional upgradation given to a whole batch are not your personal promotions and should not ordinarily be set off. On the other side, a promotion you actually took, even for a short while before reversion, may count. Advocate B.K. Singh usually draws a simple line on paper for each client, from joining to today, marking every change of pay level with the order that caused it. The dispute often becomes obvious once the line is drawn. Our guide on how an MACP calculation is checked before filing follows the same method.
The date your ten years start: ad hoc, deputation and an earlier department
MACP counts regular service. Ad hoc appointments, daily-wage spells and contractual years generally do not count, unless an order later regularised you from an earlier date, in which case the count should run from that date. Read your regularisation order closely; the word 'notional' in it may or may not affect MACP, and the answer turns on the exact wording.
If you moved from one central department to another on technical resignation, in the same pay level, your earlier regular service can generally be counted, but any upgradation you received there counts too. If you instead joined a different, higher post by fresh direct recruitment, the count for that post usually starts afresh. This catches many employees who joined, say, a Central Excise post after a few years as a postal assistant. Our guide on MACP after joining a new post by direct recruitment takes this further. Time spent on deputation in an equal post generally counts towards your service in the parent cadre.
MACP gives the next pay level, not your promotion post's pay
Many employees expect MACP to put them on the pay of the post they would have been promoted to. It does not. Under the Seventh CPC structure you move to the next level in the pay matrix, whatever your promotion hierarchy looks like. If your next promotion post sits two levels above you, MACP still gives only one. The Supreme Court settled this in M.V. Mohanan Nair (2020), and a case asking for the promotional post's pay will normally fail.
What still succeeds is a case where the level itself was wrongly placed. Suppose the office upgraded you to the next level but fixed your pay in the wrong cell, or did not give you the extra increment that comes with fixation, or did not let you choose the date of fixation. Those are pay fixation mistakes, and they are worth checking line by line. The OM of 20 September 2018 lets you opt for fixation from the date of your next increment rather than the date of upgradation, in the same way as on promotion. Our guide on choosing between the promotion date and the increment date explains which option tends to pay more.
MACP taken back years later and a recovery order
A withdrawal usually starts with an audit note. An internal audit party or the Pay and Accounts Office spots that an earlier promotion was not set off, or that ad hoc service was counted, and the office cancels the upgradation, refixes your pay a level lower and starts recovering the 'excess'. Sometimes this happens after you have retired, through the pension.
Two separate questions arise. First, was the withdrawal right? Often it is not: the auditor treated a cadre restructuring as a promotion, or ignored a regularisation order. Second, even if the withdrawal is right, can the money be recovered? If you did not cause the mistake by any false statement, and you are a Group C employee, a retiree, or the excess was paid for more than five years, recovery is generally barred under State of Punjab v. Rafiq Masih (2015). Ask for both: restore the MACP, and in the alternative stop the recovery. If you signed an undertaking to refund at the time of fixation, the position is weaker. Our page on stopping salary recovery of an excess payment deals with the recovery side.
Refusing a promotion, or a case pending against you
If you were offered a regular promotion and declined it before your MACP fell due, the scheme treats you as not stagnated, and you lose that upgradation. But if the MACP was already granted and you later refuse a promotion, the MACP is not to be withdrawn for that reason; you face the usual debarment from promotion instead. Offices mix these two situations up, so check which came first by date. Our guide on MACP withdrawn for refusing promotion sets out the rule.
Where you are under suspension, a chargesheet has been issued, or prosecution sanction has been given, the screening committee keeps its recommendation in a sealed cover, the same way a DPC does for promotion. The cover is opened when you are cleared. A minor penalty during the period can also defer the upgradation. If the case drags for years without a chargesheet, the sealed cover itself can be challenged; see our page on the sealed cover procedure.
Already retired, or retiring soon, with MACP still unsettled
MACP matters more at the end of a career than at the start, because pension is worked out on your last pay. An upgradation that should have come at 30 years, in, say, March 2024, and was never given, means your last pay drawn was one level lower than it should have been, and your pension, gratuity, leave encashment and commutation were all calculated on that lower figure. A retired Group C fitter in Jabalpur who missed his third MACP may be losing a few thousand rupees every month of his pension for the rest of his life, and his wife's family pension will carry the same shortfall.
You can still claim it after retirement. The representation goes to your last office, and if it is accepted the office has to refix your pay notionally, recalculate pension and send a revised pension proposal to the Pay and Accounts Office for a revised PPO. Arrears of pay and pension then follow, subject to the usual limit on old arrears. If you are within a year or two of retirement, do not let the claim wait for your pension papers. Raise it now, because pension cases move slowly once you have left and the office has fewer people who remember your file. Advocate B.K. Singh often tells clients in their last year to treat any pending MACP question as part of their retirement paperwork, not as a separate grievance for later.
Withdrawals after retirement are a different problem. If the office cancels an MACP after you have retired and starts deducting from your pension, the Rafiq Masih protection for retirees applies strongly, since the judgment specifically names retired employees among those from whom recovery is ordinarily not permitted. See our page on recovery from pension of an old overpayment.
How MACP works in some departments
- Railways. The Railway Board adopts DoPT's MACP orders through its own RBE circulars, sometimes with a delay or small changes. Quote the RBE, not just the DoPT OM, in a railway representation.
- Department of Posts. Regular departmental staff are covered. Gramin Dak Sevaks are not, since they are outside the regular pay matrix; their disputes are about TRCA slabs instead.
- Defence civilians. Covered, through Ministry of Defence orders that follow DoPT. Disputes go to the CAT, unlike those of uniformed personnel.
- Scientists and doctors. Many scientific organisations use flexible complementing or assessment promotions instead, and Central Health Service doctors have their own dynamic career progression. MACP rules may not be the right yardstick for them.
- Organised Group A services. These are outside MACP and have non-functional upgradation instead.
- CAPF personnel. MACP applies, but disputes go to the High Court by writ, not the CAT.
Getting a refused or withdrawn MACP corrected
Get the decision and the papers
Ask the administration section, in writing, for the screening committee's recommendation in your case, the APARs considered and the order refusing or withdrawing MACP. If nothing comes within a month, file an RTI application.
Draw your service line
List every pay level you have held, the date you entered it and the order that put you there. Mark every promotion, ACP and MACP. Note any ad hoc period and the date of regularisation. This one sheet usually shows where the office went wrong.
Write a representation that answers the reason
Address it through proper channel to the authority competent to grant MACP. Answer the specific reason given, attach the supporting orders, and ask for a reasoned decision. If a recovery has started, ask for it to be stopped till the representation is decided.
Wait, but not beyond six months
Section 20 of the Administrative Tribunals Act expects you to give the department a chance. If it rejects your claim, or says nothing for six months, the route to the tribunal is open.
File the OA
Ask for the MACP from the due date, correct pay fixation, arrears with interest and, where relevant, a stay of recovery under Section 24. Attach the service line as a chart; benches find it useful.
Follow through after the order
A favourable order usually directs the department to reconsider or grant the upgradation within a set time. If it does not, file for execution or contempt.
Typical time and expense for an MACP case
| Step | How long | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Request for papers and RTI | 30 days for RTI; first appeal another 30 to 45 | RTI fee of Rs 10 |
| Representation | Departments take 2 to 6 months, sometimes longer | Nothing |
| Tribunal application | Disposal in about 1 to 2 years at most benches; simple cases sometimes sooner | A small fixed tribunal fee (Rs 50 under Rule 7 of the CAT (Procedure) Rules; ask the registry for the present figure and mode), with typing and photocopy charges |
| Fresh screening committee after a tribunal order | Usually the period the tribunal fixes, often 3 to 4 months | Nothing |
| High Court, if either side files a writ | 1 to 3 years | Court fee under the state's rules, plus filing charges |
| Advocate's fees | Per stage | Talked through at the first meeting and set down in writing |
Which tribunal bench, and how far back arrears go
An MACP OA goes to the CAT bench covering the station where you are posted, or where you last worked if you have retired. A storekeeper at a Central Water Commission office in Guwahati files at the Guwahati Bench; a postal assistant in Indore files at Jabalpur; a section officer at a Ministry in New Delhi files at the Principal Bench. Where several employees in one office have the same problem, a joint OA is often possible with the tribunal's leave.
MACP and the pay that flows from it are continuing claims: each month's short pay is a fresh wrong. That helps if you are late, because the tribunal will usually entertain the claim, but arrears are commonly limited to about three years before the date you filed, following Union of India v. Tarsem Singh (2008). The longer you wait, the more arrears you lose, though the pay correction for the future and for pension is still available. Our guide on continuing wrongs and old pay claims explains where the line is drawn.
Papers that decide an MACP case
- First appointment order and the order of regular appointment, if different
- Every promotion order, ACP order and earlier MACP order
- Any regularisation order for ad hoc or daily-wage service
- Technical resignation and relieving papers, if you moved departments
- APARs for the years the screening committee considered, with proof of when each was disclosed to you
- Your representations against any APAR grading and the replies
- The screening committee's minutes or the refusal order
- The withdrawal order and recovery order, if any, and your last six pay slips
- The DoPT OM or railway RBE that the office relied on
A made-up example: MACP withdrawn over a cadre restructuring
Here's a made-up example. Sunita joined as a Lower Division Clerk in a central government accounts office in Ranchi in January 2005 and got her first MACP in 2015. In 2019 a cadre restructuring placed every post of her grade in that office one level higher, and she moved with her post. Her second MACP came in January 2025, after 20 years. In 2026 an audit party said the 2019 restructuring was a promotion, which would mean she already had two upgradations, so it cancelled the 2025 MACP, refixed her pay a level lower and ordered recovery of about Rs 60,000 in monthly instalments.
Her representation, sent through her section officer, pointed out that the restructuring order upgraded posts, not persons; that no selection, DPC or seniority list was involved; and that the scheme does not count a post upgradation as a personal promotion. It added, in the alternative, that she was a Group C employee who had made no misstatement, so the recovery was barred in any case. The office did not reply for seven months. In this illustration she filed an OA before the Patna Bench, which hears Jharkhand cases, and the tribunal stayed the recovery at the first hearing and later directed the department to restore the upgradation and refund what had been deducted. Another bench, on different facts, might only have stopped the recovery. The point is that both arguments were made from the start.
Mistakes employees make with MACP claims
- Writing a general complaint. 'I have been denied MACP, kindly grant' gives the office nothing to answer. Name the reason and rebut it with an order.
- Comparing yourself with a colleague. Your colleague's service history may differ. MACP is personal, and there is no stepping up of a senior's pay because a junior got a higher level through MACP.
- Ignoring the APAR disclosure. If you received an APAR graded 'Good' and did not represent within the time allowed, it is much harder to complain about it at MACP time.
- Waiting for retirement. MACP affects your last pay and so your pension. A claim raised years after retirement loses most of its arrears.
- Accepting a recovery without a word. Even where a withdrawal is justified, recovery may not be. Object in writing at once.
How we take up MACP disputes
We read the service book first and the refusal second. In most MACP cases the answer lies in a single order from ten or fifteen years ago, and finding it is the work. We meet clients at Dwarka and Vaishali and online, and for clients at other benches we work with associate counsel there. Fees are agreed at the first meeting, in writing, for each stage.
If your representation can solve the problem, we will say so and help you write it instead of filing an OA. For a second view on your MACP calculation, or to know whether any recent DoPT OM changes your position, contact Advocate B.K. Singh with your service book and the refusal order.
Frequently asked questions
Is MACP given on 10 years of total service or 10 years in the same level?
The scheme speaks of 10, 20 and 30 years of regular service, with each promotion counting as one upgradation. In practice the question is how long you have been in your present level without a move up. If you were promoted along the way, the next MACP generally comes after ten years in the promoted level.
My MACP was deferred for a 'Good' APAR. Can I challenge it?
Yes, if the 'Good' grading was never communicated to you, or you represented against it and got no decision. If it was disclosed and you did not object in time, the challenge is weak. A deferment also means you are considered again in the next review, when that year may drop out.
Can the department recover MACP arrears after cancelling it?
Cancelling a wrongly granted MACP and recovering the money are two separate decisions. Where there was no misrepresentation on your part, recovery is often barred for Group C staff, retirees and payments made more than five years earlier, following Rafiq Masih. An undertaking you signed to refund any excess changes this.
Does ad hoc service count for MACP?
Generally no; only regular service counts. If a later order regularised you from an earlier date, the count should start from that date. Read the regularisation order carefully for words that limit the benefit.
Will MACP give me the pay of my promotion post?
No. MACP moves you to the next level in the pay matrix, which may be lower than the promotion post's level. The Supreme Court upheld this in M.V. Mohanan Nair in 2020.
I refused promotion after getting MACP. Can they take MACP back?
Not for that reason. The scheme withholds MACP only where the promotion was refused before the upgradation fell due. A refusal after the MACP was granted leads to debarment from promotion, not withdrawal of MACP.
How much MACP arrears can I claim if the error is ten years old?
The pay correction can be made from the original date, but cash arrears are usually limited to about three years before you filed your OA. The correct pay still counts for future increments and pension.
Can railway or CAPF employees file an MACP case in CAT?
Railway employees, yes; the CAT hears their service disputes. CAPF personnel such as CRPF or BSF members go to the High Court by writ instead.