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Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure, 2022
63 rules • 2022
Office procedure manual for Central Secretariat — noting, drafting, dak handling, file movement, Parliament questions, record management.
General
Para 1Para 1 is the introductory chapter of the Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure (CSMOP), the 14th edition. It explains why the manual exists: ever...Para 2Para 20 addresses oral instructions given by higher officers to their subordinates, and insists that written documentation must follow. When a superior off...Para 3Para 3 explains the structural distinction between a Ministry/Department and its attached and subordinate offices. A Ministry or Department is the policy-m...Para 4Para 4 defines what a Constitutional Body is. A Constitutional Body is any body that is directly created and given its mandate by the Constitution of India...Para 5Para 5 defines Statutory Bodies — organisations that are created by an Act of Parliament, not by the Constitution directly. The examples given are the Cent...Para 6Para 6 defines Autonomous Bodies — a category distinct from both Constitutional Bodies (Para 4) and Statutory Bodies (Para 5). An Autonomous Body is set up...Para 7Para 7 defines Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) — a category of government-controlled commercial enterprises. PSUs are companies or corporations in which ...Para 8Para 8 is one of the most important paragraphs in CSMOP for understanding how the Central Secretariat is organised. It defines the roles, functions, and re...Para 9Para 9 governs how official dak (mail and communications) is received in a Central Secretariat office — during office hours, outside office hours, and via ...Para 10Para 10 deals with how to acknowledge the physical receipt of official mail (dak). When dak is delivered in person — that is, a messenger or despatch rider...Para 11Para 11 covers the registration of incoming dak (official correspondence) — the process of officially recording that a communication has entered the minist...Para 12Para 12 covers what happens after dak has been registered at the Central Registry — it must now be distributed to the right officer or section. The rule sa...Para 13Para 13 introduces a practical efficiency measure for repetitive work in government offices: Standard Process Sheets. When a section regularly handles the ...Para 14Para 14 deals with the level at which decisions should be taken and how files should move through the hierarchy. The core principle is that each ministry m...Para 15Para 15 sets out the guidelines for how notes should be written on a government file — the noting process being central to all government decision-making. ...Para 16Para 16 addresses a potentially sensitive situation in government offices: what happens when a senior officer disagrees with or wants to change a note reco...Para 17Para 17 deals with a specific and common scenario in government: when Department A sends a file to Department B asking for advice, concurrence, or a ruling...Para 18Para 18 requires each section to maintain a set of reference resources in the ministry's knowledge management system. These resources are designed to help ...Para 19Para 19 deals with oral discussions — conversations between officers about government business — and requires that their outcomes be formally recorded. In ...Para 20When a senior officer gives you instructions verbally or over the phone, you should get those instructions in writing whenever possible. If the situation i...Para 21Para 21 specifically addresses oral orders that come from a Minister — directly or through the Minister's personal staff. This is a particularly sensitive ...Para 22Para 22 is a short but important procedural rule that ties into the oral instructions framework of Paras 20 and 21. When a subordinate officer has acted on...Para 23Para 23 contains detailed rules for the physical filing of papers in a government file — how papers are punched, tagged, and organised. All papers to be fi...Para 24Para 24 specifies the exact order in which papers must be arranged from top to bottom when a file is being submitted to a higher officer for decision. This...Para 25Para 25 covers referencing — the system of page numbering and document flagging that keeps a government file navigable. Every page in every part of the fil...Para 26Para 26 is a brief but practically important rule about linking files. When two or more current (active) files deal with inter-connected issues, they shoul...Para 27Para 27 regulates the use of urgency gradings on government files and communications. Three urgency gradings are prescribed: 'Immediate', 'Priority', and '...Para 28Para 28 is the most comprehensive single rule in the CSMOP — it catalogues all the forms of official communication used in government and specifies when ea...Para 29Para 29 deals with a specific situation: how attached and subordinate offices (which are not part of the secretariat but are under an administrative minist...Para 30Para 30 describes the Single File System (SFS) — a mechanism for a Non-Secretariat Office (NSO, i.e., an attached or subordinate office) to refer a matter ...Para 31Para 31 is a short but significant rule about the protocol for references to the Attorney General of India (AG). The AG is the senior-most law officer of t...Para 32Para 32 deals with how the Central Government should formally correspond with constitutional and statutory authorities — bodies like the Election Commissio...Para 33Para 33 deals with correspondence with the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India — the constitutional authority responsible for auditing the accou...Para 34Para 34 governs how the Central Government communicates with Union Territory (UT) Administrations. Union Territories are governed directly or indirectly by...Para 35Para 35 governs communications between the Central Government and State Governments — an extremely common and consequential type of correspondence given In...Para 37Para 37 is an extensive and important rule dealing with correspondence received from Members of Parliament (MPs) and VIPs. MPs are elected representatives ...Para 38Para 38 is a brief cross-referencing rule that extends the MP/VIP correspondence protocol to communications received from Ministers of State Governments. S...Para 39Para 39 establishes a clear channel rule: any correspondence your Ministry or Department needs to send to a foreign government, their embassy or high commi...Para 40Para 40 deals with setting deadlines when you consult other offices. Whenever your Section sends a reference to a State Government, another Central Governm...Para 41Para 41 introduces Chapter VII on drafting communications. It establishes the first important drafting principle: not every piece of correspondence needs a...Para 42Para 42 gives three foundational rules that every drafter — dealing hand, ASO, or Section Officer — must follow for every official communication. First, th...Para 43Para 43 covers the authentication of Government Orders — the formal process by which orders issued in the name of the President of India are given legal va...Para 44Para 44 governs a common practice that needs to be carefully controlled: addressing official communications directly to a named officer rather than to thei...Para 45Para 45 introduces Chapter VIII and lays out the complete file numbering system. The starting rule is that no file should be opened for routine receipts — ...Para 46Para 46 covers two separate but related situations: the transfer of files when work moves between departments or sections, and the reconstruction of a lost...Para 47Para 47 requires that every movement of a file — when it leaves one officer and reaches another, whether within the Section or between offices — must be re...Para 48Para 48 opens Chapter IX on Records Management and gives a broad overview of what records management involves. It covers four main activities: recording (c...Para 49Para 49 describes the process of 'recording' a file — the formal act of closing it once all the action on it has been completed. Recording is not the same ...Para 50Para 50 is brief but important: it states that when files are closed and recorded, they must be categorised using the categories prescribed by the National...Para 51Para 51 requires every Section in the Central Secretariat to maintain and keep updated a Precedent Book. This is a reference document in which the Section ...Para 52Para 52 sets out the core obligation of the Record Retention Schedule (RRS) — every Ministry and Department must ensure that files are neither destroyed to...Para 53Para 53 deals with the records maintained personally by officers and their personal staff — files and papers kept in an officer's own room or by the Privat...Para 54Para 54 controls access to recorded files — files that have been closed and transferred to the Section's record area, the Departmental Record Room, or the ...Para 55Every government servant must share complete and accurate information with the public or any organization when it can be disclosed under the Right to Infor...Para 56Para 56 governs how classified papers are handled day-to-day in the Central Secretariat. The CSMOP's general procedures are designed for unclassified paper...Para 57Para 57 specifies who may carry classified files outside the office — for instance, to a meeting at another Ministry, a conference, or a court. The rules a...Para 58Para 58 governs how official information reaches the press and other news media — newspapers, radio, and television. The rule is clear: official informatio...Para 59Para 59 controls the use of the label 'For Official Use Only' on printed government documents, reports, pamphlets, and compilations — including those in el...Para 60Para 60 is one of the most operationally important paragraphs for Section Officers and dealing hands. It establishes the time discipline framework for the ...Para 61Para 61 introduces Chapter XII (Miscellaneous) and explains the philosophy behind departmental instructions in the CSMOP framework. The CSMOP sets out the ...Para 62Para 62 governs the management of records in the personal offices of Ministers — not the Ministry's Sections, but the Minister's personal office with the P...Para 63Para 63 requires every Central Government Ministry, Department, Office, and Public Sector Undertaking to maintain an official website. Critically, the webs...Para 64Para 64 requires all Ministries, Departments, and Offices of the Central Government — as well as State and UT governments — to maintain and prominently dis...