Haryana Notifies Model Online Transfer Policy 2026
Transparent Merit-Based System To Govern Transfers Of State Government Employees
5 Dariya News
Chandigarh 25-Jun-2026
The Haryana Government on Thursday notified the Model Online Transfer Policy 2026, establishing a comprehensive, transparent, and merit-based framework for the transfer and posting of regular government employees across all state departments and organisations. The policy has been notified by Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi.
The policy is applicable to all regular employees of cadres where the sanctioned strength of a post is 50 or above, across all state government departments. It excludes All India Services and Haryana Civil Services Executive Branch and Allied Services. The Human Resources Department retains the authority to extend the policy's applicability to cadres with a sanctioned strength of less than 50, where deemed appropriate.
All posts within a covered cadre — including headquarters posts wherever applicable — will be included in the transfer drive under this policy. The policy may also be adopted by any organisation of the Government of Haryana beyond the regular government departments.
Employee Categories
The policy classifies all employees into seven clearly defined categories for the purpose of participation in the transfer drive. The Deemed Category covers employees who have completed the prescribed tenure in a unit and are mandatorily due for transfer.
The Voluntary Category covers employees who have completed the minimum tenure but not the prescribed tenure and who choose to participate. The Minimum Tenure Not Completed Category covers employees who have not yet served the minimum required period and are generally not eligible for transfer.
The Notional Category applies to employees who enter a cadre through initial appointment, promotion, reinstatement, return from study leave, or repatriation from deputation after the qualifying date of the preceding transfer drive.The Surplus Category covers employees posted in units where numbers exceed the assessed administrative requirement, who are consequently required to mandatorily participate in the transfer drive.
The Protected Category extends special consideration to employees due for retirement within 18 months of the qualifying date, those undergoing treatment for cancer, dialysis, bypass heart surgery within the last two years, or organ transplant, employees with disabilities of 70 percent and above, and widows with a youngest child up to ten years of age. The Excluded Category covers employees on deputation, study leave, absent for more than 180 days, under suspension, or out of service.
Merit Points
The policy introduces a rigorous and objective merit points framework carrying a total of 120 points, which determines the rank of each participating employee and governs unit allocation. The three major factors are Age, carrying a maximum of 30 points with a weightage of 25 percent; Experience in Cadre, also carrying 30 points with 25 percent weightage; and Special Factors, carrying 60 points with 50 percent weightage.
Age points are calculated on the basis of the number of days between the qualifying date and the employee's date of birth divided by 365 and multiplied by half. Experience points are calculated as the number of days between the qualifying date and the date of joining in the cadre divided by 365.
Under Special Factors, female employees receive 10 points, except in cadres where all employees are female. Divorced, judicially separated, widowed, or single parent employees receive 10 points. Employees in couple cases — where the spouse serves as a regular employee in any organisation posted in Haryana, Delhi, or Chandigarh — receive 10 points.
Spouses of serving military or paramilitary personnel receive 10 points. Employees or their spouses, unmarried sons, or unmarried daughters suffering from debilitating diseases, as certified by a duly constituted Medical Board of AIIMS, PGI Chandigarh, PGI Rohtak, or government medical colleges in Haryana, Delhi, or Chandigarh, receive 10 points.
Employees with differently abled children with benchmark disability of 40 percent and above receive 10 points. Differently abled employees with benchmark disability between 40 and 70 percent receive 10 points. Employees who have been awarded a major penalty under the Haryana Civil Services Punishment and Appeal Rules, 2016, and are under the currency of punishment on the qualifying date, attract negative 10 points.
In the event of a tie among employees, the order of preference for determining rank is: older in age, female, and first name in alphabetical order. Employees under the Protected Category are assigned a fixed 120 merit points.
Eight-Stage Online Process
The entire transfer drive is conducted through an online software platform integrated with the Haryana Human Resource Management System. The process unfolds in eight structured stages with clearly defined timelines.
In Stage 1, the Nodal Officer creates the transfer drive, determines the qualifying date and tentative schedule in consultation with the competent authority, updates unit and employee data within seven days, and publishes a preliminary list of employees with their merit points, tenure, and initial category.
In Stage 2, employees validate their data or raise objections within five days through an OTP-based system. Objections are decided by the Head of Department and communicated within seven days. A second round of objection, if any, is also decided finally by the Head of Department. The entire Stage 2 is to be completed within a maximum of 20 days.
In Stage 3, employees under the Voluntary and Protected categories are given a maximum of five days to indicate their consent for voluntary participation through an OTP-based process. Employees who fail to exercise the option at this stage are not considered for the ongoing drive.
In Stage 4, the department undertakes a rationalization exercise over 15 days, identifying surplus and deficient posts across units, determining posts available for transfer and posts to be blocked, and publishing the final list of participating and non-participating employees.
Employees belonging to the Protected Category are ordinarily not to be displaced during rationalization without their consent, provided not more than 50 percent of surplus employees in that unit belong to the Protected Category. Employees under the Voluntary Category who have opted to participate may withdraw their consent within three days through an OTP-based process during this stage.
In Stage 5, all participating employees are given a maximum of five days to submit their unit preferences through the OTP-based system. Employees who fail to submit preferences are liable to be posted anywhere in the state. Employees under the Deemed Category are not eligible to opt for a unit in which they have already served the prescribed tenure.
In Stage 6, units are allocated to employees strictly on the basis of their inter-se ranking as determined by the merit points framework. The Nodal Officer completes the allocation within five days. Employees not allocated any unit of their preferred choices are given one final opportunity to choose from remaining vacancies before being posted anywhere in the state.
In Stage 7, transfer orders are generated and issued after approval from the competent authority. All transfers are to be implemented within ten days of issuance. Treasury Officers are directed not to draw the salary of employees who have not complied with transfer orders.
In Stage 8, an employee aggrieved with the transfer process may represent to the competent authority through the intraharyana.nic.in platform within 15 days of issuance of orders, but only after joining at the new place of posting. The decision on such representation is to be communicated within 15 days.
Other Key Provisions
The policy incorporates several additional safeguards and employee-friendly provisions. A female employee who has recently married, been widowed, or been divorced or judicially separated may submit a manual representation to the competent authority within six months of the occurrence for a preferred posting against any available vacancy as a one-time consideration, outside the transfer drive period.
Employees may seek temporary transfer or shifting of headquarters outside the drive period only through the intraharyana.nic.in platform, and only on compelling grounds — medical necessity supported by a Medical Board certificate, death of an immediate family member, or less than one year remaining to superannuation.
The Head of Department examines such cases and forwards them with clear recommendations to the Chief Minister for a final decision.No employee is to be transferred within one year of attaining superannuation without their written consent.
General online transfers are to be conducted preferably once a year, while transfers necessitated by promotion, direct recruitment, or administrative exigency may be undertaken at any time with prior approval of the Chief Minister. No transfer or posting is to be made while an online transfer drive is in process; only temporary deployment is permitted during this period.
Crucially, the policy explicitly prohibits canvassing or seeking extraneous intervention in transfer matters. Any individual representation, communication, or attempt to influence the process outside formal channels will be deemed an effort to exert extraneous influence and may invite disciplinary action.
The Chief Minister retains the prerogative to transfer or exclude any employee from transfer, and to relax any provision of the policy after recording reasons in writing. The Human Resources Department is the final authority for interpretation and clarification of all policy provisions.
The list of debilitating diseases recognised under the policy for the purpose of special factor points includes chronic heart diseases, chronic cardiac dysrhythmias, interstitial lung disease, cystic fibrosis, cirrhosis of the liver, chronic renal failure, epilepsy, paraplegia, quadriplegia, hemiplegia, Parkinson's disease, degenerative disorders of the nervous system including motor neuron disease, autism spectrum disorders, cerebral vascular accident, multiple sclerosis, myopathies, thalassemia, haemophilia, aplastic anaemia, all types of cancer, schizophrenia, AIDS, organ transplant, Behcet's disease, and muscular dystrophy.
Further details of the policy can be accessed at csharyana.gov.in.