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REGD. No. D. L.-33004/99
The Gazette of India
CG-DL-E-10112025-267540
EXTRAORDINARY
PART II-Section 3-Sub-section (i)
PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY
NEW DELHI, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2025/ KARTIKA 15, 1947
MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification Directorate)
NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, the 6th November, 2025
G.S.R. 824(E).—In exercise of the powers conferred by the proviso to article 309 of the Constitution, the President hereby makes the following rules regulating the Limited Departmental Competitive Examination for promotion to the post of Senior Secretariat Assistant in Standardisation, Testing and Quality Certification Directorate, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, namely: -
1. Short title and commencement. - (1) These rules may be called the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Standardisation, Testing and Quality Certification Directorate, Senior Secretariat Assistant, Limited Departmental Competitive Examination Rules, 2025.
(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.
2. Definitions. – In these rules unless the context otherwise requires, -
(a) "appointing authority" means the Director General, Standardisation, Testing and Quality Certification Directorate, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology;
(b) "available vacancy" means a vacancy in the post of Senior Secretariat Assistant's grade in the Standardisation, Testing and Quality Certification Directorate, which is required to be filled up on the basis of the results of the examination;
(c) "crucial date" means the first day of January of the year of the vacancies for which such examination is held;
(d) “examination” means the Limited Departmental Competitive Examination for promotion to the post of Senior Secretariat Assistant held in the manner specified in the Schedule;
(e) "recruitment year" means the period commencing from the 1st day of January and ending on the 31st day of December of the same year;
(f) "Schedule" means the Schedule annexed to these rules;
(g) "Scheduled Castes” and “Scheduled Tribes" shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in clauses (24) and (25) of article 366 of the Constitution of India.
3. Conditions of eligibility. - Junior Secretariat Assistant and Hindi Typist in level-2 in the pay matrix (Rs. 19900-63200) in the Standardisation, Testing and Quality Certification Directorate, with five years regular service in the grade and having successfully completed two weeks training in relevant field or area as decided by Standardisation, Testing and Quality Certification Directorate from time to time on the crucial date shall be eligible to appear in the Limited Departmental Competitive examination:
4. Holding of examination. – (1) The appointing authority shall notify the dates and place of the examination and number of available and anticipated vacancies assessed at the time of announcing the examination.
(2) The examination shall be conducted after the expiry of at least thirty days from the date of notifying the vacancies in the manner specified in the Schedule.
(3) The number of vacancies reserved for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and other special categories of person, if any, shall be clearly indicated in the said notification.
5. Results. – (1) On the basis of the aggregate marks secured by the candidate in Part- I and Part- II of the examination as specified in the Schedule, a merit list containing the names of the successful candidates in order of merit shall be notified, keeping in view the number of vacancies and anticipated vacancies, if any, falling in the recruitment year.
(2) The standards of evaluation for candidates belonging to the Schedule Castes and the Schedule Tribes shall be as per the Government instructions from time to time.
(3) The candidates for appointment against the available vacancies shall be considered in the order in which their names appear in the merit list prepared under sub-rule (1).
(4) The merit list shall remain in operation till the notified vacancies are filled up or up to a period of eighteen months from the date of its approval by the appointing authority or till next merit list is approved by the appointing authority, whichever is earlier.
6. Appointment. - The inclusion of the name of any candidate in the merit list shall not confer a right to appointment and he shall be appointed by the appointing authority only after satisfying itself that no vigilance or disciplinary case is either pending or contemplated against the candidate and after taking into account his placement in the merit list, the reservation of posts or such other requirements as may be laid down by the Central Government, from time to time, in this regard.
7. Liability to pass typewriting test. - (1) The candidates, who qualify in the written examination, shall be required to pass a test in typewriting, at a minimum speed of thirty-five words per minute in English or thirty words per minute in Hindi only on computer (35 words per minute and 30 words per minute correspond to 10500 Key Depression Per Hour or 9000 Key Depression Per Hour on an average of 5 key depressions for each word) within a period of one year from the date of their appointment, failing which no annual increments shall be allowed to them until they have passed the said test or exempted under the Office Memorandum No. 14020/1/2014-Estt.(D) dated the 22nd April, 2015 issued by the Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.
(2) The typewriting test shall consist of a running matter of ten minutes duration.
8. Removal of name from merit list on resignation, etc.- (1) In case a candidate after appearing at the examination resigns from the service or whose services are terminated or who is appointed to an ex-cadre post or to any other service and does not have a lien on any of the posts mentioned in rule 3, his name shall not be included in the merit list, or if included in the said merit list shall be struck off therefrom.
(2) Where a candidate, whose name is included in the said merit list, is appointed to an ex-cadre post or is transferred to another department of the Central Government with the permission of the appointing authority and continue to have a lien on any of the posts mentioned in rule 3, shall not be appointed as Junior Secretariat Assistant till he resumes the duties in the Standardisation, Testing and Quality Certification Directorate on his initial post during the period the merit list remains in force:
Provided that his claim for proforma promotion may be considered by the appointing authority in accordance with the orders of the Central Government, issued in his behalf from time to time.
9. Penalty for impersonation or other misconduct. - A candidate, who is or has been declared by the appointing authority to be guilty of -
(i) obtaining support for his candidature by any means; or
(ii) impersonation; or
(iii) procuring impersonation by any person; or
(iv) submitting fabricated documents or documents which have been tampered with; or
(v) making statements which are incorrect or false or suppressing material information; or
(vi) resorting to any other irregular or improper means in connection with his candidature for the examination; or
(vii) using unfair means in the examinations hall; or
(viii) misbehaving in the examination hall; or
(ix) attempting to commit or, as the case may be, abetting the Ministry of all or any of the acts specified in clauses (i) to (viii);
may, in addition to the criminal proceedings, liable –
(a) to be disqualified by the appointing authority from the examination; or
(b) to disciplinary action, under the Central Civil Services (Classification Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965:
Provided that no penalty under this rule shall be imposed except after-
(i) giving the candidate an opportunity of making such representation in writing as he may wish to make in that behalf; and
(ii) taking the representation, if any submitted by the candidate within the period allowed to him, into consideration.
10. Power to relax. – Where the appointing authority is satisfied that the operation of any of these rules causes undue hardship in any class category of persons or posts, it may dispense with or relax the requirement of the rule to such extent and subject conditions, as it may consider necessary.
THE SCHEDULE
(See rules 4 and 5)
The examination shall be conducted in the following two parts, namely: -
Part-I
1. Written examination shall carry a maximum of 300 marks. The subject of the written examination, the maximum marks allotted to each paper and the time limit allowed shall be as follows, namely: -
+-------+----------+-------------------------------------------------------------+---------------+---------+
| Sl. No.| Paper | Subject | Maximum Marks | Time |
+=======+==========+=============================================================+===============+=========+
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) |
+-------+----------+-------------------------------------------------------------+---------------+---------+
| 1. | I | (Objective Type) | 200 | 2 hours |
| | | (a) General Awareness | | |
| | | (100 questions)-100 marks. | | |
| | | (b) Comprehension and writing ability of | | |
| | | English Language | | |
| | | (100 questions)-100 marks. | | |
+-------+----------+-------------------------------------------------------------+---------------+---------+
| 2. | II | (Descriptive Type) | 100 | 2 hours |
| | | Noting, Drafting and Office Procedure | | |
+-------+----------+-------------------------------------------------------------+---------------+---------+
2. Syllabus for examination:
WHERE KNOWLEDGE OF THE RULES, ORDERS, INSTRUCTIONS ETC. IS REQUIRED, CANDIDATES WILL BE EXPECTED TO BE CONVERSANT WITH AMENDMENTS ISSUED UP TO THE DATE OF NOTIFICATION OF THIS EXAMINATION.
PAPER-I
(a) General Awareness: - (i) Question shall be aimed at testing the candidates General Awareness of the environment around him and its application to society.
(ii) Question shall also be designed to test knowledge of current events and of such matters of every day observations and experience in their scientific aspect as may be expected of any educated person.
(iii) The test shall also include questions relating to India and its neighboring countries especially pertaining to History, Culture, Geography, Economics, Sciences, General Politic and Scientific research.
(b) Comprehension and Writing ability of English language: - Question shall be designed to test the candidates understanding and knowledge of English language, vocabulary, spelling, grammar, sentence structure, synonyms, antonyms, sentence completion, phrases and idiomatic use words etc. There will be question on comprehension of a passage also. The question shall be of matriculation level.
PAPER-II
Noting, Drafting and Office Procedure – The paper on noting, drafting and office procedure shall be designed to test the candidate's knowledge of office procedure in the Secretariat and Attached offices and generally their ability to write and understand notes and drafts. Candidates are required to be generally familiar with the broad features of the Manual of Office Procedure issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Pension and Public Grievances (Department of Personnel and Training). Notes on office procedure issued by the Institute of Secretariat Training and Management, the rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha and the handbook of Orders issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Pension and Public Grievance regarding use of Hindi for official purposes of the Union.
Candidates shall be tested in simple composition, and applied grammar, knowledge of current events and of such matters of every day observation and experience, general information about India.
3. Candidates are allowed the option to answer Paper-II on Noting, Drafting and Office Procedure either in English or Hindi. All the two question papers/test booklets will be set both in Hindi and English.
Note 1. - The option will be for a complete paper and not for different question in the same paper.
Note 2. - Candidates desirous of exercising the option to answer the Noting, Drafting and Office Procedure paper in Hindi (Devanagari) should indicate clearly in the application form, otherwise, it would be assumed that they would answer the aforesaid paper in English. The option once exercised shall be treated as final and no request for change shall be entertained later on. No credit shall be given for examination taken in a language other than the one opted for by the candidate.
Note 3. - Candidates exercising the option to answer the paper in Hindi (Devanagari) may, if they so desire, give English version within brackets of the description of the technical terms, if any, in addition to the Hindi version.
4. Penalty for wrong answers (in Objective Type Papers)
THERE WILL BE PENALTY (NEGATIVE MARKING) FOR WRONG ANSWERS MARKED BY A CANDIDATE IN THE OBJECTIVE QUESTION PAPERS:
(i) There are four alternatives for the answer to every question. For each question for which a wrong answer has been given by the candidate, one fourth (0.25) of the marks assigned to that question will be deducted as penalty.
(ii) If a candidate gives more than one answer, it will be treated as a wrong answer even if one of the given answers happens to be correct and there will be same penalty as above for that question.
(iii) If a question is left blank, i.e. no answer is given by the candidate, there will be no penalty for that question.
5. The minimum qualifying marks in each of the two subjects in Part I should be thirty-five per cent. and aggregate marks should be forty-five per cent.
6. Marks will not be allotted for mere superficial knowledge.
7. Deduction up to five per cent. of the maximum marks in the descriptive paper will be made for illegible handwriting.
8. Credit shall be given for neat and methodical expression of ideas with due economy of words in the written answers.
9. The decision of the Ministry with regard to the acceptance of the application of a candidate and his eligibility or otherwise for admission to the examination shall be final.
10. Appearance of candidates in all the two papers is a must for qualifying in the examination.
11. Candidates should use only international form of Indian numerals (e.g. 1,2,3,4,5,6 etc.) while answering paper-II.
Part-II
Evaluation of the records of service of the candidate by a Departmental Promotion Committee consisting of: -
1. Scientist 'E', Standardisation, Testing and Quality Certification Directorate, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology – Chairperson;
2. The Joint Director or Deputy Director or equivalent, Standardisation, Testing and Quality Certification Directorate, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology – Member; - and
3. One Under Secretary / Deputy Director from a Ministry or a Department other than Standardisation, Testing and Quality Certification Directorate, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology –Member
This part shall carry a maximum of 100 marks. The Annual Performance Appraisal Reports of the candidates shall be scrutinised for the service period reckoned for promotion and marks will be accordingly allotted by the Department Promotion Committee. The minimum qualifying marks in the Annual Performance Appraisal Reports of each year during the residency period will not be lower than the benchmark prescribed for promotion to the post of Senior Secretariat Assistant.
[F. No. 2(03)/2025-PA(TA)]
M. VELLAIPANDI, Director General
Uploaded by Dte. of Printing at Government of India Press, Ring Road, Mayapuri, New Delhi-110064
and Published by the Controller of Publications, Delhi-110054.
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