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28  Leave and Vacation

Keywords

IITB leave policy, IIT Bombay vacation, sabbatical leave, maternity leave, earned leave faculty

During the period of service, an employee is eligible for various forms of leave. Technically, no leave is a matter of right and has to be sanctioned/approved by the competent authority. Academic units may sometimes have reasons for not recommending sanction of leave in case your services are required for any purpose. The following are general guidelines and are not exhaustive. For complete information, faculty members should refer to the Institute’s statutes or consult the Administration section of the Institute.

28.1 Applying for leave

  • Apply for all leave on the EP interface and get it sanctioned in advance. In unforeseen circumstances you can apply on EP afterwards; it is good practice to keep your Head or at least one colleague informed.
  • International travel on any kind of leave, personal or official, needs the Institute’s prior consent. Leave of more than 15 days for international travel needs special approval from the Director.
  • Outstation travel on weekends and holidays needs no leave, but you must inform your Head beforehand. Heads inform the Dean (FA); PICs, Deans and Deputy Directors inform the Director.
  • A Head’s personal leave goes to the Dean (FA) if it is under 15 days, and on to the Director if it is longer. Heads need prior permission, since an Acting Head has to be appointed in advance.

(Source: Circular No. F&SS/Leave/2025 dated 10.06.2025.)

28.2 Holidays

The Registrar issues the list of closed and restricted holidays each year. In addition to the closed holidays, you can take any two of the listed restricted holidays. Holidays marked as depending on the moon may shift. The 2027 list has 17 closed holidays.

Source: Office Memorandum No. GA/Holidays/2027 dated 30.10.2026.

28.3 Casual Leave

As the name suggests, this form of leave is to meet casual requirements of an individual.

  1. A faculty member can avail a maximum of 8 days of casual leave in a calendar year. However, the maximum contiguous period for which casual leave can be availed is not more than 5 days. Saturdays/Sundays and holidays may be prefixed or suffixed to casual leave and will not count towards casual leave. For those who join in the middle of a calendar year, proportionate amount of casual leave is allowed. Casual leave can even be taken for half a day, that is, morning session or afternoon session.
  2. Casual leave cannot be appended to any other form of leave other than vacation.
  3. Unutilized casual leave expires on 31\(^{\text{st}}\) December every year and is not carried over.
  4. Generally, no reason has to be given for going on casual leave. The ERP interface has a provision to apply for casual leave. Strictly speaking, one has to take an advance sanction for casual leave as well. However, in case of unforeseen circumstances one can apply on ERP post-facto. It is a good practice to keep the Head or at least one of your colleagues informed of such an absence.

28.4 Special Casual Leave

Special casual leave for a period not exceeding 15 days in a year may be granted to a faculty member for legitimate academic/administrative absence, for instance, for attending conferences, undertaking examinership in an university, etc.

28.5 Vacation

Vacation is available only to the faculty members of the Institute.

  1. A faculty member is entitled to 60 days of vacation during the year. The year for the purpose of vacation is the academic year, that is, from 1 July to 30 June of the following year. A faculty member joining the Institute any time during the first semester (July-November) is eligible for full vacation while those joining in the second semester (January-April) will be entitled to 30 days of vacation in the year of joining.

  2. The conventional vacation period comprises the months of May, June and December. However, the Institute announces the exact dates every year depending on its academic schedule.

  3. No separate application is made for availing vacation. Each faculty member has to provide his/her vacation plans by filling up the appropriate section on the ERP leave form online at https://ep.iitb.ac.in/irj/portal.

  4. There is no minimum duration requirement for availing vacation — the earlier condition that vacation must be taken for not less than 10 days at a time stands repealed with effect from Summer Vacation 2026. Faculty teaching first-year undergraduate courses may avail vacation only after approval from the appropriate authority, subject to submission of grades and completing pending academic responsibilities. Faculty whose annual increment falls due on 1 July must not be on leave on that date (other than casual leave, or a restricted holiday not combined with any other leave); otherwise the increment takes effect from the date of rejoining. (Source: Circular No. F&SS/VACATION/2026 dated 16.03.2026.)

    Winter vacation 2026 runs from 29 November 2026 to 28 December 2026. Winter and summer vacation together in 2026-27 cannot exceed 60 days. Faculty whose annual increment falls due on 1 January 2027 must not be on leave that day, other than casual leave or a restricted holiday not combined with other leave; otherwise the increment takes effect from the date of rejoining. (Source: Circular No. F&SS/VACATION/2026 dated 21.10.2026.)

  5. If a faculty member does not avail the full 60 days vacation in any academic year, 1/3rd of unavailed vacation is converted to Earned leave, and is credited to the earned leave account of the faculty member on 1\(^{\text{st}}\) July of the next academic year. Thus, if a faculty avails of a total of \(x\) days of vacation during the vacation period, \((60-x)/3\) days of earned leave is credited to his/her earned leave account.

28.6 Earned Leave

Earned Leave, unlike vacation, can be availed any time during the year with prior sanction. Unlike non-academic staff, faculty members are entitled for advance credit of EL for 5 days in January and July. Further faculty accumulates earned leave by virtue of not having availed the entitled vacation in a given academic year. One third of the unutilized vacation is credited as earned leave on July 1\(^{\text{st}}\) of every year, or completion of vacation.

  1. Earned leave can be accumulated up to a maximum of 300 days. The unutilized amount of earned leave can be encashed only at the time of superannuation from service. However, a limited number of days of earned leave can be encashed at the time of availing LTC. Such encashment will not exceed 10 days in each instance with a cumulative maximum of 60 days during the entire span of service.
  2. Overflowing of Earned Leave: One third of unutilized vacation is credited as earned leave on July 1\(^{\text{st}}\), even when a faculty has already accumulated 300 days of earned leave in his account. This overflowing earned leave must be availed during the same academic year after which it lapses.
  3. Earned leave can be combined with all types of leave other than casual leave.

28.7 Maternity and Paternity Leaves

  1. Maternity leave with full pay for a maximum of 180 days at each instance can be availed by female employees with less than two surviving children. Leave of any kind due and admissible (including commuted leave for a period not exceeding 60 days and leave not due) can be granted in continuation with maternity leave for a maximum period of two years.
  2. Paternity leave of 15 days can be granted to a male employee with less than two surviving children. Such leave can be taken in the period up to 15 days before delivery and 6 months after the delivery.

28.8 Child Care Leave

Women employees may be granted child care leave to take care of their two eldest surviving children below the age of 18 years at the time of need (such as sickness, examination etc.) for a period not exceeding two years (730 days) during the entire period of service. Such leave must be pre-approved by the authorities. It can be availed for not less than 15 days at a time, and on not more than three occasions in a year. During the period of such leave, the employee is eligible to draw salary received by her immediately before proceeding on such leave. Please note the following:

  1. One child care leave may be granted at 100% of the leave salary for the the first 365 days and 80% of the leave salary for the next 365 days.
  2. Child care leave may be extended to single male parents who may include unmarried or widower or divorcee employees.
  3. For single female Government servants, the child care leave may be granted for six spells in a calendar year.

28.9 Special Leave & Sabbatical Leave

During the entire period of service, a faculty member is permitted to avail long leaves for a total duration not exceeding three years for academic purposes. The two primary categories of such leave with full pay are Special Leave and Sabbatical Leave. Applications should be forwarded through the Head of the academic unit to the Dean (FA) who makes suitable recommendation to the Director (the approving authority). All such applications must be forwarded with recommendation from the Head of the academic unit. The academic unit must be satisfied that the academic programmes of the academic unit will not be adversely affected by granting of such leave and also make alternative arrangements for taking care of students who may be working under the concerned faculty member. Further, the faculty member is also required to make arrangements for ongoing projects, and such arrangement must be intimated to the Dean (R&D) in a form available with the IRCC.

  1. Special leave is generally granted to faculty members to accept academic assignments abroad for availing scholarships and fellowships such as Humboldt Foundation fellowship, Boyscast fellowship, Commonwealth fellowship etc. The faculty member must have put in at least 3 years of service and should have applied for such fellowships through proper channel (that is, the applications should have been forwarded by the Institute). During the special leave, the faculty draws full salary in the Institute in addition to the fellowship amounts.
  2. Sabbatical leave is granted for accepting temporary academic assignments in Indian or foreign universities or research institutions, availing fellowships, writing a book etc. The faculty member should have put in a minimum of six years of service in the Institute for availing a one year sabbatical. The Dean (FA) may recommend a shorter and proportionate amount of sabbatical for a faculty who falls short of the minimum requirement. For a subsequent sabbatical, there must be a gap of at least 3 years for a one semester sabbatical and six years for a two semesters sabbatical. Applications for sabbatical should be submitted to the academic unit well in advance so as to reach the Administration section at least two months before the planned commencement. This is to complete all requisite sabbatical related documentation in a timely manner. Providing sufficient advance notice to the academic unit is also essential to enable them to plan for course allocation.
  3. The Institute requires a bond to be executed by the faculty members proceeding on a sabbatical, undertaking to serve the Institute for a minimum period of three years on return from sabbatical (the period of bond is two years for a one semester sabbatical). If the faculty member resigns before completion of the bond period, he/she will be required to refund the salary paid by the Institute during the sabbatical period.
  4. As a policy, the Institute does not extend a sabbatical. However, a faculty member may request for appending a maximum of 4 months of earned leave to the sabbatical. In case the faculty does not join back the duty after this period, the entire period of sabbatical will be considered as leave without pay or adjusted fully or partially against leave due to the faculty.

28.10 Extraordinary Leave (EOL)

Leave without pay, which does not normally count towards increment or other service and retirement benefits may be granted to a faculty member at the Director’s discretion when no other form of leave is available to the employee, or, when in spite of leave being available, the employee specifically desires for the same.

28.11 Lien

The Board of Governors (275th meeting, 21.11.2025) adopted the Government of India DoPT OM No. DOPT-1669266628362 dated 24.11.2022 on Technical Resignation and Lien. Its provisions apply with immediate effect and supersede the Institute Lien Rules described below.

Sources: Circular No. Admin./2026 dated 11.06.2026; DoPT OM dated 24.11.2022.

A faculty member may request for keeping lien on his/her post for accepting a job either in India or abroad. Such jobs may be for assignments in private or public sector undertakings. To be eligible for lien, a faculty member must have put in at least 5 years of service after confirmation. The period of lien can be one year at a stretch or two years if the period of service is over 10 years. (Lien period can be for a period of five years for those appointed as Directors or CEOs in a government organization or a public sector unit.)

  1. The employee has to sign an agreement on a stamp paper with the Institute before proceeding on lien.
  2. No salary is paid to the employee from the Institute while on lien. However, the service during period of lien qualifies for retirement benefit. The employee (or his employer during the lien period) pays a contribution towards pension-cum gratuity benefit determined by the Institute as per standard Government calculation, an amount which depends also on the length of service rendered in the Institute. This contribution must be received by the Institute by 31\(^{\text{st}}\) March of every year, or if the employee so desires, every month. It must be emphasized that when the Institute sanctions a lien to the employee, it does not enter into an agreement with his/her temporary employer and the responsibility of remitting all amounts payable to the Institute lies with the employee only.
  3. The employee should continue to pay his/her own contribution to CPF/GPF/NPS during the period of lien. Such contribution should be remitted to the Institute every month or before 31\(^{\text{st}}\) March of every financial year.
  4. The employee has to pay the leave salary contribution. When an employee pays the leave salary contribution, the Institute leave account of the employee is credited or debited when the employee takes leave in his/her host organization. The leave salary contribution to be paid is roughly 11% of the pay drawn from the host organization (or the pay that the employee would have drawn, had he/she not gone on lien.) The payment of leave salary contribution may be waived by the Director on request in which case the leave account of the employee remains frozen during period of lien.
  5. Keeping your accommodation during Lien: The Institute generally permits a faculty member to retain the quarter allotted for a period of one year only during the lien period. The license fee payable during this period will be the same as the employee normally pays. The Director may permit a faculty to keep the quarter during the second year of lien, but on an enhanced license fee which is fifty times the normal license fee. The employee has to arrange to pay the bills received from the Estate Office towards license fee and other utility charges every month.

In case of online transfer of Leave, Salary and Pension Contribution details, the intimation mentioning the UTR number should be sent to the Registrar, IIT Bombay.

28.12 International Travel

International travel, whether for personal or official purposes, requires consent of the Institute. A letter addressed to the Dean (Faculty Affairs) for permission (sent via the Head of the unit) for overseas travel before undertaking travel is mandatory. In addition, any international travel that exceeds two weeks’ duration during the semester needs approval from the Director (through the Head and Dean (FA)).