G.O. (Ms.) No.89, Special Casual Leave for Cancer Treatment, 2019

What the document does

The Personnel and Administrative Reforms (FR.III) Department issued G.O. (Ms.) No.89 to provide special casual leave for government servants receiving chemotherapy or radiotherapy for cancer. The document concerns government employee leave and does not contain provisions about housing, property, land ownership or land development.

Who is covered

G.O. (Ms.) No.89 applies to a government servant who undergoes chemotherapy or radiotherapy for cancer. Copies were sent to all government secretaries, Secretariat departments, heads of departments, District Collectors, District Judges, District Magistrates, the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission and the High Court of Madras, among others.

Key provisions

The Personnel and Administrative Reforms (FR.III) Department directs that:

• A government servant may receive 10 days of special casual leave every time chemotherapy or radiotherapy is undertaken.
• Each 10 day period starts on the day before the scheduled treatment date.
• The special casual leave is additional to the government servant's other eligible leave.
• The government servant must produce a medical certificate from the Medical Officer in charge of the medical institution where the treatment was received.
• The Legislative Assembly announcement reproduced in the document described the special leave as being with full pay.

The medical advice recorded in G.O. (Ms.) No.89 explains the 10 day period for chemotherapy as one day for pre treatment investigations, one day for chemotherapy and eight days for recovery. The final direction applies the same leave period to chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Background and further action

The Personnel and Administrative Reforms (FR.III) Department accepted a suggestion from the Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, which had been forwarded by the Health and Family Welfare Department for examination. The document states that necessary amendments to the Fundamental Rules would be issued separately. It therefore grants the leave administratively while indicating that separate amendments were still to follow.