Jammu and Kashmir has officially sanctioned a one-time window for certain government employees to move from the National Pension System (NPS) to the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). The directive issued by the Finance Department, Government of Jammu and Kashmir, on September 28, 2026, follows formal approval from the Council of Ministers dated September 10, 2026. The choice will be final: an employee who moves to OPS cannot subsequently return to NPS. The option is available for 120 days from September 28 to December 28, 2026, with the entire exercise needing to be completed within this four-month period. As per the notification, those who don't use the option will continue to be covered under the NPS, making this a genuine one-time opportunity for eligible employees.
The benefit applies to employees who meet specific recruitment and joining date conditions. Eligible employees must have been appointed against a post or vacancy advertised or notified before December 24, 2009, but must have joined government service on or after January 1, 2010. To opt for the OPS, eligible employees must submit the specified form within three months of the order's issuance, which suggests December 28, 2026, as the deadline to exercise the one-time switch option. The application process requires employees to submit the prescribed option to the Drawing and Disbursing Officer (DDO), who will forward it to the Head of Department or appointing authority. The administrative department must examine the employee's eligibility and issue the necessary order within one month. The notification clarifies that once an eligible Jammu and Kashmir employee switches to the OPS, they can't switch back to the NPS.
Switching to OPS will result in significant changes to the employee's existing NPS account. The employee's NPS account will be closed from the 1st of the month following the month in which the OPS notification has been issued, and they will subscribe to the General Provident Fund (GPF). The accumulated NPS corpus will be adjusted as part of the transition, with the employee's contribution credited to their GPF account under applicable GPF Rules, 1960, with recalculated interest. The government's contribution will be debited from the corpus, and investment appreciation will be credited to the government. This represents a complete shift from the defined-contribution NPS framework to the defined-benefit pension framework. The move may also prompt renewed discussion in other states regarding similar one-time options for employees caught in comparable transitional circumstances.
The decision follows a long-running issue over recruitment dates, with some employees arguing that their vacancies had been advertised before NPS was introduced, even though their actual appointments happened after the cut-off. The NPS was initially implemented by the central government through a notification dated December 22, 2003, for employees who joined service on or after January 1, 2010, by amending the J&K Civil Service Regulations, 1956. In March 2023, the Central Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare (DoPPW) permitted central civil employees, whose recruitment vacancies were advertised before the NPS notification date, to switch from NPS to OPS coverage. However, that Central Government order did not automatically extend to J&K employees, requiring separate administrative consideration. After several J&K government employees submitted representations and filed petitions before the High Court and Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), the J&K Finance Department held inter-departmental consultations with the General Administration Department, Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, and the ARI and Training Department, and all agreed to extend the policy. The Ministry of Home Affairs and DoPPW clarified in December 2024 that state and UT service rules remain within local jurisdiction, making this J&K-specific policy necessary for the state's employees.
Employees who do not exercise this option by December 28, 2026 will continue under NPS, according to the government order. The option is also irreversible once exercised, requiring eligible employees to understand the implications of moving from a defined-contribution system such as NPS to the defined-benefit pension framework before submitting their application. For employees covered by the order, the key issue is not simply their preferred pension scheme, but their recruitment notification date, actual joining date, and documentary proof of eligibility will determine whether they can use this one-time window. The DoPPW, in a letter dated December 6, 2024, replied that the central government's instructions are not suo moto applicable to state or UT employees, stating that the J&K government and concerned administrative department can decide the applicability of any service rules to their employees. Once the J&K government got clarification from the DoPPW, it kept the matter before the Council of Ministers on September 10, 2026, which approved the proposal of the one-time switch to the OPS on the same day.
