CHANGE OF HOME TOWN

Change of
Hometown Address :

“Hometown”
means the town, village or any other
place declared as such by the Government
servant and accepted by the
controlling officer.

The
hometown once declared and accepted by the controlling officer shall be treated
as final. Though, there is a chance in a
lifetime to change the Hometown address in service records with submiting
the appropriate documents. Generally, once declared his hometown address by an
employee, it is initially may be accepted. But, a detailed check may be applied
only when he seeks a change. Rules says some criteria to determine whether his
decleration may be accepted.

Change of Hometown.- The hometown once declared and accepted by the controlling
officer shall be treated as final. In exceptional circumstances, the Head of the
Department or if the Government servant himself is the Head of the Department,
the Administrative Ministry, may authorise a change in such
declaration provided that such a change
shall not be made more than once during the service of a Government servant.

Govt. of
India Decisions:

(1) From
time to time enquiries have been received as to how exactly the “home
town” should be determined. The conditions of ownership of
property and permanent residence of
relatives laid down in para 1 (4) of this Ministry’s Office Memorandum of 11th
October, 1956 are only illustrative and not exhaustive for determining one’s
home town.The correct test to determine whether a place declared by a Government
servant may be accepted as his hometown or not is to check whether it is the
place where the Govt. servant would normally reside but for his absence from
such a station for service under Government. The criteria mentioned below may,
therefore, be applied to determine whether the Govt. servant’s declaration may
be accepted-

(i)
Whether the place declared by Government servant is the one which requires his
physical presence at intervals for discharging various domestic and social
obligations, and if so, whether after his entry into service, the Government
servant had been visiting that place frequently.

(ii)
Whether the Government servant owns residential property in that place or
whether he is a member of a joint family having such property there.

(iii)
Whether his near relations are resident in that place.

(iv)
Whether, prior to his entry into Government service, the Government servant had
been living there for some years.

NOTE.-
The criteria, one after the other, need be applied only in cases where the
immediately preceding criterion is not satisfied.

Where the
Government servant or the family of which he is a member owns a residential or
landed property in more than one place, it is left to the Government servant to
make a choice giving reasons for the same, provided that the decision of the
Controlling Officer whether or not to accept such place as the hometown of the

Government servant shall be final.

Where the
presence of near relations at a particular place is to be the determining
criterion for the acceptance of declaration of ‘hometown’ the presence of near
relations should be a more or less permanent nature.

2. It has
been decided, in view of the comprehensive revised definition of “home town”, to
give further opportunity to declare the home towns afresh within a time limit
(i.e. by the 31st October, 1958) to all those who might be affected by the
revised definition (e.g. whose earlier declarations were rejected but who would
now become eligible to declare particular places as their hometowns, or who
might like to have a change affected in the light of the revised criteria). Such
fresh declaration after approval by the Controlling Officer will be treated as
the “first declaration” and not as a change of declaration in terms of para 1
(4) of this Ministry’s Office Memorandum No.43/1/56-Estt. Part II, dated the
11th October, 1956.

3. Those
Government servants who because of the revised definition now become eligible
for the leave travel concession would, however, be eligible only for the
concessions commencing from the one relating to the 1958-59 block.

(MHA OM
No. 43/15/57-Ests. (A) dated 24.6.1958)

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Application for Change of Declared Home Town- CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD