Tenure of office of persons serving the Union or a State

Article 310, Constitution of India 1950

(1) Except as expressly provided by this Constitution, every person who is a member of a defence service or of a civil service of the Union or of an all-India service or holds any post connected with defence or any civil post under the Union, holds office during the pleasure of the President, and every person who is a member of a civil service of a State or holds any civil post under a State holds office during the pleasure of the Governor or, as the case may be, the Rajpramukh of the State.

(2) Notwithstanding that a person holding a civil post under the Union or a State holds office during the pleasure of the President or, as the case may be, of the Governor or Rajpramukh of the State, any contract under which a person, not being a member of a defence service or of an all-India service or of a civil service of the Union or a State, is appointed under this Constitution to hold such a post may, if the President or the Governor or the Rajpramukh, as the case may be, deems it necessary in order to secure the services of a person having special qualifications, provide for the payment to him of compensation, if before the expiration of an agreed period that post is abolished or he is, for reasons not connected with any misconduct on his part, required to vacate that post.

Draft Article 282A (Article 310 of the Constitution of India 1950) was not included in the Draft Constitution 1948. It was introduced by the Drafting Committee Chairman on 7 September 1949. It specified the tenure of office for civil servants of the Union and States and members of the defence services. It stated that these officers would hold office based on the discretion of the President of India or the Governor of the State respectively. The Draft Article also provided that any person who is not a member of the all-India civil services or defence services and is appointed under a specific contract would be compensated if their services are terminated without any fault of the service provider.

A Member proposed to amend the Draft Article to limit the tenure of such officers till they attain the age of 68 instead of leaving it to the discretion of the President of India. However, he withdrew this amendment and instead suggested that the discretion should lie with the President for services at the State-level as well, in place of the Governor. There was no further discussion on this Draft Article and it was adopted on the same day