VoxJuris
Home › Acts › Constitution › Part XIV › Article 310

Constitution of India · Part XIV: Services Under the Union and the States · Chapter I: Services

Article 310: Tenure of office of persons serving the Union or a State

In plain words

Unless the Constitution expressly provides otherwise, members of defence services, Union civil services and all-India services, and holders of defence or civil posts under the Union, hold office at the President's pleasure. Members of a State's civil services and holders of civil posts under a State hold office at the Governor's pleasure.

  • To secure someone with special qualifications, a contract for a civil post (for a person not already in a regular service) can provide compensation if the post is abolished, or they must leave for reasons unrelated to misconduct, before an agreed period ends.

A simplified explanation, prepared with AI assistance from the official text below and checked automatically against it for numbers and cross-references. The official text is the law and prevails over this summary. Not legal advice.

Official text

(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 *** 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 *** 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 ***, 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.

Source: India Code (Legislative Department), the official text of the Constitution of India. As amended up to the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023. Text as on 10 September 2026. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here. Official text on India Code.

Supreme Court judgments citing the article 310