IAS Ranks and Hierarchy: District, State, Centre

The IAS has no ranks in the police or military sense. The Indian Administrative Service (Pay) Rules, 2016 set eight grades, each on a level of the pay matrix, and an officer in a given grade can hold any of several posts. The post is what people see: Collector, Secretary, Joint Secretary. The rules' Schedule II links posts to pay levels, in three parts: Part A for state posts above the Senior Scale, Part B for state posts in the Senior Scale, and Part C for posts in the Government of India.

This guide goes through the grades, then the posts at the Centre, in the state and in the district, as the schedules list them.

The eight grades

The rules group the grades as the Junior Scale; the Senior Scales (Senior Time Scale, Junior Administrative Grade and Selection Grade); the Super Time Scale; and the grades above it (Higher Administrative Grade, Apex Scale and Cabinet Secretary).

There is no Level 16 in the IAS: the rules go from the Higher Administrative Grade at Level 15 straight to the Apex Scale at Level 17. The IAS salary guide explains how pay is fixed at each step.

Posts in the Government of India

IAS officers serve at the Centre on deputation. Under the IAS (Cadre) Rules this needs the concurrence of their state and the Central Government, and if the two disagree, the Central Government decides. DoPT's Central Staffing Scheme selects officers of the All India Services and Group A central services for posts at the level of Deputy Secretary, Director and Joint Secretary on tenure deputation. Part C of Schedule II sets the level of each post:

Post in the Government of India	Pay level
Cabinet Secretary	18
Secretary or Special Secretary	17
Additional Secretary	15
Joint Secretary	14
Director	13
Deputy Secretary	13 or 12
Under Secretary	12 or 11

Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary each span two levels, so an officer's grade, not the post alone, decides the pay. LBSNAA's Phase III course page marks the point, at seven to nine years of seniority, when officers move towards posts such as Deputy Secretary or Director in the Government of India.

Posts in the state government

Part A lists, cadre by cadre, the state posts carrying pay above the Senior Scale. The titles repeat across most states. Some examples from DoPT's published copy of the rules (the Government amends these schedules from time to time):

Post	Pay level	How the schedule lists it
Chief Secretary	17	In every state; Level 15 for Andaman and Nicobar and for Puducherry
Additional Chief Secretary	17	For example Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra; Level 15 in Nagaland and Sikkim
Principal Secretary	15	For example Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra
Secretary to Government	14	For example Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra
Divisional Commissioner	14	For example Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra; called Commissioner of Divisions in Haryana and Punjab
Heads of departments, such as Commissioner of Commercial Taxes or Registrar of Co-operative Societies	14 in some cadres	In Part A for some cadres; in Part B, the Senior Scale, for others

Part B lists posts in the Senior Scale, which covers Levels 11 to 13: Additional, Joint and Deputy Secretaries to the state government, directors of departments, some commissioners and registrars, and the district posts below. Phase III at LBSNAA is described as the move to heading a department at the state level.

Posts in the district

The head of a district is a Senior Scale post in Part B, and its title depends on the state. The schedule lists it as "Collectors and District Magistrates" in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, "Collector" in Maharashtra, "District Magistrates" in Uttar Pradesh, "District Magistrate & Collector" in Bihar and "Deputy Commissioner" in Haryana and Karnataka, among others. Our guide on Collector, DM and SDM explains where each title comes from.

Part B also names posts below or beside the district head in some cadres, such as Joint Collectors in Andhra Pradesh, Sub-Collectors Grade-I in Kerala, Additional District Magistrates in Odisha and the Chief Executive Officer of the Zila Parishad in Maharashtra and Rajasthan. Posts in the Junior Time Scale are not listed in the schedule at all, so the rules do not say which post an officer holds in the first years.

Who decides the post

Under the IAS (Cadre) Rules, appointments to cadre posts in a state cadre are made by the state government, on the recommendation of a Civil Services Board, and an officer should hold a cadre post for at least two years unless promoted, retired, sent on deputation outside the state or sent on training of more than two months. For what officers do in these posts, see what IAS officers do, and for the career as a whole, the IAS career journey.