Haryana Makes Waves: Junior HCS officers now sharing SDM posts with IAS
Babushahi Bureau
Chandigarh, February 11, 2026: In an unusual administrative move, the Haryana government has placed junior Haryana Civil Service (Executive Branch) [HCS-EB] officers on equal footing with junior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, assigning both groups to Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) roles across the state.
Punjab and Haryana High Court Advocate Hemant Kumar, note that six IAS officers from the 2023 batch and nine HCS-EB officers of the same batch are now holding identical SDM-level positions, despite the IAS traditionally being a higher-ranking all-India service compared to the state-level HCS.
Among the 2022 batch IAS officers, six of seven have been posted as SDMs in subdivisions such as Jhajjar, Gohana, Dabwali, Palwal, Asandh, and Sampla.
These officers were promoted to the IAS Senior Time Scale (Pay Matrix Level 11) from January 1, 2026, making them eligible for senior administrative roles like Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) and District Commissioner (DC).
Meanwhile, the 2023 batch IAS officers currently serving as SDMs include Ankita Panwar (Nuh), Aniruddh Yadav (Narnaul), Abhinav Sivach (Bahadurgarh), Akash Sharma (Tohana), Kanika Goyal (Mahendragarh), and Yogesh Saini (Charkhi Dadri).
Notably, nine junior HCS-EB officers with only two years of service are mirroring IAS postings as SDMs, including Kunwar Aditya Vikram (Punhana), Vipin Kumar (Maham), Apratim Singh (Hathin), Ashish Sangwan (Badhra), Ajay Hooda (Kalayat), Raman Gupta (Badli), Vishwanath (Jagadhri), Paras Bhagoria (Ellenabad), and Pramesh Singh (Guhla).
While the state government has the authority to make such postings, experts caution that aligning junior HCS officers with IAS peers at SDM-level roles could raise questions about hierarchy and long-term cadre planning. Official rules suggest that HCS officers typically become eligible for SDM posts only after five years of service, which, for the 2023 batch, would be January 2028.