Which scribe and compensatory-time rules are actually in force

By Rajesh Kumar Checked against the official source on 24 August 2026 4 min read

If you searched for scribe rules recently, you probably found the revised guidelines dated 1 August 2025. They are real. They are also not in force.

They have been held in abeyance since before they were due to start, and the abeyance has now been extended four times. Every competitive public examination is still being run on the older rules.

Here is the chain of orders, because no summary of it I could find was current.

Which guidelines actually apply

Two documents, both from the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities:

• The Guidelines dated 29 August 2018 for persons with benchmark disabilities, together with the corrigendum dated 8 February 2019
• The Guidelines dated 10 August 2022 for persons with less than 40% disability who have difficulty writing

The most recent order says every competitive public examination notified up to and including 31 December 2026 is to be conducted under those two documents.

It then adds four words that people should not skip: “or until further orders, whichever is earlier.”

The abeyance chain, in order

All of these carry the same file number, P-13013/75/2023-Policy.

The stated reasons are worth noting. The September 2025 order cited “the preparedness of examining bodies”. The June 2026 order cited “ongoing stakeholder consultations and development of a suitable digital system”.

The orders are copied to UPSC, SSC, UGC, the Railway Board, NTA, IBPS and CBSE by name. So this covers essentially every exam a candidate in this country sits.

What the 2022 guidelines give you

These are the ones for candidates with less than 40% disability who have difficulty writing — a group that had no clear route before them.

They exist because of a Supreme Court order dated 11 February 2021 in Vikash Kumar v. UPSC, which directed the department to frame proper guidelines for granting a scribe to persons with disability under section 2(s) of the RPwD Act, where the disability creates a barrier to writing.

The committee that drafted them took one position that runs through the whole document: the sole criterion for a scribe and compensatory time should be an assessment of the person’s capability to write.

One provision I have not seen quoted anywhere else: if the examining body supplies the scribe, candidates are to be allowed to meet that scribe two days before the examination, so they can check whether the person is suitable.

How one commission implements it

Guidelines are one thing. What the notice in front of you says is another. The SSC Selection Posts notice for 2026 puts it at section 9.

For blindness, locomotor disability with both arms affected, and cerebral palsy, a scribe is provided on request in the online form, with the disability certificate uploaded at the same time.

For other benchmark disabilities, you need a certificate from the CMO, Civil Surgeon or Medical Superintendent of a Government health care institution saying you have a physical limitation to write.

For less than 40% disability, the notice cites the 10 August 2022 order by number and asks for its certificates.

Two things in that notice go beyond the guidelines and are worth knowing:

You get the compensatory time even if you do not use the scribe. Para 9.9 says candidates who are allowed a scribe but do not avail the facility still get 20 minutes per hour.

Your own scribe has to register. They must complete One Time Registration and Aadhaar authentication, carry original ID, and must not be a candidate in the same examination. If a candidate is found acting as scribe for another, both candidatures are cancelled.

Why this page carries a date

Because the 1 July 2026 order says the position can change on “further orders”, not only at the end of December.

So the honest thing to tell you is not “these are the rules”. It is: these were the rules on the date at the top of this page, and the department’s own guidelines index is the place to check whether a newer order has landed since.