Over 2,000 senior bureaucrats, including IAS, IPS and IRS officers, missed the 31 January 2026 deadline for filing Immovable Property Returns (IPRs) according to the data available on the official website of Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) which is a mandatory disclosure requirement under service rules. When the Bhaskar English team contacted the officers listed for alleged non-compliance with government directives, a stark finding emerged. Several of them claimed that they had filed their IPR returns on time, but due to alleged lapses in record-keeping by DoPT, their names continued to appear in the defaulters list. However, an analysis of available records by Bhaskar English shows that Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers account for the highest number of IPR non-compliance cases, followed by officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS). Among IRS officers, IPR defaults have surged to their highest level in a decade, rising from 381 in 2023 to 1,850 in 2026, making them the largest group among those listed as defaulters. What the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968 say Rule 16(2) of the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968, requires members of the All India Services to disclose their IPR details annually for which 31 January is set as the deadline. Yet, there has been a sharp surge in the number of defaulters among IRS officers, even as IAS and IPS officers have shown improved compliance. Cases of non-compliance drop for IAS and IPS officers The number of IAS officers who failed to file IPRs fell from a peak of 883 in 2018 to 155 in 2026, after remaining high for several years between 2016 and 2022. In 2026, non-compliance cases dropped to a record low in over a decade, showing improved compliance by officers in filing the mandated IPR return. Likewise, IPS officers saw an even clearer decline, with defaults falling from 852 in 2019 to 145 in 2026. The numbers point to two different compliance stories. Among IAS and IPS officers, non-filing has declined sharply in recent years. Among IRS officers, however, defaults have surged over the last three years. Filing IPR is not a voluntary disclosure exercise. It is a compulsory service-rule requirement under the All India Services Conduct Rules, 1968. A December 2022 Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) order stated that officers who fail to submit their property returns on time would be denied vigilance clearance and would not be considered for promotion and empanelment for senior-level posts in the Government of India. Link: https://doptcirculars.nic.in/OM/ViewOMNew.aspx?id=361 Habitual defaulters promoted to key positions Naresh Kumar Naresh Kumar, a 1987-batch IAS officer of the AGMUT cadre, served as Delhi Chief Secretary even as DoPT IPR records reviewed by this publication showed repeated non-filing/default entries against his name since 2011. Kumar later approached the Uttarakhand High Court seeking protection from arrest, but reports at the time said his plea was found defective by the court registry and he was asked to file a fresh application. Kumar was originally due to retire on 30 November 2023, but received extensions and continued in office until 31 August 2024. Alok Khare Records reviewed by Bhaskar English show that Alok Khare, a 1992-batch Assam-Meghalaya cadre IAS officer, defaulted on filing IPRs from 2011 onwards. Vishal Gagan Vishal Gagan is a 1998-batch IAS officer from the Odisha cadre and is currently serving as Principal Secretary at the Central Information Commission. He further clarified in the email that the non-filing status shown on the portal is inaccurate and that the matter is being taken up for correction on the portal/website. By the time the story was filed, DoPT had updated its official records and removed his name from the defaulters list. Rohit Kansal Rohit Kansal, a 1995-batch IAS officer of the JK-AGMUT cadre, was granted proforma promotion to the Apex Scale. In the rush to update its records, DoPT appears to have updated the filing status of some officers but failed to remove their names from the defaulters’ list. A few such names analysed by Bhaskar English include: Kamal Kishore Soan Kamal Kishore Soan, a senior IAS officer of the Jharkhand cadre from the 1998 batch, was shown as non-compliant in filing Immovable Property Returns since 2011, according to records available on the official DoPT website. Niraj Kumar Bansod Like in the case of Soan, the record of Niraj Kumar Bansod, a 2008-batch IAS officer of the Chhattisgarh cadre, was also updated overnight. How the government tightened IPR compliance over time The January filing requirement goes back several decades. These guidelines laid down the importance of vigilance clearance for career-related processes such as empanelment, deputation, sensitive postings and training assignments. The major enforcement step came in 2011. DoPT amended its vigilance-clearance framework to state that vigilance clearance shall be denied to an officer who fails to submit the annual Immovable Property Return of the previous year by 31 January of the following year. This changed the nature of IPR filing. The SPARROW shift For IAS officers, a major change came in 2017. Post navigation ‘Only 9-10 days of oil left if imports completely stop’:India buys bulk of crude from only 6 countries, says report
