Documents required for an EWS certificate

Last reviewed: 11 September 2026.

An EWS Income and Asset Certificate for Central reservation is not issued from income proof alone. The applicant must fall outside the reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes and must meet both the gross family-income test and every listed asset ceiling. The issuing office and exact documents are now prescribed by the State or Union Territory.

The Department of Personnel and Training's Office Memorandum No. 36039/1/2019-Estt (Res), dated 31 January 2019, states that EWS reservation is for persons who are not covered by the scheme of reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs and whose family meets the income and asset criteria.

“General category” is often used informally, but the official test is whether the person is outside those reserved categories for the relevant Central reservation. A State scheme, educational institution or local certificate can use a different legal framework, so always read the exact notice.

The 31 January 2019 Office Memorandum is about direct recruitment in civil posts and services in the Government of India. Read that scope before applying a rule from it anywhere else.

Three operative points sit in the memorandum and are often missed.

The quantum is 10 per cent. Persons belonging to EWS who are not covered by the reservation scheme for SCs, STs and OBCs “shall get 10% reservation in direct recruitment in civil posts and services in the Government of India”.

It began on 1 February 2019. The memorandum states that the scheme “will be effective in respect of all direct recruitment vacancies to be notified on or after 01.02.2019”. A vacancy notified before that date does not carry the quota.

Some posts are exempt. Scientific and technical posts can be taken outside the reservation orders where they are above the lowest grade in Group A, are classified as scientific or technical in the Cabinet Secretariat's terms, and are for conducting research or for organising, guiding and directing research. The exemption needs the orders of the Minister concerned.

An educational admission, a State service and a State scheme each run under their own instrument. The income and asset figures may look identical and the governing rule may not be.

The family's gross annual income must be below ₹8 lakh for the financial year before the year of application. The Central OM includes income from all sources, such as:

• salary and wages;
• agriculture;
• business;
• profession;
• other income sources included by the governing instructions.

“Below ₹8 lakh” is not the same as “₹8 lakh or below.” Do not subtract ordinary expenses to convert gross income into net income unless the official rule expressly permits a treatment.

A family is excluded if it owns or possesses any one of these, even when income is below ₹8 lakh:

Property held by the family in different places or cities is clubbed when applying the asset test. Do not omit a jointly held or out-of-State property. Ask the issuing authority how the family's interest must be declared.

For the Central criteria, family includes:

• the applicant;
• the applicant's parents;
• siblings below 18 years;
• the applicant's spouse;
• children below 18 years.

Living separately does not automatically remove a listed person from this definition. Use the official family definition rather than a ration-card household assumption.

There is no single national upload list because States and Union Territories decide the competent issuing authorities and their procedure. The local checklist may ask for some or all of the following.

• current State or Union Territory EWS application form;
• recent photograph, if requested;
• applicant identity proof accepted by the portal or office;
• date-of-birth proof where required;
• residence or domicile evidence required for that issuing jurisdiction;
• family-composition declaration.

• salary certificate or Form 16 for salaried family members;
• Income Tax Return or computation where filed;
• pension record;
• business or professional income records;
• agricultural-income and land-revenue records;
• bank statement only when the official checklist requests it or it supports a declared source;
• existing income certificate where the local procedure requires one.

• land records such as record of rights, khasra, khatauni or equivalent;
• registered sale deed or property ownership record;
• municipal assessment or property-tax record;
• flat carpet or built-up area evidence as specified locally;
• plot area and whether the location is a notified municipality;
• declaration of family property across all locations.

• the prescribed self-declaration or affidavit, if required by the State process;
• evidence necessary for the authority to determine that the applicant is not covered by SC, ST or OBC reservation;
• certificate format required by the recruitment or admission notice.

Do not create a universal rule that Aadhaar, three years of ITRs, stamp paper or a Patwari report is always mandatory. Use the official local checklist.

The original Central OM listed categories of competent authorities. A DoPT Office Memorandum dated 15 March 2024 delegated to States and Union Territories the power to decide the competent authorities for issuing EWS Income and Asset Certificates.

Check the State revenue portal or district administration site for the currently authorised officer. A certificate signed by an officer outside the notified competence may be rejected even if the facts are correct.

The Central format is tied to a specified year. Recruitment and admission notices usually set a crucial date and may require a certificate for a particular financial or application year. Do not rely on a simple “valid for one year” slogan. The Annexure-I format itself carries a “VALID FOR THE YEAR” field, which is why the year on the certificate matters as much as the figures in it.

Where a Central recruitment notice is silent, the memorandum supplies a default. It says the crucial date for submitting the income and asset certificate “may be treated as the closing date for receipt of application for the post, except in cases where crucial date is fixed otherwise”. So the notice governs, and the closing date fills the gap when the notice says nothing.

Before applying, copy these fields from the notice:

1. required certificate format or annexure;
2. income financial year;
3. certificate issue period;
4. crucial date for eligibility;
5. name and rank of competent authority;
6. upload and document-verification requirements.

If the certificate is correct but from the wrong year or format, the recruiting body may still reject the claim under its notice.

A certificate is accepted provisionally and checked afterwards. The memorandum requires the appointing authority to put this clause into the offer of appointment.

The appointment is provisional and is subject to the Income and asset
certificate being verified through the proper channels and if the verification
reveals that the claim to belong to EWS is fake/false the services will be
terminated forthwith without assigning any further reasons and without
prejudice to such further action as may be taken under the provisions of the
Indian Penal Code for production of fake/false certificate.

The appointing authority is separately directed to verify the certificate through the issuing authority. So an appointment made on an EWS claim is not settled on the day of joining. It is settled when the verification comes back.

The practical reading is simple. Declare the family's property honestly, including a jointly held or out-of-state holding, and declare every source of income. An error found later costs the post, not merely the certificate.

Two rules in the memorandum work in an applicant's favour and are rarely quoted.

An EWS candidate keeps the right to compete for an unreserved vacancy. The memorandum says a person belonging to EWS “cannot be denied the right to compete for appointment against an unreserved vacancy”, and that EWS persons selected on merit rather than on account of reservation “are not to be counted towards the quota meant for reservation”. Holding a certificate does not push you out of the open field.

An unfilled EWS vacancy is not carried forward. Where a vacancy earmarked for EWS cannot be filled in a recruitment year for want of a suitable candidate, the memorandum says it “shall not be carried forward to the next recruitment year as backlog”. A backlog claim in the following year has no basis in this instrument.

Ask for a written deficiency or rejection order. Compare it with the State checklist and the recruitment notice. Correct missing evidence through the issuing authority's official process. Use the State grievance portal for service delay, and use RTI only to seek existing file status, deficiency notes, verification reports or the rule relied on.

Where the complaint is about the recruitment rather than the certificate, there is a named officer for it. The memorandum requires every Government establishment to appoint a senior officer as its Grievance Redressal Officer, and says any person aggrieved by discrimination in employment against an EWS candidate may complain to that officer. It also directs that the officer's name, designation and contact details be displayed prominently on the establishment's website and in its office. Ask for those details by name if the website does not carry them.

See state grievance portals, CPGRAMS guidance and the RTI filing guide. RTI cannot itself declare you eligible or issue the certificate.

The Central OM uses “below ₹8.00 lakh.” Read the exact State or scheme rule where a non-Central benefit is involved.

No. The family must also be outside SC, ST and OBC reservation coverage for this purpose and must not meet any of the listed asset-exclusion thresholds.

The Central exclusion is agricultural land of 5 acres and above. A family at that threshold is excluded even if gross income is below ₹8 lakh.

Yes. The Central OM says family property in different locations or places and cities is clubbed for the asset test.

The Central family definition includes the applicant, parents, siblings below 18, spouse and children below 18. Do not replace it with a separate-household assumption.

No. States and Union Territories decide the competent authority under the current delegation. Check the official notification and application portal.

Do not rely on that shortcut. The certificate is issued for a stated year, and the recruitment or admission notice controls the required format, period and crucial date.

No. RTI can obtain existing records from a public authority. Eligibility and issuance must be decided through the certificate process and its appeal or grievance remedies.

• Income-certificate document guide
• Domicile-certificate document guide
• State grievance portals
• File a CPGRAMS grievance
• Seek file records through RTI
• Choose RTI or a service remedy
• Find official government sources
• RTI Wiki home
• The RTI Playbook

• DoPT consolidated Office Memoranda on EWS reservation
• DoPT Office Memorandum dated 31 January 2019
• DoPT Office Memorandum dated 15 March 2024 on competent authorities