Your sub-ordinate requires leave but your office work will be affected due to his absence because he is a key person of that work. You should

The correct answer is D. This is a people-management question. A good administrator avoids both extremes: he neither rejects the request outright nor grants it without thought while the office suffers. He sits with the subordinate, understands the reason for leave, and explains how essential his presence is right now. This respects the employee's dignity and often leads to a workable solution, such as rescheduling or staggering the leave.

• A is wrong because passing the matter upward avoids your own responsibility. Your supervisor knows less about the day-to-day work than you do.
• B is wrong because sanctioning blindly ignores the office's needs. Leave is a right, but it should be decided after weighing its impact on work.
• C is wrong because reassigning the work without discussion overburdens another person and ignores that a key person's knowledge is not easily transferred.

Core concept: balancing empathy with administrative responsibility. This sits at the centre of GS Paper IV (Ethics) and the civil servant's duty to manage human resources fairly, a theme that recurs in Mains case studies.

Trap: aspirants pick B because leave is a right and it looks humane. Ethics questions reward the option that balances both sides, not the one that gives in completely.