Services and recruitment: Article 309, merit and representation

Detail

1. How the civil services are classified

• All India Services (AIS) are services common to the Centre and the states. There are three: the IAS, the IPS and the Indian Forest Service (IFoS).
• The Union recruits AIS officers and allots each one to a state cadre (the group of posts in that state).
• Officers can also go on deputation to the Centre. Deputation means a temporary posting outside their own cadre.

• New AIS can be created under Art. 312.

• Central Civil Services are services that work only for the Union government. Examples are the Indian Foreign Service, the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) and the Indian Audit and Accounts Service.

• Officers can be posted to any central office. Indian Foreign Service officers also serve in Indian missions abroad.
• Central posts fall into Group A, Group B and Group C. Group A holds the senior posts and Group C the lower clerical and support posts.

• The 6th Central Pay Commission merged Group D into Group C.

• State Civil Services are services that each state recruits through its own State Public Service Commission (SPSC). Examples are the state civil service and the state police service.

• Officers work only in the state that recruited them.
• Local-government staff (municipal and panchayat employees) form a further layer under state law.

Service	Who recruits	Where officers work (Class 11 exercise)
State Civil Services	SPSC	Only in the state that recruited them
Central Civil Services (e.g. IRS)	UPSC or SSC	Any central office
Indian Foreign Service	UPSC	Central offices and missions abroad
All India Services	UPSC (for the Union)	Allotted state, with deputation to the Centre

2. Legal basis: Article 309 and the rule-making proviso

• Art. 309 (recruitment and conditions of service of persons serving the Union or a State) is the article that decides who makes the rules for government employees.

• It opens with "Subject to the provisions of this Constitution". This means service rules must also obey other parts of the Constitution, such as Arts. 14, 16 and 311 [2].

• The main clause: "Acts of the appropriate Legislature" may regulate recruitment and conditions of service [2].

• For Union services, the appropriate legislature is Parliament.

• For state services, it is the state legislature.

• The proviso (an extra clause that adds a condition or exception):

• Until a legislature passes such an Act, the President can make rules for Union posts.
• The Governor can make rules for state posts [2].

• Rules made this way "shall have effect subject to the provisions of any such Act". So a later law passed by the legislature will override them [2].

• What happens in practice:

• Legislatures have mostly left this field alone, so most service law comes from proviso rule-making.
• Examples are the Fundamental Rules (rules on pay, leave and posting) and the CCS rules (Central Civil Services rules, such as the Conduct and Classification, Control and Appeal rules).

• States also make their own rules under the proviso. One example is Karnataka's Civil Services (General Recruitment) Rules, 1977 [8].

• No comprehensive Act: the 2nd ARC and the T.S.R. Subramanian Committee both asked for a Civil Services Act, meaning one full law for appointment, tenure and accountability. Parliament has never passed it.

• Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT):
• DoPT is the central department for personnel policy. It sits in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, which is held by the Prime Minister.
• It is the nodal department for recruitment policy, training and service rules.
• It is also the cadre controlling authority for the IAS. This means it decides cadre strength, allocation and deputation.

3. Recruiting bodies

(a) Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)

• The UPSC is the constitutional body that recruits to Union services under Arts. 315-320.
• Its composition, independence and removal (Art. 317) are covered in the constitutional-bodies note.

• It conducts the Civil Services Examination (CSE).

• How the exam format changed over time:

Year	Committee / change	Outcome
1976	Kothari Committee	Recommended the three-stage format of prelims, mains and interview. It has been in use since 1979
1989	Satish Chandra Committee	Reviewed the 1979 scheme
2001	Alagh Committee	Reviewed the exam scheme again
2011	CSAT introduced	Civil Services Aptitude Test, Prelims Paper II
2013	Mains restructured	GS-IV (Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude) added
2015	CSAT made qualifying	Candidates need 33% to pass. It no longer counts towards rank
2016	Baswan Committee	Examined age limits, number of attempts and the exam scheme

• 2024 Puja Khedkar case: the identity-fraud problem
• On 18 July 2024, the UPSC issued a show-cause notice to Puja Khedkar. It said she had taken more attempts than the rules allow by faking her identity [5].
• To do this, she had changed her name, her parents' names, her photograph and signature, her email, her mobile number and her address [5].
• The UPSC also filed an FIR (a police complaint that starts a criminal case) [5].

• The UPSC found she had broken the CSE-2022 Rules. It cancelled her provisional candidature and permanently debarred her from all future exams and selections [6].

• Checks the UPSC now uses:

• It strongly advises applicants to use Aadhaar for identity verification [7].
• Face authentication at the exam venue is mandatory for all candidates in the CSE 2026 and other UPSC exams [7].
• Candidates must also give the details of one photo ID in the application. The same ID is used for all later stages [7].

(b) State Public Service Commissions (SPSCs)

• SPSCs recruit to state services. They follow the same constitutional framework (Arts. 315-320).
• Repeated paper leaks, delayed results and court cases are a recurring problem. They erode trust in state recruitment.

(c) Staff Selection Commission (SSC)

• The SSC is a body under DoPT. It recruits to Group B (non-gazetted) and Group C posts in central ministries.
• Non-gazetted posts are those whose appointments are not published in the official Gazette.

(d) National Recruitment Agency (NRA)

• The Cabinet approved the NRA on 19 August 2020 [3].
• What it does: the NRA is a multi-agency body. It is to conduct a Common Eligibility Test (CET) to screen and shortlist candidates for Group B and C (non-technical) posts [3].

• A CET is one common first-stage exam that replaces the separate screening tests of several recruiters.

• Members: representatives of the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Finance (Department of Financial Services), the SSC, the RRB (Railway Recruitment Boards) and IBPS (Institute of Banking Personnel Selection) [3].

• How the CET is designed:
• It is to be held twice a year, at three levels: graduate, 12th-pass and 10th-pass [3].
• A CET score is valid for 3 years, and the best valid score counts [3].

• There is no limit on attempts, subject only to the upper age limit [3].

• Funding: ₹1,517.57 crore was sanctioned, to be spent over three years [3].

• Status: in 2021 the minister said the CET would start in early 2022 [4]. It has not yet been held, so check the latest status before the exam.

4. Representation: pairing merit with reservation

• Merit means that open competitive exams select the best performers. Representativeness means the bureaucracy should reflect the social groups it serves.

• The Class 11 chapter treats these as two goals that must be balanced.

• Representative bureaucracy is the idea that a civil service drawn from all sections of society is more legitimate and more responsive. J. Donald Kingsley developed this idea.

• Current reservation shares in central recruitment:

Group	Share	Basis / year
SC	15%	Since independence
ST	7.5%	Since independence
OBC	27%	From 1993, after Indra Sawhney v. UoI (1992)
EWS (Economically Weaker Sections)	10%	2019 (103rd Amendment)
PwBD (Persons with Benchmark Disabilities)	4%	RPwD Act, 2016

• The constitutional provisions are covered in the vulnerable-sections-safeguards note:
• Art. 16(4): reservation for backward classes.
• Art. 16(4A): reservation in promotion for SC/ST.

• Art. 335: SC/ST claims must be balanced with administrative efficiency.

• Women: there is no women's quota in UPSC or central civil services recruitment. Several states do give horizontal reservation for women in state services. Horizontal reservation is a quota that cuts across the SC/ST/OBC/General categories. (NCERT: Class 11 lists women among the groups with reservation.)

• C.B. Muthamma, a gender landmark:
• She was the first woman to clear the civil services exam (1948) and the first woman to join the IFS (1949).
• She was made to give a written promise that she would resign if she married.
• In C.B. Muthamma v. UoI (1979), a Supreme Court bench (Krishna Iyer J) held these rules unconstitutional. It found they discriminated against women and broke equality of opportunity under Arts. 14 and 16.

Prelims Hooks

• Art. 309: legislatures regulate recruitment and service conditions. The proviso lets the President (Union) or Governor (state) make rules until a law is passed. Any later Act overrides those rules.
• Fundamental Rules and the CCS rules are rules made under the Art. 309 proviso, not Acts of Parliament. India has no Civil Services Act.
• DoPT is the cadre controlling authority for the IAS. It sits in a ministry held by the PM. (Trap: it is not the MHA, which controls the IPS cadre.)
• Kothari Committee (1976) → prelims, mains and interview format from 1979. CSAT came in 2011 and became qualifying at 33% in 2015. GS-IV Ethics was added in 2013. The Baswan Committee (2016) examined age and attempts.
• NRA (approved 19 August 2020): CET for Group B and C non-technical posts. Score valid 3 years, no attempt limit within the age limit. It does not cover UPSC's Group A recruitment.
• The SSC recruits Group B (non-gazetted) and Group C. The 6th CPC merged Group D into Group C.
• Reservation: SC 15%, ST 7.5%, OBC 27% (1993), EWS 10% (2019), PwBD 4% (RPwD Act 2016). No women's quota in UPSC recruitment.
• C.B. Muthamma v. UoI (1979, Krishna Iyer J): the rule forcing women IFS officers to resign on marriage was struck down.
• Puja Khedkar (2024): CSE-2022 candidature cancelled and permanently debarred by the UPSC for faking her identity to get extra attempts.

Mains Points

• Rules by the executive vs a law by Parliament: using the Art. 309 proviso for over 75 years means the executive controls transfers, tenure and discipline.
• This helps explain frequent politically driven transfers.

• A Civil Services Act, as the 2nd ARC and T.S.R. Subramanian urged, would set fixed tenure, merit and accountability in law.

• Merit vs representation: reservation makes the bureaucracy more legitimate and helps it reach marginalised groups (Kingsley's representative bureaucracy).

• Art. 335 asks that efficiency be kept.

• The debate continues over the creamy layer, EWS and promotions. Gender representation still depends on outreach because there is no women's quota.

• Integrity of recruitment: SPSC paper leaks and the 2024 Khedkar fraud show weak verification.

• Reform options include biometric and face authentication, digital certificate checks and criminal penalties.

• The NRA's delayed CET shows the gap between a recruitment reform being announced and being delivered.

• Exam design: the Kothari, Alagh and Baswan reviews, the CSAT controversy and the GS-IV Ethics paper all show the tension between testing knowledge and selecting for aptitude, ethics and a level playing field for candidates from rural and non-English backgrounds.