Kerala PSC faces credibility test over recruitment, exam lapses

We have told you how bad things are in West Bengal and Karnataka. Kerala, too, is in poor shape.

Protests over delayed government appointments have become a recurring feature of Kerala’s recruitment system. Candidates who clear competitive examinations and make it to PSC rank lists often find themselves waiting for vacancies to be reported, with some protests intensifying as rank lists near expiry. What appears to be an individual grievance is part of a larger, recurring problem in the state’s public recruitment system.

'After 37 days of protest, the Lower Primary School Teacher (LPST) PSC rank holders have finally called off their agitation. But the end of the protest has done little to resolve the larger questions confronting the Kerala Public Service Commission (KPSC) over delayed appointments, non-reporting of vacancies and allegations of irregularities in recruitment.

The LPST PSC test rank holders also ended their 13-day indefinite hunger strike on Tuesday (August 11) following talks with General Education Minister N Samsudheen. The government has sought 45 days to examine their demands.

Govt seeks 45 days

S Valarmathi, secretary of the rank holders’ association, ended her fast by accepting water from the minister.

“The government has sought 45 days to examine our demands, and I am hopeful that the issues will be resolved in our favour by September 24. Though I have ended my hunger strike, we will continue our peaceful protest in front of the Secretariat, without slogans or demonstrations,” she said after breaking her fast.

Also read: Legal twists, endless wait: How Bengal failed a generation of job seekers

The settlement offers a temporary reprieve, rather than a final resolution. The rank holders had been protesting for 37 days demanding appointments to vacant posts, arguing that candidates who had cleared the PSC examination and secured places on the rank list should not have to wait indefinitely for the government to report vacancies.

Their dramatic protest outside the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram, including a symbolic act of eating grass, had brought the issue back into the political spotlight.

However, there is another dimension to the issue. The Kerala PSC often begins the recruitment process in anticipation of vacancies, even before they are formally reported, to avoid delays in filling posts. For instance, if an employee is due to retire shortly, the vacancy can be anticipated and the necessary proforma initiated in advance, allowing it to be reported to the PSC and the appointment process to move forward without a gap. In the case of teachers, however, staff fixation at the beginning of the academic year is crucial to determine the actual number of vacancies. If these vacancies are not identified and reported to the PSC in time, candidates on the rank list are left with little option but to protest and demand that the government report them.

Why 10 questions not evaluated

What makes the present situation more serious is that the protests over appointments have coincided with a separate controversy over the credibility of the PSC’s recruitment process itself.

Also read: Row over Kerala govt restricting doorstep pension delivery; Opposition slams UDF

The immediate controversy concerns a PSC examination conducted in July 2023 for three technical posts in the Industry and Infrastructure Division, Perspective Planning Division and Plan Co-ordination Division. As many as 228 candidates appeared for the examination.

The issue came to light after a candidate, Shyamkrishnan K, who secured the third rank and missed selection, obtained his answer sheet under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. He found that answers to 10 questions had not been evaluated.

The PSC subsequently confirmed that answers carrying 58 marks out of the total 100 had remained unevaluated for all 228 candidates. The Commission attributed the lapse to a problem in its digital evaluation system, saying the questions had not been assigned to examiners. It ordered a re-evaluation of the answer sheets.

The controversy deepened when the candidate sought further information about the marks obtained by all candidates, the work experience certificates of the top rank holders and the orders relating to interview marks, which they claim were not in order, adding another layer to the questions about transparency.

'KPSC deals with crores of applicants every year'

The government has now ordered a Crime Branch investigation into the matter.

Former PSC Chairman MK Sakeer, in an interview with The Federal, has accused the government of deliberately attempting to tarnish the Commission’s image. He argued that the PSC has its own institutional mechanisms to detect and rectify irregularities and that complaints by candidates should not automatically become controversies that damage the credibility of a constitutional institution.

Also read: Jharkhand protests: Symptom of deep rot in Public Service Commissions

“Compared to other state Public Service Commissions, they have different recruitment arrangements and different recruitment bodies. But in the case of the Kerala Public Service Commission, almost all recruitments are conducted through the Public Service Commission,” Sakeer said.

That, he argues, is what makes the Kerala PSC different.

The Commission handles an enormous volume of applications and recruitment exercises. “The Commission deals with crores of applicants every year,” he said, adding that there will inevitably be the possibility of small technical mistakes or complaints. Such problems, he argues, can be rectified within the PSC’s own institutional framework.

Sakeer goes further in his criticism of the government. According to him, the new UDF government began its tenure with an agenda to attack the PSC and the current controversy is part of a “pre-planned game” intended to divert attention from issues confronting the government.

What is govt's view?

The UDF leadership, however, is of the view that the government has a different responsibility of ensuring that allegations relating to recruitment are properly investigated. “The question is whether an investigation into an alleged irregularity necessarily undermines the autonomy of the PSC, or whether accountability is itself essential to protecting the Commission’s credibility,” said a top UDF leader.

According to Sakeer, the PSC can only make appointments against vacancies that are reported to it by the government. It is the government that has to report vacancies when an employee retires or when additional cadre strength creates new posts.

This, he says, is particularly relevant in the case of teachers.

Sakeer faults the government for the delay faced by the LP School Teacher rank holders, pointing out that during his tenure as PSC chairman, the government would generally initiate the reporting of vacancies once a rank list came into force.

The distinction is crucial. A PSC rank list does not itself create a vacancy. The Commission can recommend candidates only when vacancies are reported. This leaves candidates caught between the PSC, which conducts the examination and prepares the rank list, and the government, which controls vacancy reporting and ultimately issues appointments.

For the rank holder who protested outside the Secretariat, however, that institutional distinction offers little comfort.

BJP targets UDF govt, LDF

The larger irony is that the Kerala PSC remains one of the country’s most prolific public recruitment bodies. The scale of its operations is enormous. But the larger the system becomes, the greater the consequences of even a technical failure or administrative delay.

However, the PSC finds itself defending two things at once: its autonomy and its credibility. The government, meanwhile, has to answer why candidates who have cleared examinations and secured places on rank lists repeatedly have to protest before vacancies are reported and appointments are made.

And the political parties have their own calculations. The BJP has seized on the rank holders’ agitation to target both the UDF government and the LDF, the principal opposition. The BJP is also seeking to frame the rank-holders’ protest as a counterpoint to the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led agitation in Delhi, highlighting the vocal support extended to that protest by the Left and the Congress.

You can read part 1 here: Legal twists, endless wait: How Bengal failed a generation of job seekers

And part 2 here: Scandal after scandal: Is this the end for Karnataka PSC?