State Public Service Commission: Where It Differs from the UPSC, and Where It Does Not

Articles 315 to 320 create one shared constitutional framework for the UPSC and every State Public Service Commission (SPSC); nearly everything in the UPSC chapter (removal procedure, the conditions-of-service protection, the ten-years-prior-service rule) applies to a State Commission in exactly the same words. This note covers only where the rules genuinely diverge, so read it alongside the UPSC chapter rather than as a standalone repeat of it.

Who appoints, and the age difference

The one procedural difference Article 316 states directly: a State Commission's Chairman and members are appointed by the Governor of the State, not the President (who appoints the UPSC's and a Joint Commission's). The retirement age also differs: a State or Joint Commission member holds office until age 62, against the UPSC's age 65; the six-year term itself is identical across both.

Joint Public Service Commissions, and a third option under Article 315(4)

Article 315(2) lets Parliament, by law, establish a Joint Public Service Commission (JPSC) for two or more states, but only after each of those states' own Legislature (both Houses, where there are two) passes a resolution agreeing to it. A JPSC's members are appointed by the President, not by any one Governor, since it serves more than one state, and it otherwise runs under the identical Article 316 to 320 framework as a single-state Commission.

A separate, less-known route exists under Article 315(4): a State's own Governor can request the UPSC itself to serve all or some of that state's needs, and the UPSC may agree, with the President's approval, without any Joint Commission being set up at all. This is the one place a state can end up served by the UPSC directly rather than by its own or a joint Commission.

Article 319's transfer rules, from the State side

The UPSC chapter's own note sets out Article 319's full four-branch structure; from a State PSC's specific position in it, the two rules worth holding are: a State PSC Chairman may go on to become the Chairman or a member of the UPSC, or the Chairman of any State PSC (including a different state's), but no other government employment; a State PSC member other than the Chairman may become the Chairman or a member of the UPSC, or the Chairman of that or any other State PSC, again with no other government employment available afterwards. Neither can move into ordinary state or Union government service once they leave the Commission.

Removal stays a Union subject, even for a State body

One structural point worth holding precisely: although a State Governor appoints a State PSC's members, removal is still an Article 317 matter routed through the President and a Supreme Court inquiry, exactly as for the UPSC. A State Government has no independent power to remove its own Commission's Chairman or members; the same misbehaviour-and-Supreme-Court- inquiry procedure, and the same narrower insolvency/outside-employment/ infirmity grounds, apply regardless of which government appointed them.

Quick revision points

• Governor appoints a State PSC's Chairman and members (President appoints the UPSC's and a Joint Commission's).
• Retirement age: 62 for a State or Joint Commission, 65 for the UPSC; the 6-year term is identical.
• A Joint Public Service Commission (Article 315(2)) serves two or more states, each Legislature having passed its own resolution, with members appointed by the President.
• Under Article 315(4), a state's Governor can ask the UPSC itself to serve the state's needs, subject to the President's approval, with no Joint Commission needed.
• Removal of a State PSC member is still an Article 317, President plus Supreme Court inquiry matter, never a state-government decision alone.
• Article 319's transfer rules run the same way for State PSC Chairmen and members as described in the UPSC chapter: upward or sideways into another Commission post, never into ordinary government service.

The exam's favourite trap here is assuming a State Government controls its own Commission the way it controls an ordinary state department; the appointment may be the Governor's, but removal, service conditions and the post-retirement transfer rules are all Union-level, constitutional matters, identical to the UPSC's own.