Union Public Service Commission: Removal Like a Judge, and the Article 319 Transfer Matrix

The Union Public Service Commission is a constitutional body, established directly by Article 315, and this chapter's real content is not the Commission's general reputation but the specific procedural protections and restrictions Articles 316 to 319 attach to its members.

Appointment, tenure, and the half-experienced requirement (Article 316)

The Chairman and members of the UPSC are appointed by the President. Article 316 adds a requirement worth knowing exactly: as nearly as may be one-half of a Public Service Commission's members must, at the date of their appointment, have already held office for at least ten years under the Government of India or a State government. A member's term is six years from entering office, or age 65 (for the UPSC) / 62 (for a State or Joint Commission), whichever is earlier. Article 316(3) then adds a specific, easy-to-miss rule: a member is ineligible for re-appointment to that same office once their term expires (this does not bar moving to a different Commission post, which Article 319 separately governs).

Removal: the same Supreme Court inquiry procedure as a judge

Article 317 protects a member from arbitrary removal the same way Article 124/218 protect a judge and Article 148 protects the CAG: the President can only remove the Chairman or a member on the ground of misbehaviour, and only after the Supreme Court, on a Presidential reference, holds an inquiry and reports that removal is warranted. The President can suspend the member while that inquiry is pending. Separately, Article 317(3) lets the President remove a member without a Supreme Court inquiry on narrower, more mechanical grounds: being adjudged insolvent, taking up paid employment outside the office's duties during the term, or being, in the President's opinion, unfit to continue by reason of infirmity of mind or body. Being interested in a government contract or its profits, beyond an ordinary shareholder's interest in an incorporated company, is separately deemed misbehaviour for the Article 317(1) route.

Article 319: who can go where afterwards, precisely

This is the chapter's most distinctively tested provision, because the rule is genuinely asymmetric by role, not a single blanket restriction. On ceasing to hold office:

• The Chairman of the UPSC is ineligible for any further government employment, Union or State, full stop.
• The Chairman of a State PSC 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 UPSC member other than the Chairman may become the Chairman of the UPSC or the Chairman of a State PSC, 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, but no other government employment.

Read as a pattern rather than four separate rules: every route runs upward or sideways into another Public Service Commission chairmanship or UPSC membership, never into ordinary government service, and only the outgoing UPSC Chairman has no route at all, since there is no higher Commission post left to move into.

Conditions of service and functions (Articles 318, 320)

Article 318 lets the President (for the UPSC) fix the number of members and staff conditions of service by regulation, with the same protection Article 148 gives the CAG: a sitting member's own conditions cannot be varied to their disadvantage after appointment. Article 320 assigns the Commission its core functions: conducting examinations for appointments to Union services, and being consulted on recruitment methods, disciplinary matters, and claims for legal-expense reimbursement by a civil servant sued for acts done in official capacity.

Quick revision points

• Article 315: constitutional body. Article 316: 6-year term or age 65 (UPSC) / 62 (State PSC), whichever earlier; half the members need 10+ years of prior government service; no re-appointment to the same office.
• Article 317: removal needs a Supreme Court inquiry into misbehaviour (same procedure as a judge); separately, insolvency, outside paid employment, or infirmity lets the President remove without that inquiry.
• Article 319: only the outgoing UPSC Chairman has zero further government-employment options; everyone else (State PSC Chairman, UPSC member, State PSC member) can move into another Commission chairmanship or UPSC membership, never into ordinary service.
• Article 318: a member's service conditions cannot worsen after appointment.

The Article 319 matrix is worth drawing out as an actual diagram rather than reading as prose; it is exactly the kind of precise, multi-branch rule UPSC likes to test as a single true/false statement about one specific path through it.