A new scandal has hit the Karnataka State Public Service Commission (KPSC) — the State’s premier recruiting agency — even as the government has launched one of the largest recruitment drives to fill up 72,186 posts across departments.

The commission has been in the news for the wrong reasons multiple times over the last two decades, and the latest one that has unfolded over the past week involves the commission’s Chairman Shivashankrappa S. Sahukar facing allegations of favouring his daughters in the recruitment to the Department of Industries and Commerce for which examination was conducted by the KPSC. In an unprecedented move, Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot has ordered suspension of Sahukar pending inquiry, who has since questioned it in the High Court of Karnataka.

It is alleged that Sahukar neither formally declared a conflict of interest nor recused himself from the recruitment process to ensure transparency as is mandated. It is learnt that some members in the commission did not know of his daughters’ participation and selection in the recruitment process. One of his daughters, who is his dependent, is even accused of providing a false income certificate, declaring an annual of income of ₹40,000 to escape “creamy layer” provision in reservation for Other Backward Classes and secure selection. All this came out in the open during the verification of documents by the KPSC officials.

Lost transparency and sanctity

“Such incidents mar transparency in examination process and sanctity of recruitment to civil services. Rural candidates are always at a disadvantage. Those with connections seem to one to be at an advantage in the recruitment outcomes,” said an aspirant for Group A and B posts, currently employed in the Home Department in a Group C post. The Bengaluru-based aspirant, who has tried his luck in gazetted probationer’s examination thrice in the past, said, “I missed selection by a whisker each time.”

Sahukar’s suspension comes at a time when the State government is under pressure from restive civil services aspirants, who staged a series of protests in Dharwad. The government, which had initially announced filling up of 56,432 posts, has now scaled it up to 72,186. Recruitments had slowed down since 2022 over confusion in quantum of reservation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. In 2024-25, the State government even froze fresh recruitment drives awaiting a report on internal reservation among the 101 Scheduled Castes in the State.

The announcement of fresh recruitments has brought hope among lakhs of students, especially those aiming at Group C positions in the civil services. Besides KPSC, the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) too has started working on recruitment process currently. Interestingly, the Second Karnataka Administrative Reforms Commission, which submitted its report in 2025, identified about 2.94 lakh vacancies out of 8.16 lakh sanctioned posts in the State’s civil services.

A former member of the KPSC argued cleaning up the system is not a Herculean task if the politicians want. He argued that many things — from appointment of members to re-assigning the employees of the KPSC — is the need of the hour. “Background of the members need to be verified before appointments. Eligibility is often overlooked and caste and other considerations take precedence in appointment of members.” he argued.

He pointed out that many members in the past have urged for the KSPC employees, some of whom are working for decades, to be deputed outside to clean up the system. Insistence on caste representation that has expanded the size of the commission is another sour point resulting in nepotism, the member lamented. “Why do you even require a body larger than the Union Public Service Commission, which conducts examinations efficiently?” he asked.

Instances in the past

It is not for the first time that meritorious candidates have felt slighted over such allegations of corruption and nepotism resulting in long legal battles. Recruitment drives of KPSC in the past have often been mired in controversies.

Nepotism in recruitments in Karnataka over the past three decades has even had interesting monikers with “thaali bhagya”, connecting marriage proposals to final examination outcome for the aspirant. This scandal that was reported since 1998 involved parents of a girl agreeing to pay the bribe for a plum post for a boy or getting the boy a job using their connection if he agreed to tie the knot with the girl, in a quid pro quo . There are allegations of favouring candidates from particular communities.

Commission’s chairpersons and members have come under cloud of nepotism and corruption allegations resulting in police investigations and prolonged legal battles.

Former chairman H.N. Krishna had been arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) over alleged discrimination and fabrication of documents in the recruitment for gazetted probationer’s examination held in 1998, 1999 and 2004. He, however, was acquitted by the court in 2026.

Another former chairman Gonal Bheemappa was investigated by the CID after being accused of indulging in malpractices in the gazetted probationer’s recruitment in 2011. He also faced charges of conflict of interest. While the Karnataka High Court quashed the trial court proceedings against Bheemappa, the State government in 2025 decided against seeking sanction to prosecute him and other members.

Mangala Sridhar, a KPSC member, was suspended by the then Governor Hansraj Bhardwaj in 2014, on allegation of corruption in gazetted probationer’s recruitment in 2011. The Karnataka High Court later stayed the suspension.

Outside of the KPSC, the recruitment to the post of police sub-inspector conducted by the Police Recruitment Cell was mired in controversy, resulting in the cancellation of the list by the State government in 2022. High profile arrests, including that of the Additional Director-General of Police (Recruitment) Amrit Paul, and influential politicians , made headlines.

Litigations & delays

Among the long-drawn legal battles has been the list published for the gazetted probationers of the 1998 batch, which saw controversies over allegations of nepotism and corruption. Many failed candidates, who had done exceedingly well in written examination saw their marks in personality test/ interview at bare minimum against a total of 200 marks assigned for interview, dragging down their overall marks. Some successful candidates had received very high marks in personality test that boosted their score. 

“The list has undergone changes six times. The matter has gone up to the Supreme Court. The final list was published in 2021, about 23 years after the examination. Several officers were past their prime when they received their appointment orders. Litigations were multi-layered. There was one case that we eventually won over seniority. There are still some cases pending in the court,” said a candidate who cleared the examination and is serving in the Revenue Department since 2019. “Some of the officers promoted to IAS were to be demoted after a court order. There had to be shuffled between the departments for some. But nothing happened. Some have retired and some are closer to retirement. The notion of merit was simply lost in all this,” he lamented.

The official, who was among about 60 selected candidates, who were already in government service and had finished probation long before, was made to undergo another probation. “Some went to court. I did not have the strength to fight another prolonged case. It has been an anxious, depressing and a humiliating journey that we wish even our worst enemies should not suffer,” he said.

The 2011 batch of gazetted probationers case was no different. Allegations of “cash for jobs” and bias surfaced soon after the list was made public. A similar modus operandi to that of 1998 had been deployed to ensure that some candidates, who had done well in written tests, received poor marks in personality test. The list was published in 2013, soon triggering widespread protests that also received political support. The government decided to scrap the list in 2014 after a CID inquiry found irregularities, including marks tampering. Later, the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal stuck down the decision, but the Karnataka High Court in 2018 upheld the right of the government to do so.

Eventually, in another unprecedented move, the State government brought the Karnataka Civil Services (Validation of Selection and Appointment of 2011 batch Gazetted Probationers) Act, 2022, to give legitimacy to the list, paving the way for their appointment.

Some reforms, finally

Meanwhile, the KPSC reduced the marks in personality test from 200 to 50 and in 2020 it was brought down to 25. Two optional papers were removed in phases, and priority was given to general knowledge and reasoning. Personality test that was mandatory to Group B posts has been removed for many posts. The government has partially implemented recommendations of the P.C. Hota Committee. The number of interviews per day was restricted, the score for personality test reduced, justification has been made mandatory for a very high or a very low score, a subject expert was made part of interview panel and Controller of Examination was created. But many of its important recommendations such as a search committee to identify members and sticking to the calendar of events are yet to be followed.

“Changes were brought in to prevent nepotism and tilting of the balance against those who do well in written test. Even in this, it was mandated that a very high score or a very low score had to be justified. Because personality test marks have been reduced and made almost inconsequential, the focus turned to tampering of marks in the written test. A forensic verification of marks card in an examination held recently has pointed towards tampering,” said a source. “If a candidate rigs his written test, can you expect good governance from him? We should remember that once appointed, these officers are in the service for about 30 years or more,” a former member of KPSC warned.

A civil service aspirant, M. Nagasundar from Mysuru, said that to prevent fraud in written examination, the KPSC should introduce the fifth option for each question in objective type examinations. “If the candidate has not answered the question, he has to mark the fifth option. The KEA has already done it.” He also said the time given in the objective type examination should be increased from 90 minutes to 120 minutes on the lines of UPSC.”

KEA: The new entrant

With the KPSC facing flak over delays in notification of vacancies and providing the provisional list to the State government, the KEA that emerged out of Common Entrance Cell and primarily manages admission to professional courses in the State, has also started conducting recruitment examination for departments. “The KEA has shown that recruitment can be done without delay. Departments have huge vacancies and when the government approves hiring the turn around time should be fast. KPSC is notorious for delays and does not stick to calendar of events,” said another Revenue Department official.

Suggesting changes in KEA also, Nagasundar said the examination for Group C cadre that has the same syllabus, same eligibility and same educational qualification should be bunched together. “Once such posts across all departments are brought together, a combined notification for examination can be issued. Candidates can be allowed to provide their preference like in the UPSC. Under such process, candidates need not pay fee multiple times if they are appearing for examination of different department. More importantly, if candidates top multiple examination and chose one, the other posts fall vacant.”

On the delays in notifying vacancies and announcement of results by the KPSC, the former member said, “Delay in announcement of result is sometimes deliberate and a ploy for corruption. In an experiment a few years ago, the examination results were made available to members a day after the personality test was completed.” Several times notification are also delayed due to laxity of officials in departments sending the requests, he said. “There are mistakes in proposals. Instead of seeking clarification on email or phone and seeking a fresh proposal, the tapal (physical movement of letters) route is taken, which takes months.”

Towards overhaul

Proposing to bring structural reforms in the commission, the Karnataka Public Service Commission (Conduct of Business and Additional Functions) (Amendment) Bill, 2025, has been passed by the Karnataka Legislature. A House Committee has also been set up in Legislative Assembly under senior member R.V. Deshpande to recommend an overhaul.

Meanwhile, even as civil services aspirants await the result of 2023 gazetted probationers examination result, it has received the proposal to conduct the 2026 gaazetted probationers examination from the government.