UNION PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

1. Context 

2. History of UPSC

• The UPSC has its genesis in the Civil Service Commission set up by the British government in 1854.
• Before this, civil servants in India were nominated by the East India Company and then trained at Haileybury College in London.
• However, following a report by Lord Thomas Macaulay, it was decided that instead of nominations, civil servants should be selected through a competitive exam.
• Thus, the Civil Service Commission was set up and for some years, exams were held only in London.
• It was a decade later, in 1864, that Satyendranath Tagore (brother of Rabindranath Tagore) became the first Indian to clear the exam.
• The exam started being held in India only in 1922, after the First World War.

Image Source: The Indian Express

3. In Independent India

• The origin of the Public Service Commission in India is found in the First Dispatch of the Government of India on the Indian Constitutional Reforms on the 5th of March 1919 Which referred to the need for setting up some permanent office charged with the regulation of service matters.
• This concept of a body intended to be charged primarily with the regulation of service matters found a somewhat more practical shape in the Government of India Act, of 1919.
• Section 96(C) of the Act provided for the establishment in India of a Public Service Commission which should discharge, regarding recruitment and control of the Public Services in India, such functions as may be assigned thereto by rules made by the Secretary of State in Council.
• On October 1, 1926, the Public Service Commission was set up in India.
• The functions of the Public Service Commission were not laid down in the Government of India Act, 1919, but were regulated by the Public Service Commission (Functions) Rules, 1926 framed under sub-section (2) of Section 96 (C) of the Government of India Act, 1919.
• Further, the Government of India Act, of 1935 envisaged a Public Service Commission for the Federation and a Provincial Public Service Commission for each Province or group of Provinces.
• Therefore, in terms of the provisions of the Government of India Act, 1935 and with its coming into effect on 1st April 1937, the Public Service Commission became the Federal Public Service Commission.
• After independent India adopted its Constitution on January 26, 1950, the Federal Public Service Commission became the Union Public Service Commission, under Clause (1) of Article 378 of the Constitution.
• All expenses for the UPSC are paid from the Consolidated Fund of India.

1. Conducting  examinations for appointment to the services of the Union
2. Direct recruitment by selection through interviews
3. Appointment of officers on promotion or deputation or absorption
4. Framing and amendment of Recruitment Rules for various services and posts under the Government
5. Disciplinary cases relating to different Civil Services
6. Advising the Government on any matter referred to the Commission by the President of India.