Public Service Commission pushes panic button on recruitment rules

Srinagar, Aug 25: Terming the existing recruitment rules as “obsolete” and “redundant,” the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC) has recommended their urgent revision.
In its Annual Report for 2025–26, the Commission expressed serious concern over what it described as decades-old recruitment rules of government departments. “Recruitment Rules of most of the State Government Departments framed decades ago are very old, outdated, obsolete and have become redundant and require their revisions and updating to keep pace with the fast-changing social, economic and technological scenario, as well as efficiency and expertise required for handling assignments of complex nature in view of the diversification and specialization in the field of governance and functioning of government organizations,” the report noted.
The Commission stressed that diversification in fields such as education, medical sciences and computer sciences must be accommodated and incentivized through updated service rules.
It said that modernizing recruitment rules would also help reduce litigation.
The apex recruitment body of the UT further pointed out that draft recruitment rules submitted by departments for concurrence are often incomplete. “The proposal for seeking concurrence of the J&K PSC on the draft recruitment rules is being submitted incompletely by some Administrative Departments in respect of comparative statements, creation/abolition orders and concurrence of the Finance Department in case of change of nomenclature/creation of posts. In order to ensure uniformity, the Commission issued a checklist for submitting draft recruitment rules, and the same has been forwarded to all the Departments,” the report stated.
The Commission has called for immediate notification of recruitment rules for which it has already conveyed its concurrence.
It cautioned that no amendment in service rules should be made without consulting the PSC, as required under existing regulations.
The PSC has also recommended that departments must consider minimum qualifications while revising recruitment rules. “It has been noticed that in various departments, a certain category of posts is eligible for promotion to the next level post even without the basic minimum qualification as per the existing recruitment rules of the concerned departments,” the report reads. (KNO)