Electricity Board, road transport, local authorities and societies: the Acts that widened what Kerala's Commission selects for

Background

Posts are still being brought within the Kerala Public Service Commission's selection, and the route for doing that is a series of State Acts. The Legislature has passed several such Acts, and its own record names five of them, each adding functions to the Commission beyond the ordinary government departments. The Kerala PSC (Additional Functions) Act, 1963 relates to the KSEB. A 1970 Act covers the KSRTC, and a second Act of the same year covers certain Corporation and Companies. The services under Local Authorities were brought in by an Act of 1973, and certain societies by an Act of 1996. Taken together they mean that selection for a State public undertaking, a municipal or panchayat service or a notified society can be routed through the Commission rather than done in-house. The Legislature's own record describes them as corrective Acts, passed to set right irregularities in the principles of communal reservation the Commission had been following for appointments in public sector undertakings and local bodies.