Service Allocation After Clearing The UPSC Civil Services Exam

Once the UPSC civil services final rank list is out, successful candidates will go into a frenzy wondering about what service and cadre they would get allocated. This might seem confusing to many who wonder at the cumbersome process of cadre allotment. But in fact, the system is so designed to ensure that candidates are sent all over the country and not just confined to their home states. Service allotment is also a much-talked-about issue with candidates often wondering the last ranks for which they would get the IAS, IPS, etc. This article talks about a few things to remember for service allocation after clearing the UPSC civil services exam.

Service allocation to a candidate depends on the following:

1. The rank of the candidate in the CSE.
2. Candidate’s order of preference for service.
3. Candidate’s category.
4. Availability of vacancy in the candidate’s category.
5. Findings of the Medical Board/Appellate Board with respect to the candidate.

Points to note:-

• A candidate should indicate the order of preferences for ALL the services included in the UPSC Exam. No preference, zero preference and the same preference for more than one service are not allowed.
• Once a candidate indicates preferences, any change will not be permitted.
• If a candidate does not give preferences for all the civil services, and he/she doesn’t get the services for which he/she had given preferences, then he/she will be considered for the remaining services where there are vacancies after allocation of all the candidates who could be allocated to the cadres according to the preferences.
• Reserved category candidates who have sufficient rank without availing any relaxation like age limit, number of attempts, etc. are called General Merit (GM) or Meritorious Reserved Category (MRC) candidates.
• In case the GM or MRC candidates don’t get the service of their higher preference in unreserved category, they can switch over to their own category leaving vacant slots.
• Even after achieving UPSC CSE success, a candidate may not be appointed by the government for service unless it is satisfied that the candidate is fit in respect of his/her character and antecedents that he/she is suitable for service.

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