PSC Mastery

Special Recruitment for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes

Special Recruitment is a standalone channel, district-wise or statewide, open only to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates. It is separate from the community turns inside an ordinary recruitment: it runs its own ten-turn rotation, publishes its own ranked lists, and in several posts carries its own age and eligibility rules that differ from the general framework.

Steps

  1. Eligibility is absolute

    Notifications state that applications received from candidates other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will be rejected, and that individual communications about rejection will not be issued.

  2. Its own ten-turn rotation

    The Commission publishes a separate ten-turn cycle for Special Recruitment, distinct from the hundred-point general chart — eight Scheduled Caste turns to two Scheduled Tribe turns in each ten, with the positions differing between non-gazetted and gazetted posts.

  3. List validity

    A verified notification states the list remains in force for a minimum of one year, continuing until a new list is published after that year or until three years expire, whichever is earlier — the same shape as an ordinary ranked list.

  4. District-wise recruitment locks you to the district

    A verified notification states that a candidate advised for appointment in one revenue district is not eligible for transfer to another district unless they complete five years of continuous service, citing a 1971 Government Order.

  5. Age rules can be post-specific and unusual

    One verified clerical notification provided that in the absence of qualified candidates within the age limit the upper limit shall be relaxed up to 50, but in no case beyond it. A Police Constable Special Recruitment notification instead disallowed the standard relaxation paragraphs entirely and allowed relaxation only to 41 for ex-servicemen. Read your own notification.

  6. Some posts exclude categories you might expect to be eligible

    The Police Constable Special Recruitment notification stated that women candidates and differently abled candidates were not eligible to apply. That is a post-specific exclusion, not a general feature — the clerical notification carried none.

Frequently asked questions

Is Special Recruitment the same as an NCA notification?#

No. An NCA notification is tied to a specific vacancy in a specific parent list. Special Recruitment is a separate ongoing channel that absorbs reserved vacancies for that post reported during its currency.

What if a Special Recruitment list has no Scheduled Tribe candidates?#

Verified notifications provide that such vacancies are advised from the combined list, and only in the absence of Scheduled Tribe candidates in that list is a fresh notification exclusively for Scheduled Tribes issued.

Can I transfer districts after a district-wise Special Recruitment appointment?#

A verified notification states a candidate advised in one revenue district is not eligible for transfer to another until five years of continuous service are completed.

How does the Commission decide a vacancy is a Special Recruitment vacancy?#

Not published in anything we could source. Notifications simply state that vacancies are now in existence for that community. We could not find an order describing the classification process.

Official sources

Steps last verified against official Kerala PSC sources on 25 August 2026.

Where the Commission has not published a rule, this guide says so rather than guessing. Anything marked “not officially published” is exactly that.

This is an independent guide for aspirants, written from the Commission’s own published instructions. Portal screens and rules change — always confirm on keralapsc.gov.in and in your own Thulasi profile before acting. PSC Mastery is not affiliated with the Kerala Public Service Commission.