Staff Selection Commission

The Staff Selection Commission (SSC) is an attached office of the Department of Personnel and Training, constituted by executive resolution on 4 November 1975, that recruits to Group B (non-gazetted) and Group C (non-technical) posts in central ministries, departments, and their attached and subordinate offices. It began as the Subordinate Services Commission under Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms Resolution No. 46/1(S)/74-Estt.(B), took its present name on 26 September 1977, and draws its present functions from Resolution No. 39018/1/98-Estt.(B) of 21 May 1999.

For Group B non-gazetted and Group C posts in central ministries and their offices, the SSC is the open-competition route. Its Combined Graduate Level examination fills Level 4 to Level 8 posts from the Tax Assistant to the Assistant Audit Officer; its Multi-Tasking Staff examination fills Level 1; its Constable (GD) examination recruits for the Central Armed Police Forces. The Ministry of Personnel’s Annual Report 2024-25 counts 1,49,92,995 candidates registered for 11 SSC examinations in the nine months to 31 December 2024, and 48,857 candidates recommended for appointment in the same period.

The Commission has no constitutional footing. The Union Public Service Commission exists under Article 315 and cannot be abolished without a constitutional amendment; the SSC exists because a resolution says so and has been reshaped by later resolutions in 1977, 1999, 2003 and 2005. A statute does name it: the SSC is serial 2 in the Schedule to the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, which makes leaking or tampering with its papers a cognizable, non-bailable offence, with penalties raised by an amendment of 31 July 2026.

This page sets out the instruments that created and widened the Commission, the posts inside and outside its remit, its composition and nine field offices, each examination and the posts it fills, the registration, language, normalisation and selection rules, the age relaxations and fee concessions, the examination-integrity law, the status of the National Recruitment Agency, and the pay of the posts it fills.

Legal status: an attached office resting on a resolution

The Staff Selection Commission is an executive creation of the Government of India. The Ministry of Personnel’s Annual Report 2024-25 states it in one sentence at para 3.21: the SSC “has been set up by Resolution of the Government and it has the status of an attached office of the Department of Personnel and Training.” The same paragraph names the UPSC and the SSC as the two designated recruitment agencies administered by DoPT.

Three consequences follow from that status.

• The government can change the Commission’s remit by resolution. The documented changes came by resolution in 1977, 1999, 2003 and 2005; the Annual Report records the 2016 and 2021 extensions without naming an instrument, and none came by an Act of Parliament.
• Its expenses are voted through the Ministry of Personnel’s demand for grants (Annual Report 2024-25, para 19.3). Article 322 charges the UPSC’s expenses on the Consolidated Fund, so they are not voted; nothing equivalent covers the SSC.
• Its members have no constitutional tenure protection. Articles 316 and 317 fix the term of a UPSC member and the Supreme Court inquiry needed to remove one; SSC members are appointed on terms the central government prescribes, in the words of the Commission’s own background note.

None of this changes anything for a candidate. Recruitment through the SSC still runs under the recruitment rules of each post, made under the proviso to Article 309, and the SSC applies those rules; it does not write them.

How the Commission was set up: 1975 to 2005

Six documents trace the Commission from a proposal to its present form. The first two reports are recited in the SSC’s own “Background of the Commission” note; the four resolutions are on the record by number and date.

Source: SSC, Background of the Commission; the 1977, 2003 and 2005 Resolutions; DoPT OM No. 39018/1/98-Estt(B) of 21 May 1999.

The 1977 Resolution is one paragraph long. Issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, and signed by K.D. Madan, Joint Secretary, it records that “it has been decided to change the name of Subordinate Services Commission to ‘Staff Selection Commission’.” The Commission had been working for just over a year by then: the SSC’s list of Chairmen starts with Saiyid Hamid on 1 July 1976.

The 1999 Resolution came out of the 5th Central Pay Commission. A DoPT Office Memorandum of the same number and date, No. 39018/1/98-Estt(B) of 21 May 1999, records that the 5th CPC, in Chapter 17 of its report, recommended reducing the UPSC’s workload, and that the Standing Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs had asked for the same in 1994. The OM decided that the UPSC “need not be consulted while making direct recruitment to Group ‘B’ service or post which is in the scale of pay the maximum of which is below Rs. 10,500 the direct recruitment to these posts will however, be made through SSC.” Its para 3 says the 1975 Resolution “laying down the functions of SSC” and the UPSC (Exemption from Consultation) Regulations, 1958 were being amended at the same time. The 2003 and 2005 Resolutions add that the 1999 reconstitution also kept in view the Supreme Court’s direction in Radhey Shyam v. Union of India.

The footnote to the 2003 Resolution prints the 1999 Resolution’s number as 39019/1/98-Estt.(B). The 2005 Resolution, the 1999 OM and the SSC’s background note all give 39018/1/98-Estt.(B), and that is the number used here.

Which posts the Commission fills

The SSC recruits to Group B (non-gazetted) and Group C (non-technical) posts in central ministries, departments, and their attached and subordinate offices, except posts specifically exempted from its purview. That is the mandate as the DoPT Annual Report 2024-25 words it at para 3.23.1, and two later extensions sit on top of it.

The 2016 extension takes the remit beyond Group B non-gazetted and Group C posts. The Assistant Audit Officer under the Comptroller and Auditor General enters at Level 8 (Rs. 47,600) as a Group B gazetted officer, and the CGL 2026 notice lists it as the highest post the examination fills. The 2021 extension accounts for posts such as Research Assistant in the National Human Rights Commission appearing in the same notice beside ministry posts.

The boundary with the UPSC

The SSC fills the space the UPSC’s exemption regulations leave. Item 10 of Schedule I to the UPSC (Exemption from Consultation) Regulations, 1958, read with regulation 2, removes all Group C and Group D services and posts from consultation with the UPSC under Article 320(3)(a) and (b), save where a post’s recruitment rules provide otherwise. The 1999 OM then moved the lower Group B non-gazetted posts across. The UPSC keeps the All India Services, the Group A Central Services and most Group B gazetted posts, through the Civil Services Examination and its other examinations. The full consultation regime, including the disciplinary exemptions in regulation 5, is set out on the Article 320 and UPSC pages.

The line falls by group and gazetted status, which the gazetted and non-gazetted classification fixes post by post. An Assistant Section Officer at Level 7 is Group B non-gazetted under rule 3 of the Central Secretariat Service Rules, 2009, so the SSC recruits the post through CGL; the Assistant Audit Officer at Level 8 is Group B gazetted and reaches the SSC only through the 2016 extension.

Recruitment the SSC does not handle

Several large streams of central recruitment run outside the SSC. The railways recruit their Group C staff through the Railway Recruitment Boards. Public sector banks use the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection. Teachers in Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan and nursing officers through NORCET come through their own recruiting bodies, and the Assistant Commandant entry grade of the Central Armed Police Forces comes through the UPSC. Technical posts, which the 1975 Resolution excluded by its “non-technical” qualifier, are recruited by the departments that employ them unless their recruitment rules route them to the SSC, as the Group B Junior Engineer posts are.

Composition and headquarters

The Commission consists of a Chairman, two Members, and a Secretary-cum-Controller of Examinations, appointed on terms the central government prescribes. The SSC’s background note describes the working arrangement at headquarters in New Delhi: all examination and administrative matters go to the Chairman through the two Members, and the Secretary works under both Members.

The SSC headquarters contact list, dated 11 June 2026, gives the office-holders as:

The Chairman of the SSC also sits on the General Body of the National Recruitment Agency (DoPT Annual Report 2024-25, para 3.24). The SSC’s own list records 20 Chairmen between 1 July 1976 and 28 February 2022.

Regional and sub-regional offices

The SSC conducts its examinations through nine field offices: seven regional offices, each headed by a Regional Director, and two sub-regional offices, each headed by a Deputy Director. A candidate applies centrally on ssc.gov.in and chooses an examination centre; the office for that region runs the centres, admit cards and local conduct of the examination.

Source: SSC Eastern Region, Set-up of the Commission and Regional Network pages; SSC North Western Region, Regional Network page.

The Madhya Pradesh sub-region sits in Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh, outside the state it is named after. Further regional offices can be opened with DoPT approval, under the SSC’s set-up note.

The examinations

The SSC holds seven examinations as a standing mandate (DoPT Annual Report 2024-25, para 3.23.2), and several more on direction from the government. Objective-type papers in every open examination have been computer-based since June 2016 (para 3.23.6); the translator examination’s Paper-II is a descriptive paper, and skill tests, physical tests and medical examinations are held offline.

Source: DoPT Annual Report 2024-25, para 3.23.2; SSC examination notices on the dates shown.

The Combined Hindi Translators Examination is the current title of the examination the Annual Report lists as the “Junior Hindi Translator, Junior Translator and Senior Hindi Translator Examination”; its 2026 notice fills Group B non-gazetted translator posts in the Central Secretariat Official Language Service, Armed Forces Headquarters and other ministries. The Constable (GD) title has also changed: the 2024 and 2025 titles included Sepoy in the Narcotics Control Bureau, and the 2026 title omits it.

Three other kinds of examination sit outside the mandated seven.

• Delhi Police examinations. The SSC conducts separate examinations for Constable (Executive) Male and Female, Constable (Driver) Male, Head Constable (Ministerial) and Head Constable (AWO/TPO) in Delhi Police, with notices issued between September 2025 and February 2026.
• Departmental examinations. Three limited departmental competitive examinations for serving staff (para 3.23.4): Junior Secretariat Assistant or Lower Division Clerk Grade, Senior Secretariat Assistant or Upper Division Clerk Grade, and Grade C Stenographers. The SSC has also run the ASO or Assistant Grade LDCE for 2022 to 2024.
• Selection Posts. Isolated Group B non-gazetted and Group C posts not covered by an all-India open examination are advertised in phases and filled through one computer-based examination for each phase (para 3.23.5). Phase XIV of 2026 is the current round.

The SSC schedule notice F. No. HQ-EC033/7/2025-EC of 1 October 2026 fixes the next three computer-based examinations: Junior Engineer 2026 Paper I from 2 to 6 November 2026, Sub-Inspector 2026 from 20 to 28 November 2026, and CHSL 2026 Tier I from 30 November to 31 December 2026.

How an SSC examination runs

Every SSC examination follows the same sequence: registration on ssc.gov.in, an online application against a notice, one or more computer-based stages, any skill or physical test the post needs, a final merit list, allocation by merit and preference, and document verification by the user department. There is no interview.

Registration. The current website, ssc.gov.in, went live on 17 February 2024. SSC notice No. HQ-IT014/7/2023-IT of 19 February 2024 declared One-Time Registrations on the old ssc.nic.in site “null & void”, so every candidate had to register again. From 2 June 2025, under SSC notice F. No. HQ-IT018/4/2024-IT dated 9 May 2025 (posted 14 May 2025), the One-Time Registration became Aadhaar-enabled, and existing registrations could be edited only until 31 May 2025. Applications for CHSL 2024 onwards also capture a live photograph (notice F. No. HQ-PPII010/1/2024-PP_II-Part(1) of 1 April 2024).

Languages. The 10th-level and 12th-level examinations are set in Hindi, English and 13 regional languages. Para 14.2 of the MTS and Havaldar 2025 notice lists the 13: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri (Meitei), Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. The SSC began holding 10th-level and 12th-level examinations in multiple languages after an Expert Committee report of 8 August 2022, which the Annual Report (para 3.23.8(i)) says also cut the number of tiers, dropped the descriptive paper except for the translator examination, and moved document verification to the user departments.

Normalisation. A single SSC examination runs over many shifts with different papers, and the Commission normalises the marks across shifts. It notified the procedure for examinations notified after 1 June 2025 in a notice of 2 June 2025 and published an explanatory note on the method on 10 September 2025.

Qualifying marks. The CGL 2026 notice (para 16.1) sets a minimum qualifying mark in each paper of 30% for unreserved candidates, 25% for OBC and EWS, and 20% for every other category. A candidate below the floor is out, whatever the rank would have been.

No interviews. DoPT OM No. 39020/01/2013-Estt(B)-Part of 29 December 2015 discontinued interviews for Group B non-gazetted and Group C posts from 1 January 2016. Selection Posts, earlier filled only through interviews, moved to computer-based examination at the same time (Annual Report para 3.23.5).

Allocation and verification. Allocation follows merit rank, category and the order of post preferences the candidate gave. Under para 15.1 of the CGL 2026 notice, document verification is carried out by the user ministry or department after the final result, and not by the Commission before allocation. Appointment then follows the department’s own process, including the probation period the post’s recruitment rules fix. The SSC CGL page walks through tiers, marking and the tie-break rules for the largest examination.

The Annual Report (para 3.23.8(ii)) records that, after these reforms, the CGL and CHSL cycle fell from about 12 to 15 months to 6 to 7 months during the mission mode recruitment.

Age relaxation, fees and reservation

SSC examinations apply the central government’s reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, the Economically Weaker Sections, persons with benchmark disabilities and ex-servicemen, set out in DoPT’s reservation orders. Each notice restates the age relaxations. Those in para 5.2 of the CGL 2026 notice are:

Source: SSC, CGL 2026 notice, F. No. HQ-C11018/1/2026-C-1, para 5.2.

An ex-serviceman already re-employed in a Group C or Group D post using the ex-servicemen reservation loses that reservation and the fee concession for a further attempt, save under the self-declaration route in DoPT OM No. 36034/1/2014-Estt (Res) (para 5.4 of the notice). The Ex-Servicemen (Re-employment in Central Civil Services and Posts) Rules, 1979 govern the reservation itself.

The fee for CGL 2026 is Rs. 100 (para 10.1). Women of every category, and SC, ST, persons with benchmark disabilities and ex-servicemen eligible for reservation, are exempt (para 10.2). A man in the unreserved, OBC or EWS category pays the full Rs. 100 unless he is a person with benchmark disability or an eligible ex-serviceman.

Scale: candidates and appointments

The SSC is one of the largest recruiting agencies in India by number of applicants (Annual Report para 3.23.1). The registration figures for FY 2024-25, counted to 31 December 2024, show where the volume lies.

Source: Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Annual Report 2024-25, para 3.23.11.

Recommendations run far below registrations. In the same nine months the SSC recommended 48,857 candidates to user ministries and departments (para 3.23.12), and 44,266 of them, about 91%, came from the single Constable (GD) 2024 result of 13 December 2024.

The Public Examinations Act, 2024

The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, Act No. 1 of 2024, assented to on 12 February 2024, is the criminal law that governs leaks, impersonation and tampering in SSC examinations. Its Schedule lists the public examination authorities it covers, and the Staff Selection Commission is serial 2, after the UPSC and before the Railway Recruitment Boards, IBPS, central ministries recruiting their own staff, and the National Testing Agency. DoPT brought the whole Act into force on 21 June 2024 by notification S.O. 2422(E).

The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Act, 2026, Act No. 10 of 2026, assented to on 31 July 2026, raised the penalties in sections 10(1), 10(2), 10(3) and 11(1). It carries no separate commencement date, so on salary-calculator.in’s reading of section 5(1)(b) of the General Clauses Act, 1897 it took effect on the day of assent. Article 20(1) of the Constitution bars a heavier penalty than the law in force when the act was done, so the higher figures apply only to offences committed on or after 31 July 2026.

Source: Act No. 1 of 2024, sections 10 and 11; Act No. 10 of 2026, sections 2 and 3.

Section 9 makes every offence under the Act cognizable, non-bailable and non-compoundable. The 2026 amendment added two procedural sections. Section 12A requires the investigation to finish within two months, has each state designate a Court of Session as a Special Fast Track Court, and requires the trial to finish within three months of the chargesheet. Section 12B sends appeals straight to a two-judge bench of the High Court, to be filed within 30 days, and never after 90. The central government may also hand investigation to a Special Task Force under the amended section 12(2).

An SSC warning notice of 8 September 2025 against discussing question papers on social media cites the pre-amendment penalties and places the organised-crime penalty in section 10; the Act has it in section 11(1).

The National Recruitment Agency and the Common Eligibility Test

The National Recruitment Agency (NRA) was set up under a DoPT order dated 28 August 2020, as a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, to conduct a Common Eligibility Test (CET). The CET was to be a Tier-1 computer-based test whose score would shortlist candidates for Group B non-gazetted posts, Group C posts and the Group B gazetted posts exempted from UPSC consultation (DoPT Annual Report 2024-25, para 3.24).

No CET appears in the Annual Report 2024-25. Para 3.24 reports that the NRA has been framing norms for computer-based tests, a task rule 5 of the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Rules, 2024 gives it, and that its General Body held its fifth meeting on 7 November 2024. SSC examinations continue to start from the SSC’s own Tier I.

Pay of the posts the Commission fills

SSC posts span Level 1 to Level 8 of the 7th CPC pay matrix, under the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016. Take-home pay adds dearness allowance at 60% of basic from 1 January 2026 (Department of Expenditure OM No. 1/1(i)/2026-E.II(B) of 22 April 2026), house rent allowance by city class and transport allowance, less the 10% National Pension System contribution, the CGHS subscription and group insurance.

Source: salary-calculator.in computation at 60% DA, entry cell, X-class city, NPS; figures from the SSC CGL salary, SSC CHSL salary, MTS salary and CAPF Constable salary pages. The Constable figure is for a peace posting.

Income tax at the entry cell is nil at every level up to Level 8 under the default regime. The salary by pay level chart and the 7th CPC salary calculator compute take-home pay for any level and city.

Common misconceptions

“The SSC is a constitutional body like the UPSC.” It is not. Article 315 provides only for Public Service Commissions for the Union and the States. The SSC rests on Resolution No. 46/1(S)/74-Estt.(B) of 4 November 1975 and its successors, and is an attached office of DoPT.

“The SSC recruits only Group C posts.” It recruits Group B non-gazetted posts as well, since 1 June 1999, and two Group B gazetted posts, Assistant Audit Officer and Assistant Accounts Officer, since 2016.

“The SSC fixes the eligibility and pay of the posts.” Each post’s recruitment rules fix qualification, age and level, and the user ministry fixes the vacancies. The SSC conducts the examination and recommends candidates; the department appoints them.

“The regional office verifies documents before allocation.” Under para 15.1 of the CGL 2026 notice, the user department verifies documents after the final result.

“Junior Hindi Translator is a separate examination.” It is now the Combined Hindi Translators Examination, which also fills the Junior Translator and Senior Hindi Translator posts.

“The National Recruitment Agency’s CET has replaced SSC Tier I.” The DoPT Annual Report 2024-25 reports no CET held; the SSC runs its own first tier.

Related Articles

• Department of Personnel and Training
• Union Public Service Commission
• Article 320 of the Constitution
• Article 309 of the Constitution
• Civil Services Examination
• SSC CGL
• SSC CGL salary
• SSC CHSL salary
• MTS salary
• Stenographer salary
• Junior Engineer salary
• Sub-Inspector salary
• CAPF Constable salary
• Income Tax Inspector salary
• Tax Assistant salary
• Assistant Section Officer salary
• Central Secretariat Service
• Central Secretariat Clerical Service
• Central Secretariat Stenographers Service
• Central Armed Police Forces
• Delhi Police
• Central Bureau of Investigation
• Comptroller and Auditor General of India
• Railway Recruitment Board
• Institute of Banking Personnel Selection
• Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024
• National Recruitment Agency
• Direct recruitment
• Recruitment rules
• Limited departmental competitive examination
• Reservation in central government jobs
• Ex-Servicemen Re-employment Rules, 1979
• Gazetted and non-gazetted posts
• Probation in central government service
• 5th Central Pay Commission
• Central government jobs
• Central government employees in India
• Pay matrix
• Salary by pay level
• Salary by pay level calculator
• 7th CPC salary calculator
• Dearness allowance
• House rent allowance
• National Pension System

External references

• Staff Selection Commission
• Department of Personnel and Training
• Union Public Service Commission
• The Gazette of India (eGazette)
• India Code, Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024
• Department of Expenditure

References

1. Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Resolution No. 46/1(S)/74-Estt.(B) dated 4 November 1975, constituting the Subordinate Services Commission.
2. Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Resolution No. 39036/37/76-Estt(B) dated 26 September 1977, renaming the Commission.
3. DoPT Resolution No. 39018/1/98-Estt.(B) dated 21 May 1999, in force 1 June 1999 (Gazette of India Extraordinary, Part I, Section 1, 24 May 1999), amended by Resolution No. 24012/8.A/2003-Estt.(B) dated 13 November 2003 and Resolution No. 24012/8-A/2003-Estt.(B) dated 29 September 2005.
4. DoPT Office Memorandum No. 39018/1/98-Estt(B) dated 21 May 1999, Consultation with UPSC.
5. Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Annual Report 2024-25, paras 3.21, 3.23.1 to 3.23.12 and 3.24.
6. Staff Selection Commission, Combined Graduate Level Examination 2026 notice, F. No. HQ-C11018/1/2026-C-1, 21 May 2026, paras 5.2, 5.4, 10, 15.1 and 16.1.
7. Staff Selection Commission, MTS (Non-Technical) and Havaldar (CBIC and CBN) Examination 2025 notice, 26 June 2025, para 14.2; notices No. HQ-IT014/7/2023-IT of 19 February 2024 and F. No. HQ-IT018/4/2024-IT of 9 May 2025 on registration; schedule notice F. No. HQ-EC033/7/2025-EC of 1 October 2026.
8. Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 (No. 1 of 2024); notification S.O. 2422(E) dated 21 June 2024; Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Act, 2026 (No. 10 of 2026), 31 July 2026.
9. DoPT Office Memorandum No. 39020/01/2013-Estt(B)-Part dated 29 December 2015, discontinuing interviews for Group B non-gazetted and Group C posts from 1 January 2016.