Loksewa Posts and Service Groups: A Directory of Nepal's Civil-Service Positions

"Loksewa" is the everyday term for recruitment into Nepal's civil service (Nijamati Sewa) and is named after the Public Service Commission, the Lok Sewa Aayog. The Commission is a constitutional body responsible for conducting examinations to select candidates for appointment to civil-service posts and for advising on promotions, departmental action and service conditions. The legal framework for the service itself is the Civil Service Act, 2049 (1993) and the Civil Service Rules, 2050 (1994), which together define the structure of services, the class hierarchy, qualifications and the terms of employment.

A 'post' (pad) is a single sanctioned position with a defined class and level, while a 'service' or 'service group' (sewa/samuha) is the functional family the post belongs to. The same post title, for example Section Officer, can exist within several different services, each requiring a different academic background. The Commission advertises vacancies, prescribes the syllabus for each post and service, and announces results through a transparent, merit-based competitive process.

The Civil Service Act 2049 divides civil-service posts into broad categories. Gazetted posts (those whose appointment is notified in the Nepal Gazette) carry greater authority and are grouped into a Special Class at the top, then First Class, Second Class and Third Class. Below them are non-gazetted posts, traditionally grouped into First Class and Second Class, along with lower classless and support positions. In contemporary administration these classes are also expressed as numbered 'levels' on the pay structure.

Mapping the most commonly recruited posts to their class makes the ladder clear. The non-gazetted tier covers the assistant cadre, while the gazetted tier covers the officer cadre, beginning with the Section Officer and rising to the Secretary, the highest career bureaucrat in a ministry.

The Act organises the civil service into a set of functional services, each with its own technical character and qualification requirements. Recruitment, promotion and posting generally happen within a service, so the choice of service shapes a candidate's whole career. The principal services named in the legal framework span both administrative and technical fields.

Many services are further divided into groups (samuha) and sub-groups. For example, the Administration Service includes General Administration and Revenue groups, while the Judicial Service includes Judicial, Law and Government Attorney groups. The qualification demanded reflects the work: a law degree for the Judicial Service, a management or commerce background for the Audit Service, and an engineering degree for the Engineering Service.

Eligibility depends on the class of post. Officer-level (gazetted) entry such as Section Officer requires a Bachelor's degree from a recognised institution in a subject relevant to the service, while assistant-level (non-gazetted) posts require lower academic qualifications, with Nayab Subba typically requiring intermediate-level (10+2) education and the Kharidar cadre a school-leaving qualification. Technical services demand a degree in the relevant field, for example law for the Judicial Service or engineering for the Engineering Service.

Age limits are set by the Civil Service Act and Rules. The general minimum age is 18 years for non-gazetted and classless posts and 21 years for gazetted posts. The usual upper age limit for open competition is 35 years, raised to 40 years for women and for persons with disabilities; serving civil servants competing internally are treated separately. Exact qualification subjects and age ceilings for any given vacancy are fixed in the advertisement and may be amended by law, so candidates should always confirm against the current notice.

The Commission runs integrated and unified competitive examinations so that several services can be filled through a common process at each level. Selection is staged. For officer-level posts such as Section Officer, the process typically begins with a preliminary objective (multiple-choice) paper used only as a screening filter, followed by a main written examination of subjective papers, and concludes with a final stage that can include a computer/IT skill test, a group test or presentation and an interview.

Across the current PSC schemes for Kharidar, Nayab Subba and Section Officer, multiple-choice papers apply negative marking, with a deduction for each wrong answer, while unanswered questions neither gain nor lose marks. The first (common) papers usually test general awareness, the constitution and governance, and contemporary issues, and the later service-related paper tests the candidate's chosen field. Because the precise number of papers, marks, pass marks and time limits are revised periodically by the Commission, the syllabus published on psc.gov.np for the relevant fiscal year is the authoritative reference.

The broad pattern for the most-recruited posts is: Kharidar and Nayab Subba follow a two-stage written process (a screening paper plus main papers) with a skill test and interview; the Section Officer follows a preliminary objective paper, a main written stage of several subjective papers, and a final stage of skill test, group test and interview.

Basic pay scales for each civil-service class are set out in the national salary scale, which is fixed and revised through the government's annual budget and Finance Act. Pay rises with class and with annual increments (grades) added for years of service, on top of allowances such as the dearness allowance. Because the figures change yearly, the current scale should be read from the latest budget rather than memorised; the durable point is that each step up the class ladder brings a defined jump in basic pay.

A civil servant's career generally advances within the service, moving up the class hierarchy through a mix of internal competitive examinations and promotion based on seniority and performance. A common path runs from the assistant cadre (Kharidar and then Nayab Subba) into the officer cadre by qualifying as a Section Officer, and then upward through Under Secretary and Joint Secretary toward Secretary. Crossing from the non-gazetted assistant cadre into the gazetted officer cadre is the most significant transition, both in responsibility and in pay.