KPSC TOWN PLANNING · KARNATAKA · RECRUITMENT HISTORY

Quick answer: KPSC has run three town-planning recruitment cycles since 2020, and none of them went smoothly start to finish. The 2020 Assistant Director select list was revised by tribunal order after nearly two years. The 2021/22 Town Planner select list had to be re-published because the Commission meeting that first approved it lacked quorum. Only the 2022 Assistant Town Planner cycle ran without a documented complication. If a fourth cycle opens, this history is the most useful guide to what "notification to result" might actually look like.

Cycle 1: Assistant Director of Town Planning (2020)

Notified 24 June 2020 under PSC 1 RTB-3/2020, for 21 posts (13 regular + 8 backlog) in Karnataka's Group A technical cadre. This was the only one of the three cycles conducted as a descriptive written exam (400 marks across two papers) plus a 20-mark interview, rather than an objective OMR test.

  • Applications: 10 July - 10 August 2020.
  • The first final select list was published 15 February 2022 - about 19 months after applications closed.
  • One selection was challenged, and the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal ordered the list revised. KPSC issued a revised final select list on 7 November 2023 - roughly 20 months after the first list, and about 41 months after the original notification.
  • The revised list carries a note that one selection remains conditional on a pending criminal case, per the source document.
  • Final tally: 20 of 21 posts filled. The one unfilled post was a Kalyana Karnataka General Merit post carrying a hearing-impairment (PwD) sub-reservation, against which no candidate appears in the list.

This is the cycle to keep in mind if you assume a KPSC result, once published, is final. It sometimes isn't - and litigation can add years, not weeks.

Cycle 2: Town Planner (2021/22)

Notified 18 March 2022 under PSC 1 RTB-3/2021 (with an amendment on 24 August 2022), for Group B posts - 18 in the Residual Parent Cadre, plus a Kalyana Karnataka figure the source documents themselves disagree on (5 per the final select list, 2 per a notification extract).

  • Exam held 11-12 April 2023: Paper-2 (Urban and Regional Planning, 300 marks) on the 11th, Paper-1 and the Kannada Language Test on the 12th.
  • A 1:3 eligibility list of 55 candidates was published 16 June 2023, shortlisting for document verification ahead of the final list.
  • The final select list was published 31 January 2024 - then re-published on 16 April 2024, because the Commission meeting that had approved the 31 January list lacked quorum and was declared invalid. A second, validly-quorate meeting re-approved it before the April re-publication.
  • Final tally: 19 selected against 23 notified (per the final list total), leaving 4 posts unfilled.

The quorum issue is a good reminder that a published select list can still be procedurally reopened before it's truly final - not just by tribunal order, but by an internal process defect KPSC catches and corrects itself.

Cycle 3: Assistant Town Planner (2022)

Notified 22 April 2022 under PSC 17 RTB(2)/2022-23/215, for Group C posts - 60 in total (50 Residual Parent Cadre + 10 Kalyana Karnataka), the largest of the three cycles by post count.

  • Applications: 30 April - 30 May 2022.
  • Compulsory Kannada Language Test and both papers were held on consecutive days, 21 - 22 January 2023.
  • Final select list published 20 March 2024 - about 23 months after notification, and about 9 months from notification to exam, the fastest of the three cycles.
  • Final tally: 60 of 60 posts filled, in both cadres, with every category matching the notification exactly. This is the only one of the three cycles with a clean, complication-free run from notification to final list, as far as the available documents show.

Side by Side: How Long Each Cycle Actually Took

Cycle Notified Exam Final list Total elapsed What extended it
Assistant Director, 2020 24 Jun 2020 Not found in provided documents 7 Nov 2023 (revised) ≈41 months Tribunal-ordered revision, +20 months
Town Planner, 2021/22 18 Mar 2022 11-12 Apr 2023 16 Apr 2024 (re-published) ≈25 months Quorum defect, +2.5 months
Assistant Town Planner, 2022 22 Apr 2022 21-22 Jan 2023 20 Mar 2024 ≈23 months None documented

What This Means If a Fourth Cycle Opens

A 2026 Town Planner cycle is currently at proposal stage - see our 2026 proposal explainer for that specifically. What this history adds: even the cleanest of the three past cycles took almost two years notification to final list, and the other two were extended further by a tribunal order and a quorum defect respectively. If you're planning around a KPSC Town Planning cycle, build in slack for the process to take longer than the exam calendar alone would suggest.

Frequently Asked Questions

Was any KPSC Town Planning select list overturned or revised?

Yes. The 2020 Assistant Director final select list was revised by order of the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal, with a revised list published on 7 November 2023, about 20 months after the original list.

Why was the 2021/22 Town Planner select list re-published?

The Commission meeting that first approved the 31 January 2024 list lacked quorum and was declared invalid. A validly-quorate meeting re-approved the list, which was re-published on 16 April 2024.

Which KPSC town planning cycle ran without a complication?

The 2022 Assistant Town Planner cycle, as far as the available source documents show - no tribunal order or procedural defect is recorded, and all 60 notified posts were filled.

How long does a KPSC town planning recruitment cycle usually take?

Roughly 23 to 41 months from notification to an operative final select list across the three completed cycles, depending on whether the cycle hit a complication like a tribunal order or a quorum defect.

Related Resources

Disclaimer: all dates and figures are verified against official KPSC notifications and final select lists. Where a source document does not state a fact (for example, the 2020 cycle's exam date), this article says so rather than estimating.