KPSC Chairman's Ouster: Leaked Papers, Daughter's Job And The Allegations Against Him

For the first time in the Karnataka Public Service Commission's 75-year history, a sitting chairman has been suspended and pushed toward removal — and the case against Shivashankarappa S. Sahukar runs on two tracks at once. The first involves an alleged leak of the question paper for KPSC's 2026 recruitment exam for 400 Veterinary Officer posts, with as many as 29 candidates accused of receiving it in advance. The second involves Sahukar's own daughter, Suma Sahukar, who is accused of using a certificate declaring her family's annual income as just Rs 40,000 to claim an OBC reservation benefit for a government job — while her father chaired the very commission conducting the selection.

What began as an internal KPSC controversy has since drawn in Karnataka's CID, the Enforcement Directorate, and multiple rounds of litigation in the Karnataka High Court, with the allegations against Sahukar widening well beyond where they started.

What Is The Veterinary Exam Leak Allegation?

The controversy originates in KPSC's 2026 recruitment drive for 400 Veterinary Officer posts. Complaints alleged that relatives of KPSC officials secured unusually high marks, that a set of candidates — reported at 29 in some complaints and 25 in a separate FIR — were given access to the question paper before the exam, and that OMR answer sheets were subsequently tampered with.

Sahukar has been booked for cheating under Section 318 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, as well as under provisions of the Karnataka Public Examinations (Measures for Prevention of Corruption and Unfair Means) Act.

What Is The Case Involving Daughter Suma Sahukar's Income Certificate?

Suma S. Sahukar applied for the post of Industrial Extension Officer in the Department of Industries and Commerce under Category 3B, a reserved category, after obtaining an income and caste certificate declaring her family's annual income as Rs 40,000.

KPSC Assistant Secretary B.N. Shobha filed a complaint alleging Suma had submitted incorrect income details and a non-genuine certificate to claim reservation benefits while concealing material facts, and an FIR was subsequently registered against her at the Vidhana Soudha Police Station. Her application and supporting documents listed her father as the sitting KPSC Chairman.

The Governor's original suspension order against Sahukar went further, alleging he had facilitated the selection of both his daughters as Industrial Extension Officers — making this not a single case but a pattern the government cited as grounds for suspension.

What Are The Data-Leak And Rs 80 Lakh Allegations?

A separate, wider set of allegations concerns how confidential recruitment information may have reached brokers. Candidates who cleared the exam say they were contacted directly by middlemen despite the official selection list containing only names and register numbers — no phone numbers or other identifying details — leading them to suspect that confidential candidate data had been leaked from within KPSC itself.

Complainants have also flagged that the mobile phones of several successful candidates were switched off the day before the examination, a detail they want investigated. In a further complaint, one Veterinary Officer post was allegedly offered for Rs 80 lakh; an audio recording that surfaced during the investigation reportedly captures a person instructing a candidate's family to bring cash to Bengaluru rather than transfer it online, assuring them of a "99 per cent" chance of selection, offering a cheque as security, and promising that accommodation would be arranged before the remaining formalities were completed.

What Has The CID Alleged About Sahukar's Own Links To The Leak?

The CID has named Sahukar as accused number one (A1) in a fresh FIR filed by candidates alleging the paper leak and other malpractice, alongside other KPSC members and officials. Investigators arrested Gyanendra Kumar Gangwar, a Karnataka-cadre IAS officer who served as KPSC's Controller of Examinations from 2024 to March 2026, and separately detained an alleged middleman identified as Kannale at Delhi airport as he was reportedly attempting to leave the country for Uzbekistan.

The CID is reportedly examining possible links between Gangwar and Kannale to establish how confidential examination information may have reached brokers, and has seized hundreds of OMR answer sheets from selected candidates for forensic examination of possible manipulation. Running alongside this, the Enforcement Directorate searched 21 locations on August 18, 2026 — including Sahukar's own residence, that of fellow KPSC member Shantha Hosamani, alleged middlemen, and Edutest Solutions, the private firm that handled digital evaluation of the exam papers — across Bengaluru, Hassan, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Raichur, Kalaburagi, Belagavi and, notably, Ahmedabad, suggesting investigators believe the alleged scam's financial trail may extend beyond Karnataka.

What Have Sahukar And His Family Said?

Neither Sahukar nor his daughter appears to have issued a detailed public rebuttal addressing the substance of the allegations in the reporting reviewed for this piece. Sahukar's response so far has been almost entirely procedural and legal: he challenged his own suspension in the Karnataka High Court on constitutional grounds, separately challenged a KPSC resolution recommending his resignation and secured an interim stay on it, and sought anticipatory bail in the veterinary exam-leak case — a request rejected at both the trial court and High Court levels.

That leaves the merits of the allegations against him and his daughter contested primarily through the ongoing investigations and court proceedings, rather than through any point-by-point public denial.

What Is The Current Legal Status Of Each Case?

On the suspension itself, Karnataka's Governor first suspended Sahukar around July 10-13, 2026. The Karnataka High Court quashed that order in mid-August, with Justice Suraj Govindaraj ruling that the Governor could not suspend a KPSC chairman under Article 317(2) of the Constitution without the prior aid and advice of the state Council of Ministers — a procedural defect, not a finding on the truth of the allegations, which the court explicitly declined to rule on either way.

The court ordered Sahukar's reinstatement with full consequential benefits but barred him from influencing any KPSC decision involving his daughters, while leaving the door open for a fresh, constitutionally valid suspension. The Karnataka Cabinet subsequently recommended exactly that to the Governor, though public reporting does not confirm whether a fresh suspension order has since been issued. Separately, the KPSC's own internal resolution recommending Sahukar's resignation remains stayed by the High Court as interim relief, with the underlying legal challenge still pending.

In the veterinary exam-leak case, both a trial court (on August 11) and the Karnataka High Court have reportedly rejected Sahukar's anticipatory bail pleas, citing the seriousness of the allegations and the risk of his influencing the investigation — leaving him without anticipatory bail protection even as the CID and ED investigations continue.

In his daughter's case, police were, as of the material reviewed, still verifying her submitted documents against KPSC and revenue authority records to determine whether offences of false certification and misrepresentation to obtain reservation benefits could be established, with no chargesheet reported yet.